Business & corporate disputes

Business law covers a lot of ground—everything from the paperwork that creates a company to the disputes that can pull one apart. I work with Kansas entrepreneurs who are just getting started and need to choose the right structure, and with business owners, partners, and shareholders who are already in the middle of a disagreement and need to understand their options. The common thread is that the decisions made early—how an entity is formed, what the governing documents say, how owners agreed to handle disagreements—usually end up mattering most once something actually goes wrong.

As a Kansas-licensed attorney practicing with Smith Law Firm in Topeka, I help clients decide whether a limited liability company under the Kansas Revised Limited Liability Company Act (K.S.A. 17-7662 et seq.) or a corporation under the Kansas General Corporation Code (K.S.A. 17-6001 et seq.) better fits their goals, and I help draft or review the operating agreements, bylaws, and buy-sell provisions that spell out how owners will work together—and what happens if they stop agreeing. Getting that groundwork right at formation is one of the most practical things a new business owner can do.

Some of the hardest business conflicts arise between people who started something together and later disagree about money, control, or each other's conduct—a partner who feels shut out of decisions, a minority shareholder who believes a majority owner is acting against the company's interests, or co-owners who simply want to part ways. Kansas partnership law, including the Kansas Uniform Partnership Act (K.S.A. 56a-101 et seq.), and the fiduciary duties owners often owe one another under Kansas law, provide a framework for working through these situations, whether the path is a negotiated buyout, a formal accounting, or dissolution of the business itself.

Business law also reaches disputes that don't fit neatly into formation or ownership—disagreements with vendors, suppliers, lenders, or landlords, and other commercial conflicts that threaten a company's operations. When a dispute centers specifically on the language of a written agreement, my contract disputes page goes into more detail on that process. For broader business and ownership conflicts, I'm glad to talk through where things stand—generally speaking, the earlier a business owner brings in an attorney, before a disagreement hardens into litigation, the more options tend to be on the table.

How I approach business law matters

• Take the time to understand the business relationships and history behind the paperwork, not just the documents themselves.
• Explain entity choices, dispute resolution paths, and litigation trade-offs in plain language, not jargon.
• Prepare thoroughly whether the path forward is a negotiated resolution or formal litigation in Kansas courts.

No attorney can guarantee that a particular structure will prevent future disputes, or promise a particular result in a dispute already underway. This page is general information about Kansas business law, not legal advice for your specific situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Past results of any attorney do not guarantee future outcomes. I'm a Kansas-licensed attorney practicing with Smith Law Firm in Topeka, serving business clients in Topeka, Junction City, and Manhattan, as well as statewide across Kansas.