Growing and maintaining a company brings a wide range of legal obligations and responsibilities for owners and executives.

Laws around directors’ duties, board charters, corporate governance, disclosure policies, insolvent trading and conflicts of interest – just to name a few – require detailed consideration. Breaches can attract the attention of regulators, such as ASIC and the ASX, and the consequences for individuals as well as the company can be severe.

Recent inquiries into banking, superannuation, financial services and franchising, as well as regulatory responses from ASIC and the ASX, have been pivotal for corporate governance in Australia. As bad corporate behaviour (intentional or otherwise) is increasingly called out publicly, issues around the culture of businesses and how they’re run by senior executives is even more in focus.

Corporate compliance and governance is a technical legal minefield, requiring lawyers with specialist knowledge and experience to walk you through.

If you’re going through any corporate activity, like listing on the share market or tapping investors for funds, you need to know your company policies, governance practices and executive are in order or in line with current community and regulatory expectations. And if a regulator comes knocking, you want to know what to do – fast.