Davis Senseman clears up contract confusion

Davis Senseman clears up contract confusion

When growing a business, there are always legal questions, lots of documents, and it can get pretty confusing. Elevate Hennepin advisor and founder of Davis Law Office, Davis Senseman, said she gets it, and she's here to help make sense of it all for entrepreneurs across Hennepin County.

“I always tell people, you didn't open a restaurant or start this retail store because you were really good at paperwork or interpreting laws, you did it because you're passionate about that thing,” said Davis. “We’re here to help you with that other stuff, and that’s what I love about Elevate.”

Davis and other legal advisors can tackle most any legal question or sort out any confusion when it comes to legal documents like leases, contracts or registration forms. The only thing Elevate Hennepin advisors can’t help with is legal actions like going to court or starting litigation.

Entrepreneurs and business leaders come to Davis with all sorts of questions, but contracts and leases tend to come up a lot. When things are going well, it’s easy to ignore all the legalese. When a client isn’t paying, a vendor isn’t keeping up, or a landlord does something outside the lease, it’s time to dust off the contracts and understand them. That’s where Davis can help.

“Some folks have had a business going for a while and have agreements that they use with clients. But a lot of times they've gotten those agreements from someone else, or they've found them online and don’t know exactly what’s in them,” said Davis. “It may be a really tiny tweak or addition to a contract. Something like that can really provide legal protection.”

Having a strong contract for the specific business also gives business owners leverage when something does go wrong. When a client doesn’t pay, for instance, owners can point to their contract language.

“Sometimes that's all that's needed to get you to the top of the invoice pile,” said Davis.

No matter the legal topic, Davis is eager to help solve small business legal problems and she's as eager to connect entrepreneurs to other Elevate Hennepin resources.

“The nice thing about the Elevate Hennepin program is there's enough hours with the different advisors that we can address that primary need and also dig into some of the other things and gets some of the other stuff fixed too,” said Davis. “If they bring a marketing issue to me, I can just say, ‘Go talk to one of the marketing advisors.’”