Corporate/Business Law

Our firm's business practice represents a wide spectrum of clients throughout the tri-county area including corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, joint ventures, sole proprietorships, limited liability corporations, and non-profit corporations.  Whether your business is a small, family one or a large corporation, O'Donnell, Weiss & Mattei, P.C. is prepared to meet your needs.

Our firm is skilled in counseling small business owners to meet the needs of the current business environment.  From advising on business formation, drafting and filing all necessary documents, as well as reviewing and creating a wide range of business contracts and agreements, we are prepared to guide you through each step of your business venture.

Whether your business is one that is well established, or a start up, you are too busy promoting your services to worry about observing all of the Corporate formalities required by the Pennsylvania Corporation Bureau.  At O'Donnell, Weiss & Mattei, P.C., we pride ourselves in being a member of your "business team" (i.e. legal adviser, accountant, insurance broker, banker, etc.).   We will help you with your annual shareholder, director and officer meetings, and minutes.   In short, we will make your life easier so that you can concentrate on succeeding in your industry.

Decennial Reports

PA Statute requires that all entities must file a report with the PA Department of State - Corporation Bureau, informing them of the entity's continued existence or continued use of a name or certain marks.  The purpose of these filings, according to the Corporation Bureau, is to identify business names or marks that are no longer in use so that they may be reissued and placed back into the stream of commerce.  If a corporation does not register its name on a decennial (every 10 years) basis, starting in the year 2000, it may lose its exclusive right to use its corporate name.

All domestic and foreign profit and nonprofit corporations, limited partnerships, fictitious names, insignias and marks that have not made a new or amended filing with the Corporation Bureau from January 1, 1990 through December 31, 1999, shall decennially, during the year 2000 and each year thereafter divisible by 10, file with the Corporation Bureau a report that they continue to exist.  Act 43 has altered requirements for filing.  The filing date for decennial reports has been extended to December 31, 2001.  Decennial reports for fictitious name are no longer required.

If you have received notice from the Corporation Bureau, or if you feel it is necessary that a decennial report should be made, we would be happy to assist you.  We have copies of the appropriate forms to be filed in our office.  Copies may also be obtained from the Corporation Bureau's web site at www.dos.state.pa.us/corps/site/default.asp.  There is a filing fee of $52.00 made payable to the Department of State associated with the filing of the decennial report.

Please contact our office immediately if you would like us to assist you in the filing of the decennial report, as it has been suggested that the filing be made in March or April of 2000 to avoid any potential problems.

Fictitious Name Registration

Even if you do not incorporate, the name of your business may very well be such that you should register it as a Fictitious Name.  While a relatively simple process, fictitious name registration is often times forgotten by the small business owner.   A fictitious name registration is also often times misunderstood in the rights and responsibilities that it confers.   Even business entities other than sole proprietorships (i.e. corporations, partnerships, etc.) can do business under a name other than its principal moniker.   Please contact us to discuss fictitious name registration.

Links

Visit the Pennsylvania Corporate Bureau web site for additional information and forms for such matters as incorporating in Pennsylvania or applying for Fictitious Names.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, check out the PA Open4Business site provided by the PA Corporate Bureau.

Click on these Attorney's names to find out how they can help you with all of your Corporate and Business Law needs:
Gary L. Stein
James C. Kovaleski