Every business relationship runs on documents. Contracts, leases, easements, employment agreements, and entity governance documents define the rights, obligations, and risk allocation between parties — and when those documents are poorly drafted, the consequences surface years later in disputes that cost far more than the original transaction was worth.
Murray | Lobb has been drafting and negotiating commercial documents for Texas businesses, property owners, lenders, and municipalities for more than 35 years. We bring the same rigor to a $50,000 commercial lease that larger firms reserve for eight-figure transactions — because for the clients we serve, that lease is significant, and a deficiency in it is their problem to live with.
Areas of Focus
We draft and negotiate commercial contracts of all kinds for Texas businesses: service agreements, vendor contracts, supply agreements, independent contractor agreements, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, licensing agreements, and custom transactional documents for industry-specific relationships.
Contract review is equally important. When your business receives a proposed contract from a vendor, customer, or partner, we provide efficient, practical review that identifies the provisions that matter — indemnification, limitation of liability, assignment rights, termination triggers, and dispute resolution — and tells you whether to sign, negotiate, or walk away.
Choosing the right business structure and governing it correctly from the outset prevents problems that are expensive to fix later. We assist clients with:
- Formation of Texas limited liability companies, corporations, partnerships, and joint ventures
- Drafting operating agreements, bylaws, partnership agreements, and shareholder agreements
- Buy-sell agreements that govern what happens when an owner wants out, dies, or becomes disabled
- Ownership transfer and succession planning for family-owned and closely held businesses
- Registered agent and compliance maintenance for ongoing entities
We advise privately held companies from startup through sale or succession, providing the ongoing corporate counsel that keeps governance clean and disputes between owners from escalating into litigation.
Employment agreements for key executives and senior employees require careful attention to enforceability, compensation structure, and the specific provisions that protect the company when the relationship ends.
We draft and negotiate:
- Executive employment agreements and term employment contracts
- Compensation and equity agreements, including deferred compensation arrangements
- Non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, structured to comply with Texas law
- Confidentiality and intellectual property assignment agreements
- Separation and severance agreements
We also advise employers on the enforceability of existing non-compete and non-solicitation provisions under the Texas Covenants Not to Compete Act, which governs what restrictions Texas courts will enforce and under what circumstances.
Construction projects are defined by their contracts. A poorly drafted construction contract does not just create uncertainty — it shifts risk to the party who did not read it carefully. We represent general contractors, subcontractors, and project owners in drafting and negotiating:
• Prime contracts between owners and general contractors
• Subcontract agreements
• Design-build and EPC contracts
• Owner-supplied materials and equipment agreements
• Subguard and payment bond documentation
We also advise clients on the Texas Prompt Payment Act obligations built into every Texas construction contract, and we structure payment terms and dispute resolution provisions that protect our clients' interests from the outset.
Murray | Lobb handles the full range of commercial real estate transactions, with particular depth in the types of transactions that arise along the Gulf Coast industrial and energy corridor:
Commercial Leases - Ground leases, industrial leases, retail leases, and office leases — we represent both landlords and tenants in drafting, negotiating, and enforcing commercial lease agreements. We pay particular attention to the provisions that create risk for our clients: rent escalation formulas, maintenance and repair allocation, assignment and subletting rights, holdover provisions, and termination and default remedies.
Pipeline, Utility & Infrastructure Easements - Easement agreements with pipeline and utility companies are among the most consequential documents a Texas landowner will sign. The compensation is paid once, but the easement runs with the land indefinitely. We represent landowners in negotiating pipeline, utility, and infrastructure easements — pushing for precise width and depth specifications, strong environmental restoration obligations, robust abandonment provisions, and compensation that reflects the true impact of the easement on the property and its remainder.
We also represent property owners in TxDOT right-of-way acquisitions, reviewing proposed compensation, identifying severance damage claims, and advising on condemnation proceedings when voluntary agreement is not reached.
Purchase and Sale Agreements - We handle commercial real estate purchase and sale transactions, including due diligence review, title examination, survey review, and closing coordination. We structure agreements that protect our clients through the due diligence period and allocate risk appropriately between buyer and seller.
Economic Development Agreements - We draft and negotiate economic development agreements between municipalities, economic development corporations, and private developers — including Chapter 380 agreements, tax abatement agreements, and performance incentive structures that tie public benefits to private investment commitments.
Our Approach
We do not produce generic, fill-in-the-blank documents. Every contract we draft reflects the specific transaction, the specific parties, and the specific risks our client faces. We also write in plain English where the law permits it — because a contract that the parties understand is more likely to be followed and less likely to produce disputes than one that requires a lawyer to interpret every time a question arises.
For clients with ongoing transactional needs — businesses that sign contracts regularly, property owners who deal with easement and lease requests periodically, or growing companies that need governance documents updated as they evolve — we provide efficient, relationship-based representation that keeps legal costs proportionate to the value of the work.