Business Lawyers Townsville, Mount Isa & North Queensland
Need legal advice for your business? Cohen Legal supports startups, SMEs and established companies across Townsville, Mount Isa and North Queensland with contracts, structuring, disputes and compliance.
Trusted Business Lawyers for Townsville, Mount Isa & North Queensland
Whether you're launching a new venture, negotiating key agreements, or managing business risk, it pays to have a lawyer who understands both the big picture and the fine print.
At Cohen Legal, we help founders, directors, managers and advisors navigate complex legal issues with clarity, confidence, and practical solutions tailored to your goals. With offices in Townsville and Mount Isa, our team advises clients across regional Queensland, from startups to well-established enterprises.
Why Legal Advice Matters in Business
Running a business comes with risks. Some are strategic—like entering new markets or scaling operations. Others are legal—like signing a contract, hiring staff, or responding to a dispute.
Failing to get the right legal advice at the right time can result in:
- Contracts that don’t reflect the true commercial arrangement
- Exposure to unexpected liability or fines
- Unenforceable terms that won’t hold up in court
- Disputes that damage cash flow or reputation
- Missed opportunities due to poor structuring or governance
That’s where we come in.
Learn how we can help with:
“The legal needs of a business don’t sit in a vacuum. We look at your commercial goals, your industry context, and your people and then build a legal solution that supports growth, not just compliance.”
— Sam Cohen, Principal Lawyer.
How Cohen Legal Help Businesses
Structuring & Growth
- Business Structuring & Restructuring: We work alongside your accountant to set up or restructure your business to meet both current and future needs.
- Company Incorporation: Establishing a new business? We can advise on the best structure to set up your business soundly, whether by partnership, joint venture, company or trust. We also provide guidance on restructuring your business, partnership dissolutions, and corporate restructures.
- Establishment of Trusts: When appropriately incorporated into your business or personal investment strategy, trusts can offer benefits in terms of asset protection, estate and succession planning and tax efficiency. Trusts are a most commonly used structure for holding investments and carrying on small to medium sized businesses. Our team will be able to help ensure if this structure is the best option for you and your business.
- Incorporated Associations: Community-based groups are often structed as an incorporated association. It is a separate legal entity, like a company, so it can hold assets and can sue and be sued in its own name. Cohen Legal is able to assist incorporated associations by providing assistance in all aspects of this structure, from advising on the rules to assisting with dispute resolution before the Supreme Court.
Transactions & Agreements
- Business Sales & Purchases: Our team of lawyers are able to provide legal support throughout the complex process of the sale or purchase of a business. There are many factors to consider, and we ensure the best outcome.
- Partnership & Shareholder Agreements: In business, it is vital to have the right shareholder and partnership agreement to ensure everyone is on the same page and set out how problems should be dealt with. Cohen Legal can assist with tailored agreements to set clear expectations and processes for resolving disputes and meet the businesses goals and needs.
- Joint Venture Agreements: Joint venture agreements set out the terms and conditions under which two or more businesses agree to work together for a shared purpose. We can help with drafting agreements that define responsibilities, profit-sharing, and dispute mechanisms.
- Mortgages, Loans & Securities: Cohen Legal Lawyers can help your business draft and review all mortgages; loans; guarantees; charges; and other securities documentation.
- Standard Terms & Conditions: Terms and Conditions must be written specifically for your business. No copy & paste, that may put you at risk of uncertainty and misunderstandings. We can help you prepare tailored terms to protect your business and avoid uncertainty.
- Hire Agreements: The team at Cohen Legal can help you make the most of your business interests by drafting clear agreements to protect your assets and define responsibilities.
- Personal Property Securities Act Advice: No longer said as “possession 9/10ths of the law,” is a complex area of law. We give advice on registering security interests under the Personal Property Securities Act to safeguard your rights.
Disputes & Litigation
- Partnership Disputes: If you’ve had a falling out with your business partner or received/want to issue a notice of dissolution of partnership. Cohen Legal can advise on dissolutions, receivership, and protecting your interests when relationships break down.
- Joint Venture Disputes: Our team are here to help you, providing advice on where things stand in a joint venture agreement and what should happen before a joint venture becomes disjointed if there is a dispute. We will be able to clarify profit-sharing and obligations when partnerships sour.
How Cohen Legal Help Business Owners
At Cohen Legal, we believe in:
- Clarity first – Plain language explanations, no legal jargon
- Risk reduction – Identifying gaps before they cause problems
- Commercial alignment – Advice that works in the real world
- Responsive service – Quick turnaround when you need it most
Our clients include sole traders, construction firms, professional service providers, medical practices, property developers, and regional manufacturers. Whether you’re preparing for growth, protecting intellectual property, or cleaning up old legacy contracts, we can help.
Meet Sam Cohen, Principal Lawyer
Take the Next Step
If you’re buying, selling, or restructuring a business — or facing a dispute — Cohen Legal can help you protect your investment and find the right way forward knowing the ins and outs of Business Law.
Book a Consultation
Call 07 4721 0264
Cohen Legal. Our business is protecting yours.
Relevant Blogs
Buying or Selling a Business: Assets or Shares?
When someone says they are buying or selling a business, it sounds straightforward. But legally, there may be two very different transactions hiding behind that phrase.
A buyer might purchase the assets that make up the operating business — such as equipment, stock, goodwill, a business name and digital assets. Alternatively, they may purchase shares in the company that already owns and operates the business.
Victoria Tuttle, Associate at Cohen Legal, says the distinction regularly causes confusion, particularly for small business owners who may have operated through a company for years without thinking of themselves as shareholders.
The simplest way to understand it is this: the business is the operation, while a company is a separate legal entity that may own that operation.
In an asset sale, selected contents of the business are transferred to the buyer. In a share sale, ownership of the company itself changes while the company’s existing assets, contracts, rights and obligations remain within it.
For sole traders, there are no company shares to sell, so the transaction generally involves the assets and transferable elements of the business.
Understanding the difference early can make questions about liabilities, contracts, tax and the sale agreement considerably clearer.
Buying a Business in Queensland? What to Check
One of the things I see most often is buyers who fall in love with an opportunity before they’ve worked out exactly what they’re taking on — the company or just the assets, the reputation behind the name, whether the equipment is actually free and clear.
In my latest article, I’ve set out the legal checklist every buyer should work through before settlement: structuring the purchase, due diligence, licensing, digital assets, employees, and the lease. Getting these answered early is what keeps a business purchase straightforward instead of expensive.
Non-Compete Ban: A Small Business Concern | Cohen Legal
Last month I read the Government’s draft laws on non-compete clauses and took a breath. If they pass as drafted, employers won’t be able to use a non-compete for anyone earning up to $190,100, and won’t be able to stop a departing employee recruiting their team. For a small firm, those are your most valuable people. I’ve seen what happens when a manager walks out with the staff, and it can decimate a business. In my latest article I’ve set out what’s proposed, why I’m concerned, and what I’d review in your contracts now.