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The Global Insight

What do lawyers do for companies?

Author

Sarah Garza

Updated on February 28, 2026

Corporate lawyers structure transactions, draft documents, negotiate deals, attend meetings and make calls toward those ends. A corporate lawyer works to ensure that the provisions of an agreement are clear, unambiguous and won’t cause problems for their client in the future.

Can a law firm be a public company?

Publicly traded law firms are still a ways away in the United States. Rules on whether non-lawyers can own law firms are regulated by state judiciaries — in most cases, the supreme court in each state — and there are no states considering changes that would come close to allowing a law firm to be publicly traded.

What does a lawyer do in an IPO?

Advising on the listing process including the Listing Rules, and assisting with preparatory work to ensure that the company can meet the listing conditions, carrying out necessary due diligence, initial drafting of a prospectus/AIM admission document, and drafting and reviewing other required documents relating to …

Do lawyers work for companies?

Many corporate lawyers have specialties or areas of corporate law that they focus on such as M&A, venture capital, or securities. Some corporate lawyers work in-house, and most large corporations have their own in-house legal departments. In-house corporate lawyers generally handle a wide variety of issues.

What is the biggest law firm in the world?

Kirkland & Ellis LLP
1. Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kirkland & Ellis LLP serves a niche set of corporate clients across the corporate, taxation, litigation, intellectual property, and restructuring fields. With approximately 2,000 lawyers on board, the U.S.-based firm’s revenues stood at $4.15 billion in 2019, putting it at the top of the list.

Should law firms go public?

With stock becoming a natural ‘part of the package’, law firms may find it easier to enter into merger agreements, and may also benefit from the instantaneous increase in perceived value of smaller, lower value acquisitions due to the higher share value of the acquiring business.

What kind of work does a business lawyer do?

Business and corporate lawyers can handle a wide range of legal issues for publicly held companies and privately held businesses, and specialize in counselling and guiding their clients through complex legal processes. They focus on agency and employment law, contracts, sales, commercial paper, business organizations, and property and bailment.

What kind of lawyers do large corporations use?

In fact large corporations may have full departments of in-house lawyers. A large pharmaceutical company, for example, may have in-house counsel who specialize in litigation, health and safety issues, intellectual property issues, labor and employment issues, regulatory issues, and general corporate issues.

When does a company need a corporate lawyer?

The company may, for example, need to advise the public about an impending product recall, litigation that has been initiated due to an environmental problem, or an unfunded pension liability.

What makes a company a publicly held company?

A publicly held company is a company with shares of stock that are traded on public stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange. Shares of stock represent an investment in a business; members of the public who own stock thus have an ownership stake in the business.