Most Long Island businesses do not need a legal department; they need one attorney who knows the company, the owner, and the stakes. That is the role Akiva Shapiro plays for small and mid-sized businesses across Nassau County, Suffolk County, and greater New York: outside general counsel, engaged as needed, from his office in Old Bethpage. Before practicing law he spent roughly thirty years in business operations and earned an Executive MBA from Duke, so he reads contracts, deals, and disputes the way an owner does. The practice covers the full arc of a business's life, from the lease that opens its doors to the sale that becomes its owner's legacy.
What Outside General Counsel Means Here
Big companies keep lawyers on staff. Everyone else improvises: a form contract from the internet, a lease signed unread, a dispute handled too late. Outside general counsel is the middle path, an attorney who learns your business once and then handles what comes, matter by matter.
Working with a solo practice means the attorney you meet is the attorney who does the work. Akiva Shapiro was admitted to the New York bar in 2014 after a first career in operations, and is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the New York State Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Clients bring him the questions before they become problems, and the problems before they become emergencies. Both conversations are cheaper than the alternative.
Space: Commercial Leases, Negotiated and Enforced
For most small businesses, the lease is the single largest financial commitment on the books. The commercial leasing practice serves both tenants and landlords: drafting, review, guaranties, renewals, and lease disputes, including New York specialties like the good guy guaranty.
Business owners taking new space can engage a focused lease negotiation service that pushes back on the landlord's form lease before it is signed, when leverage is highest and changes cost nothing but the asking.
Because he works both sides of leasing, he knows which clauses each side actually concedes, and which fights are worth having.
Deals: Buying, Selling, and Growing
When a business changes hands, structure and paperwork decide how much of the price the seller keeps and how much risk the buyer takes on. The mergers and acquisitions practice covers Long Island business sales and purchases from letter of intent through closing: due diligence, asset versus stock structure, purchase agreements, and seller financing.
These are the matters where an attorney with an MBA and three decades of operating experience earns his keep, reading the numbers behind the documents and not just the documents.
Day-to-day contract work, with vendors, customers, and partners, runs on the same principle: terms drafted deliberately now prevent disputes later.
Disputes: When the Business Has to Fight
Some fights cannot be avoided, only won or well settled. The dispute side of the practice:
- Commercial litigation: breach of contract, partnership and shareholder disputes, and business torts, prosecuted and defended in New York's courts. Akiva Shapiro also wrote a book on New York e-discovery, the rules for handling electronic evidence in litigation.
- Collection of unpaid debts: turning ignored invoices into judgments, and judgments into money.
- Mechanic's liens: the security device New York gives contractors and suppliers, a lien against the property they improved, filed, enforced, or cleared.
- Appellate practice: when a trial court gets it wrong, taking the fight to New York's appellate courts.
The through-line is judgment about which fights pay and which ones only cost.
Protection: Keeping What the Business Builds
A business that earns well but protects poorly is one lawsuit away from undoing years of work. The business asset protection practice builds the layers, entity structure, deliberate contracts, and insurance coordination, that keep business risk away from the owner's home and savings. It works best when built before any claim exists.
For families with more complex holdings, structures such as family limited liability companies and partnerships extend that protection across generations.
This is also where the practice's tagline stops being a slogan. A personal attorney for your life, business, and legacy means the lease, the lawsuit, the sale, and the estate plan are designed by someone who sees all of them at once.
Key Takeaways
- One attorney as outside general counsel beats improvising with forms and hoping for the best.
- The practice spans leases, deals, disputes, collections, liens, appeals, and asset protection.
- An owner's-eye read of contracts and numbers comes from thirty years in operations plus an MBA.
- The cheapest legal work happens before signatures and before disputes.
- Business, life, and legacy planning are designed together, by one attorney who sees all three.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does outside general counsel actually mean?
It means having a business attorney who already knows your company before each new matter starts, without hiring one in-house. You call when a contract needs review, a lease is on the table, a dispute is brewing, or a deal appears. Because the same attorney handles each matter, the advice stays consistent and the cost of re-explaining your business disappears after the first engagement.
Why work with a solo attorney instead of a larger firm?
With a solo practice, the attorney you meet is the one who does the work, start to finish. Nothing is handed down to someone you have never spoken with, and nothing about your business gets lost between layers. Akiva Shapiro pairs that direct relationship with a background most business owners rarely find in a lawyer: roughly thirty years in operations and an executive MBA.
What business matters do you handle?
The practice covers the working life of a Long Island business: commercial leases and lease negotiation, buying and selling businesses, commercial litigation and appeals, collecting unpaid debts, mechanic's liens, and asset protection structures for owners. If a matter calls for a specialist outside the practice, you will hear that straightforwardly. The general counsel model means you start with one call, whatever the question.
Do you work with new businesses or only established ones?
Both. New businesses tend to need structure: entity setup, first leases, and the contracts that keep early deals from becoming early disputes. Established businesses bring leases to renegotiate, partners to buy out, debts to collect, and eventually a sale to structure. Because the practice also covers estate planning, owners at every stage can align the business with their personal and family plans.
When should a business owner first talk to a lawyer?
Before signing anything that binds the business for years: a lease, a loan, a partnership arrangement, a major contract. The least expensive legal work is the kind done before a problem exists, while terms can still be changed and structures can still be chosen. Owners who wait until a dispute arrives can still be helped, but the options are narrower and the costs are higher.
This page is attorney advertising and provides general information about New York law; it is not legal advice for your specific situation and does not create an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your circumstances, speak with a licensed New York attorney.