Things we do

Business Structures and Entities

When you start a business, a venture or a project, you will have an idea and the expertise to see it through. But you really need a lawyer to help with the heavy lifting – that is our expertise and we have decades of experience in making it happen for you.

We can help you choose the most appropriate entity or entities to operate your business, (and we will explain it to you in simple English, with diagrams), we will then assist your business formation, draft all necessary documents, and much more.

Contracts and General Business Law

Every contract should be simple. But simple is hard.

If you are operating, purchasing or selling a business, you will deal with contracts in one form or another almost every day.

We can help you review and negotiate your contracts; we can draft new contracts for your business or we can advise you on your options for terminating a contract you have entered into.

We can help you with

• Purchase and sale of businesses
• Drafting commercial agreements and deeds
• Advice for company administrators
• Advice on legislation, including corporate structures, governance and compliance
• Advice on the protection of commercial assets
• Advice for taxation issues of a commercial enterprise
• Advice for non-profit organisations and charities
• The Corporations Act
• Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures & sales
• Lending agreements & the securities market

Commercial Litigation

Litigation is about managing risk and minimising costs, not about scoring points.

An unfortunate reality of commerce is that from time to time, you and your business will have a dispute with a client, a supplier, the provider of a good or a service or even with third parties who infringe or encroach on your rights.

Litigation is inherently not for the feint hearted – It can be protracted, expensive and if it ends up in court, you may not get the result you want, whether or not you are successful.

We do a lot of litigation and are very good at it – we are so good at it that we seldom end up in Court as we manage to negotiate a mutually agreeable commercial (and confidential) settlement before costs escalate beyond control.

If however, your matter ends up in Court, we will be there next to you with some of the best barristers in the specific area of dispute and we will fight for you until the very end.

We have acted in a myriad matters, from contract and commercial to construction and building disputes and from trade practice infringement to disputes about partnerships and business entities.

Wills and Estates

At Calvados + Woolf Lawyers, Estate Planning is taken very seriously and is a field of passion for Marie Sheehy, one of our principal.

Estate planning decisions are often some of the most emotional and critical a family can make.

It is our mission to ensure that the assets that you have spent a lifetime creating are protected and that your family, friends and institutions who may benefit from those assets one day do so, according to your wishes.

When you visit or call our office, we want you to feel comfortable discussing such important issues concerning both you and your family. We want to arm you with the information you need to make an informed decision about your family’s future.

Through our LEGACY SHIELD™ strategies, we will help you choose the correct and safest path to protect your legacy, now and in the future. 

Legacy planning is a more holistic approach to estate planning. We help you preserve your financial wealth and legacy, including your life stories and family heirlooms, for future generations.

Our non-traditional planning methods include special provisions and protections in Living Trusts, Wills (simple & complex), Powers of Attorney, Living Wills, Irrevocable and/or Testamentary Trusts, and Charitable Gifting Strategies.

This planning also includes minimising taxes, avoiding the expense and complexities of probate, protecting against remarriage after death of the first spouse, and protecting beneficiaries from possible future relationship breakdowns.

Risk Management & Asset Protection

Our LEGACY SHIELD™ strategies extend far beyond estate planning and can have far reaching benefits particularly if you have substantial assets and/or operate in a business or profession where you it is prudent to safeguard your personal assets and wealth in case of disputes or litigation.

When discussing Risk Management and Asset Protection there is a complex interaction between company law, the law of trusts and property, tax and estate planning laws, bankruptcy and insolvency law. It is our job to help you navigate these complexities and achieve lasting and certain outcomes.

Some of the techniques we use include the preservation and transmission of property of individuals, families or corporations.

The purpose of this is to minimising legal, business and political risks to your wealth and legacy by safeguarding assets from seizure, loss and diminution in value.

Our LEGACY SHIELD™ strategies are concerned with the protection of assets from potential creditors, government expropriation, excessive taxation and catastrophic loss. These strategies are a vital component of tax advice, wealth management and financial planning.

Commercial Property Services

We have extensive experience in a broad range of commercial property services and act on behalf of numerous property developers, commercial real estate agencies and individual investors.

Our services include:

• The sale and purchase of commercial property, retail, office buildings and shopping centres.
• Acquisition and disposal of industrial property including developed industrial property and greenfield sites.
• Leasing for both landlords and tenants of commercial, retail, industrial and hotel premises.
• Mixed use developments including residential subdivisions.
• Easements (including volume metric easements), licenses, compulsory acquisitions and encroachments;
• Conducting due diligence enquiries including review of leases, service contracts, statutory searches and title encumbrances.

Residential Conveyancing

One of the benefits of living in a prosperous country with one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world is a constantly bubbling residential property sector.

At Calvados + Woolf Lawyers, we have dedicated professional staff in charge of all your residential conveyancing and property requirements.

Conveyancing is an area of law that is becoming more complex and it is imperative that you are guided by experienced hands and minds towards a hassle free settlement.

Whether you are buying or selling, call us first to discuss your requirements – we do a lot of residential conveyancing and we are very good at it !