Shareholder agreements & shareholder disputes: The basics

A shareholder agreement is a contract made between two or more shareholders. It outlines the relationship between a company's directors and its shareholders. It can cover matters such as new shares and sales of existing shares, the directors' duties, codes of conduct and perhaps, most importantly, dispute resolution. For new businesses and startups, it's often overlooked as it's not a legal requirement - that being said, at Sajen Legal we urge you strongly to invest now in this important document and save the heartache later on.

Let's run through a familiar scenario: You and a friend have a great business idea, you've done some due diligence and a tonne of research, you both got a modest amount of capital to inject into the business idea. One of you has the know-how to get the business rolling and because you're both passionate about the project, you're willing to sweat, bleed and cry to see it become a success. Eventually, over the years your blood, sweat