Preventive Law Law and Legal Definition
Preventive law seeks to anticipate and prevent legal problems and litigation in a broad scope of areas, such as environmental law, sex discrimination, computer law, estate planning, corporate compliance, business planning, and property transactions. Lawyers who practive preventive law may offer services in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, governmental affairs (such as government contracts, bids, or lobbying efforts), and legal research. Preventive law attorneys may evaluate the legal implications of business contracts and attend meetings with representatives from business, government or private individuals as an advocate or mediator, among other matters.
The lawyer will often conduct a legal audit, then produce a legal status report, which provides the status of the legal affairs of the business or person, presents legal risks, and makes recommendation for action. The report may include identification and analysis of: regulations and laws that apply to a business; corporate structure; employment and hiring practices; polices and procedures to identify and maintain confidential information; intellectual property rights (trademark, copyright, etc.); real property ownership; contracting; correspondence and documentation of jobs/projects; etc. The analysis can include any targeted areas, such as tax, securities, products liability, environmental, banking and financial services and regulations (e.g. OSHA and MOSHA) compliance. Lawyers may draft form contracts and assist in setting up litigation risk management programs. Advice can be given to businesses for handling correspondence, oral communications, maintenance of records and contracting in such a way to minimize the risk of litigation and to ensure that if litigation occurs, the business will have acted properly and documented issues.
