New York and Florida Legal Support at Your Fingertips: Remote Services Available Now!
New York and Florida Legal Support at Your Fingertips: Remote Services Available Now!
If you’re buying an existing business in Melbourne or Viera, Florida, Andrea A. Willis and our firm, Lawyer For Business, can represent you from the letter of intent through closing. Andrea is licensed in both New York and Florida, and our firm represents buyers and sellers in Florida business transactions end to end: structuring the deal as an asset or equity purchase, handling the letter of intent, running due diligence, and negotiating the purchase agreement itself.
Our firm represents buyers and sellers throughout Cocoa Beach, Brevard County, and across Florida in business acquisitions. This includes Melbourne, Viera, and Palm Bay, as well as remotely throughout Florida.
Buyers frequently come to us to purchase a bar, restaurant, café, entertainment venue, construction service business, medical practice, retail store, professional office, and many other kinds of businesses in Brevard County.
In Andrea’s words:
“Buying a business is one of the largest investments most people will ever make. I’ve represented buyers purchasing everything from established local businesses and professional practices to franchises and service companies. In one recent transaction, I helped a buyer evaluate the deal, identify issues that could have created significant problems after closing, and negotiate protections before they committed to the purchase.
My job is not simply to get you to closing. It is to help you understand exactly what you are buying, protect your investment, and make sure the deal you sign is the deal you intended to make.”
Whatever the business, the legal work rarely starts where most buyers expect it to.
Most buyers contact us when they are ready to sign the purchase agreement. By that point, however, important deal terms may already be negotiated, making it more difficult and often more expensive to identify and address problems.
The best time to involve a business attorney is before you sign the Letter of Intent (LOI), when there is still an opportunity to structure the deal and negotiate key terms with your interests in mind. At the very least, you should have an attorney review the transaction before you sign the definitive purchase agreement.
Getting legal advice early can save you significant time, legal fees, and costly surprises after closing.
The best time to bring in a lawyer is before you sign the letter of intent. By the purchase agreement, key deal terms may already be negotiated.
A letter of intent can be binding or non-binding, and the deposit it sets can be refundable or non-refundable. Before you sign, we review and negotiate:
Our Florida LOI guide for buyers covers each of these terms in more depth.
The purchase price rarely stalls a closing. What usually does is a set of questions buyers don’t think to ask until the lease, the contracts, or the equipment list are already in front of them:
Lease issues in particular are one of the most common reasons buyers end up renegotiating a deal. Engaging an attorney throughout the purchase process can uncover hidden risks and help strengthen the deal.
Price rarely stalls a closing. Questions in the lease, the contracts, the intellectual property and the equipment list do.
A buyer came to us after signing a letter of intent on a Florida service business. During due diligence, we found that a substantial percentage of the company’s revenue came from a single customer relationship. It didn’t kill the deal, but it changed how we valued the business and gave us negotiating power to move some other important pieces around before we closed.
A business purchase typically involves several sets of legal documents. Keep in mind that if the seller’s attorney drafts the documents, they are likely skewed toward protecting the seller, so it’s critical to involve your own attorney even when documents are drafted by a lawyer. You should ask your attorney to review or draft each of these important legal documents:
Our Florida purchase and sale page walks through how we handle each of these documents.
If buying a legal entity (stock purchase), not just the assets, Florida’s Division of Corporations lets you search any corporation, LLC, or limited partnership by name. The results will confirm if the legal entity has an “active” or “inactive” current status, and provide links to official filing documents and other formation documents on file, which can be accessed free of charge.
You can also search by the seller’s name to see if the seller maintains other businesses in “active” or “inactive” status. This may help you determine the recordkeeping habits of the seller and give you a better picture of what type of business you are acquiring.
Buying a business is the most common reason Melbourne and Viera owners call us, but it isn’t the only one.
| Service | What it covers | Where to read more |
|---|---|---|
| Business formation | We help launch LLCs, corporations, and partnerships, filing with Florida’s Division of Corporations and handling the compliance tasks that follow | Florida business formation |
| Operating agreements | We draft custom LLC operating agreements, and review and update the ones you already have and need to modify | Florida operating agreements |
| Commercial leases | We draft, review, and negotiate commercial leases for landlords and tenants | Florida commercial leases |
| AI-generated contracts | We review and strengthen contracts drafted by AI tools before you sign them | AI contract review |
We offer all our legal services remotely throughout Brevard County and across Florida.
Consultations are fully virtual, conducted by either phone call or video call, and you can handle the entire matter online without setting foot in an office.
A Florida transaction with our firm runs in four stages:
In our experience, most deals close within a few weeks to several months, depending on how complicated the business and the structure turn out to be.
A handshake deal can require less legal work. A complex structure needs multiple documents to protect the buyer, and fees depend on the size of the business and the scope of work.
Should I hire a lawyer when buying a business?
Finding a problem before closing gives you options, and finding it after closing usually gives you an unexpected bill. That’s why we recommend talking to a lawyer early, not at the signing table.
What kind of attorney do I need to buy a business?
You need a business lawyer with real transaction experience, not simply a lawyer whose website happens to use the words “business law.” Buying a business requires an attorney who understands how deals are structured, where buyers face risk, and how to protect your interests throughout the transaction.
Our firm has handled transactions across multiple industries, from service businesses and franchises to professional practices and established local companies. That breadth of experience means we are often already familiar with the types of issues, deal structures, and risks that arise in a transaction like yours.
What kind of lawyer do I need to sell my business?
You want a business lawyer who understands how both buyers and sellers approach a transaction. Because we represent both sides in business acquisitions, we understand what each party is looking for, where negotiations typically get difficult, and where important protections can be overlooked.
This perspective gives us an advantage when structuring and negotiating your deal. We routinely draft and negotiate Asset Purchase Agreements for buyers and sellers throughout Brevard County, with the goal of protecting your interests while keeping the transaction moving toward closing.
How much does a lawyer cost for a small business purchase?
At our firm, deal fees depend on the size of the business and the scope of work. We pride ourselves on providing efficient legal services and work with quick turnaround times.
Sometimes deals are straightforward and can be done relatively fast with low legal cost, and other times there are multiple steps that need to be addressed. An example of a complex structure: a seller is staying on as a minority equity shareholder with voting rights, their spouse is remaining on as an employee post-closing, and the seller and spouse are giving the buyer a personal loan to finance part of the deal. This situation gives rise to multiple necessary legal documents to protect the buyer, versus a handshake deal where one owner of a business is transitioning to retirement and selling their half of the business to the partner or buyer, which can require less legal work.
How do I check a Florida lawyer’s credibility, and are Bar complaints public?
A lawyer’s Find a Lawyer page on the Florida Bar’s website shows their current status and links to a 10-year public discipline history, with older records available by request.
Andrea A. Willis is a Florida Bar and New York Bar member in good standing.
When you’re ready, book a Florida Business Consultation with our firm. It runs 45 minutes, covers buying or selling a business, and costs \$350 plus nominal credit card processing fees, as of October 1, 2026.
The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship, so please don’t send us anything confidential until that relationship is in place.
