The role of a corporate lawyer is to ensure the legality of commercial transactions, advising corporations on their legal rights and duties, including the duties and responsibilities of
corporate officers. In order to do this, they must have knowledge of aspects of
contract law,
tax law,
accounting,
securities law,
bankruptcy,
intellectual property rights,
licensing,
zoning laws, and the laws specific to the business of the corporations that they work for. In recent years, controversies involving well-known companies such as
Walmart and
General Motors have highlighted the complex role of corporate lawyers in internal investigations, in which
attorney–client privilege could be considered to shelter potential wrongdoing by the company. If a corporate lawyer's internal company clients are not assured of confidentiality, they will be less likely to seek legal advice, but keeping confidences can shelter society's access to vital information. The practice of corporate law is less adversarial than that of
trial law. Lawyers for both sides of a commercial transaction are less opponents than facilitators. One lawyer (quoted by Bernstein) characterizes them as "the
handmaidens of the deal". Transactions take place amongst peers. There are rarely wronged parties, underdogs, or inequities in the financial means of the participants. Corporate lawyers structure those transactions, draft documents, review agreements, negotiate deals, and attend meetings. A small-town corporate lawyer in a small firm may deal in many short-term jobs such as drafting
wills,
divorce settlements, and real estate transactions, whereas a corporate lawyer in a large city firm may spend many months devoted to negotiating a single business transaction. Similarly, different firms may organize their subdivisions in different ways. Not all will include
mergers and acquisitions under the umbrella of a corporate law division, for example. Some corporate lawyers become partners in their firms. Others become in-house counsel for corporations. Others migrate to other professions such as
investment banking and teaching law. Some publications read by those in the profession include
Global Legal Studies,
Lawyers Weekly, and the
National Law Journal. == Salary ==