Business Law

When purchasing a business, the buyer has two options: purchase the business in its entirety or purchase only selected assets of the business. Buying the whole business can be very different from buying only selected assets. In a whole-business purchase, the buyer may be stepping into the company name, goodwill, customer relationships, contracts, employees, accounts, licenses, history, and in many cases, the liabilities that come with the existing business.

A family sits across from me in my office, working through what to do with a parent’s home after a loss. The house holds a lifetime of memories, and now it holds a list of legal decisions no one feels quite ready to make. There is grief in the room, and there are also practical questions:

I often remind buyers that an asset purchase is only protective if the documents are clear and the transfer is actually completed. The closing paperwork should not leave you guessing about what you own, what was excluded, what still needs to be transferred, or whether someone else has a claim to the property you thought you purchased.

Worker classification has been under increased scrutiny at both the state and federal level over the past several years, and Connecticut’s enforcement posture is among the strictest in the country. It is important to have practical understanding of what the law actually requires, where the common mistakes happen, and what a proactive review looks like before summer work begins.