The Legal Side of Business with Tayo Kola-Daisi

Tayo Kola-Daisi cofounded COSEC Administrators Limited, a firm specializing in Company Secretarial nominee and administrative services prior to commencing her entrepreneurial journey. She had acquired legal experience in corporate and commercial law, capital market transactions, private and commercial trust, project finance, amongst others. She subsequently obtained a first-class in law from the University of Buckingham, England.

Below is a summary of the interview The Legal Side of Business with Tayo Kola-Daisi

Discussing the topic, she said that even as there were different types of businesses, the way a business owner decides to structure the business will go a long way to determine any legal backings. She adduced that law was spread across different specializations and for one to be a good lawyer there was a need to focus on an area and practice consistently to be able to provide good legal advice. To this, she opined that everybody needed a lawyer still it was dependent on the magnitude.

She implied that most business owners were oftentimes not abreast of the legal side of their business. She shared this while giving reasons as to why businessmen don’t seek legal advice, still, she urged business owners in specialized sectors like oil and gas to seek legal advice from early on in their business. She further explained that there were law firms were lawyers were available at every stage of the business even during most of the business transactions.

According to her, small business owners often do not seek legal advice at the early stages of their business due to cost and even those who do often do not seek out the best legal advice for their business. She went further to explain that not all lawyers could give legal advice on intellectual property in the business. To this she enjoined business owners to take care to study the industry they find themselves in before seeking legal advice.

She admitted that legal advice had helped in terms of the structuring of her business, insurance, pension for the staff, taxes and even to how she responds in situations. She affirmed that the Nigerian legal system was supportive of Corporate businesses with laws that spread across business registration, Insurance, etc. She pointed out that although these laws have since been existent some were already outdated and needed to be reformed.

She further hinted on the need for legal backing during every transaction as in written proof in the cases of an emergency so that one could still refer back to such documents.

Speaking on employee rights she advised that one should look out for their terms of employment, the company’s manual and policies in the case of an unfair dismissal adding that legal actions could be taken in such an event. She advised against the attitude where people looking for jobs go on to sign all the documents presented to them without reading through.

In taking steps to prevent a lawsuit, she stressed the need for documentation in business transactions with written terms to follow such as one needs to pay before a service or good is delivered and others. This she said will be the remedy or reliefs that one can fall back on in the case of a breach of contract. She explained that even when a lawsuit occurs there were faster alternative dispute resolution measures that could be taken where someone doesn’t have to go the law court and wait on a dispute for years.

In her advice to upcoming legal practitioners, she opined that although many study law just for nonessential reasons still beyond such reasons or for financial gain she motioned on persons who have a passion for law practice to pursue the dream. She, however, shared concerns about the dearth of great lawyers as there was a need for seasoned lawyers in the practice.