Do you need sample bylaws for your corporation?
Many, maybe even most, of the people visiting this website are planning to set up an LLC rather than a corporation. Because a few visitors probably will set up a corporation in the end rather than an LLC, however, this website provides sample downloadable corporation bylaws. Note that you don’t use corporate bylaws for a limited liability company. A limited liability company uses a operating agreement as the governing document. However, if you will set up a corporation, you need corporate bylaws…
The corporation’s bylaws describe how the owners, called shareholders or stockholders, govern and administer the corporation. Having and following a good set of corporate bylaws increases your legal liability protection because corporate by-laws further enforce and underscore the separate legal identity of the small corporation. Finally, your bank will probably require you to provide a copy of your corporate bylaws.
Fortunately, for $19 you can purchase sample corporate bylaws. The corporate bylaws document, which you download at the time of purchase from the last page of the ordering form, is a nine-page, rich-text-format file created in Microsoft Word. The short document shows you what corporate bylaws look like. And you can even use the sample corporate bylaws document as a template for constructing your own personalized corporation by-laws. Simply fill in the blanks and then make whatever other changes you want or your attorney recommends!
About the Attorney Who Drafted the Sample Corporation Bylaws
The sample corporate bylaws available here (these are the same sample bylaws available in the Do-It-Yourself Incorporation Kits sold at my S Corporations Explained website) were written by business lawyer Carl Baranowski. An attorney for more than twenty years, Carl Baranowski has worked both as an in-house corporate counsel and as practicing attorney, serving both private and public real estate and high technology companies. Baranowski holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate Business School and JD from Stanford University’s Law School. He also earned two master’s degrees and a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A member of both the Florida Bar and the Texas Bar, a past member of several other state bar associations, he also co-authored the popular legal reference, Representing High-Tech Companies (Law Journal Press, 2006).