Business Transactions & Counsel
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.Benjamin Franklin
LLCs, contracts, governance, and deals — built right from the beginning, so you’re not litigating them later.
Documents drafted by the lawyer who tries the cases.
Good transactional work is invisible: the contract that never gets disputed, the operating agreement that settles the question before it becomes a fight, the entity structure that holds when a partner leaves. The value is in what doesn’t happen.
What sets Aertker Legal apart is that the same attorney who drafts your documents also litigates them. Stephen “Curt” Aertker, Jr. has spent decades in Louisiana and Mississippi courtrooms watching agreements succeed and fail — and he drafts with that knowledge, closing the gaps that opposing counsel later try to pry open.
Louisiana’s civil-law tradition makes this work distinctive. Contracts, sales, leases, and business entities are governed by the Civil Code and the Louisiana Limited Liability Company Law, not the common-law rules that out-of-state forms assume. Local, experienced counsel matters.
And you work directly with Stephen — from the first call through closing. No hand-offs. No associates. No file numbers.
From formation to the closing table.
Aertker Legal counsels closely held businesses, professionals, and entrepreneurs throughout St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes and across Louisiana and Mississippi — from the first entity filing through governance, contracts, and the sale of the company.
Business Formation & Structure
The choice you make on day one follows the company for its whole life.La. R.S. 12:1301 et seq.
Choosing and forming the right entity — LLC, corporation, or partnership — sets the tax treatment, liability shield, and governance your business will live with for years. Aertker Legal forms Louisiana entities the right way: Articles of Organization or Incorporation, the governing agreement, initial resolutions, and the banking and tax setup needed to operate from day one.
Most new ventures are best served by the Louisiana LLC, but the right answer depends on ownership, capital, and exit plans. The firm counsels on the trade-offs before anything is filed.
- Single- and multi-member LLCs
- Corporations (C and S elections)
- Partnerships and partnerships in commendam
- Series and holding-company structures
- Foreign-entity qualification in Louisiana & Mississippi
- Conversions and reorganizations
Operating Agreements & Governance
The Louisiana LLC Law fills every gap you leave — rarely in your favor.Louisiana LLC Law
An operating agreement is where ownership really lives: who manages, who votes, how profits are split, what happens when a member wants out, dies, or divorces. Where the agreement is silent, the default rules of the Louisiana LLC Law govern — and those defaults are often not what the members would have chosen. The firm drafts agreements that override the unfavorable defaults deliberately, not by accident.
Whether member-managed or manager-managed, a well-built agreement prevents the disputes that otherwise end up in court.
- Member- and manager-managed operating agreements
- Voting, capital, and distribution provisions
- Buy-sell and transfer restrictions
- Death, disability, and withdrawal triggers
- Corporate bylaws and shareholder agreements
- Member and board resolutions
Contracts & Commercial Agreements
In Louisiana, a contract is read against the Civil Code — not the common law.La. C.C. art. 1906 et seq.
Louisiana is the nation’s only civil-law state, and its law of obligations governs every contract differently from the common-law rules out-of-state counsel assume. Aertker Legal drafts, reviews, and negotiates commercial agreements with that framework built in — and with a litigator’s eye for the clauses that actually decide disputes.
Because the same attorney who drafts your agreements also tries the cases when they break, the documents are written to hold up where it matters: in court.
- Master service and supply agreements
- Independent-contractor and employment agreements
- Buy-sell and asset-purchase contracts
- Promissory notes and security agreements
- Confidentiality and NDA agreements
- Vendor, distribution, and licensing contracts
Mergers, Acquisitions & Transfers
Most deals are won or lost in the documents, not the handshake.None
Buying or selling a business — or admitting and buying out members — is the highest-stakes transaction most owners ever sign. The firm handles the full closing package: letters of intent, due-diligence support, the purchase agreement, and the closing documents that transfer ownership cleanly and protect the client afterward.
Aertker Legal has prepared complete membership-interest and asset-purchase closing packages, structuring price, indemnities, and post-closing covenants to fit the deal.
- Membership-interest purchase agreements (MIPA)
- Asset-purchase agreements
- Stock-purchase and merger agreements
- Buy-sell and redemption agreements
- Due-diligence review and disclosure schedules
- Closing checklists and transfer documents
Non-Competes & Restrictive Covenants
Louisiana voids non-competes by default — and enforces them only by exact compliance.La. R.S. 23:921
Louisiana law disfavors agreements that restrain trade and declares them void unless they fit squarely within the narrow statutory exceptions of La. R.S. 23:921 — including limits on duration (generally up to two years) and a precise specification of the parishes or municipalities in which the restriction applies. A covenant that misses these requirements is unenforceable.
The firm drafts restrictive covenants to survive the statute, and counsels employers and departing employees alike on what can and cannot be enforced.
Commercial Leases
The terms you negotiate going in are the terms you live with for years.None
Commercial leases are long, one-sided, and full of provisions that surface only when something goes wrong — CAM charges, assignment and subletting, default and cure, personal guaranties, and renewal options. Aertker Legal represents both landlords and tenants in negotiating and drafting leases that allocate risk clearly and avoid later litigation.
- Office, retail, and industrial leases
- Ground leases and build-to-suit
- Assignment, sublease, and SNDA review
- Guaranty and default provisions
- Lease amendments and renewals
Build it right the first time.
Formation · Contracts · Governance · Deals · Louisiana & Mississippi
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