Corporate and Business Lawyers in Vancouver
The decisions that shape a company deserve senior judgment: how it is structured, who controls it, what it commits to, and how it is positioned for investment or sale. Whiteboard Law's corporate and business lawyers serve as long-term counsel to founders, owner-managed businesses and growing companies across British Columbia, from formation through growth, reorganization and exit.
Whiteboard Law was founded by senior lawyers from national law firms. Our managing lawyer, Jim Mutter, was previously a partner at Fasken, where he helped establish one of the largest technology law practices in Vancouver, and has been recognized by Martindale-Hubbell and The Best Lawyers in Canada. Clients work directly with senior counsel, and we remain their advisors long after the first transaction closes.
Incorporating and Setting Up a Business
Getting the start right saves money later. We incorporate BC and federal companies, register extraprovincial companies doing business in BC, and set up holding companies and professional corporations for lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants and other professionals. We prepare the share structure, articles and organizational resolutions, and put the minute book in order from day one.
Structure Built for What Comes Next
We design corporate structures with the future in mind. That means building share structures alongside your tax advisors, and putting holding companies, family trusts and professional corporations in place where they add value. As a business evolves, we lead the reorganizations, amalgamations, estate freezes and section 85 and 86 rollovers that keep its structure aligned with its owners' goals. We handle the corporate and legal steps and work alongside each client's accountants, who advise on the tax planning.
Contracts That Protect the Business
Your commercial agreements carry your revenue, your intellectual property and your most important relationships. We draft and negotiate them accordingly, from supply, distribution and licensing arrangements to services, technology and employment agreements, non-disclosure agreements, joint ventures, and the letters of intent and term sheets that open larger transactions.
Clarity Between Owners
Where a business has more than one owner, we set the rules early in a shareholder agreement: control, share transfers, buy-sell rights, what happens if an owner leaves, and how the owners exit. When interests diverge, we advise shareholders and boards with discretion.
Raising Capital
When a company needs to raise money, we structure and document the round, whether it is founders and friends, angel investors, venture capital or debt. We also set up Eligible Business Corporations and Venture Capital Corporations under BC's Small Business Venture Capital Act. Learn more about our Corporate Finance and Capital Markets practices.
Governance That Stands Up to Scrutiny
Lenders, investors and buyers judge a company by its records. We keep minute books current, prepare the resolutions behind every significant decision, manage annual filings and Transparency Register obligations, and bring neglected records into order before they become an obstacle. We also take over minute books from other firms and from retiring lawyers.
Buying or Selling a Business
When the time comes to buy, sell or merge, we guide owners through due diligence, negotiation and closing of share and asset purchases, and through the reorganizations that often come before a sale. See our Mergers & Acquisitions page.
Ongoing Corporate Counsel
Many clients rely on us as their outside general counsel. For companies that want a lawyer embedded in the business without hiring one full time, Whiteboard In-House provides fractional in-house counsel.
Our Corporate Lawyers
Jim Mutter, Managing Lawyer
Jim is a senior corporate commercial lawyer and a former partner at Fasken. His practice covers mergers and acquisitions, fund creation, venture capital financing, complex corporate structuring and reorganizations, and corporate governance. He has chaired the compensation and corporate governance committees of public companies, and has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada for Corporate Law since 2020.
Brock Smith, Senior Lawyer
Brock has over 20 years' experience in corporate and technology law, advising entrepreneurs and companies of all sizes on all aspects of their business, from formation to exit. He taught solicitor's practice skills and ethics at the University of British Columbia's Allard School of Law for over 10 years and lectures in the Law Society of BC's Professional Legal Training Course on corporate and commercial topics.
Emily Mutter, Lawyer
Emily advises owner-managed businesses and growing companies on corporate finance, acquisitions and sales, corporate reorganizations and tax-deferred rollovers, working alongside each client's accountants.
Why Whiteboard Law
You work directly with senior lawyers who have run companies and sat on boards, so our advice is practical as well as legally sound. As a virtual firm, we serve clients across all of British Columbia, with meetings by appointment, and we keep our overhead low so more of your legal budget goes to the work itself.