Private & Family Businesses

We counsel these clients on a variety of legal issues including:

• Determining the best structure for your organization, be it sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, C corporations, holding companies, and even publicly traded companies under family control
• Assessing your financing needs and guiding you toward the most appropriate financing sources: bank loans, letters of credit, investment funds, even private or public debt or equity offerings
• Constructing the best approach for compensation and benefit structures that give you, your family and employees added incentives to grow your company
• Guiding you if business controversies lead to litigation by offering proactive advice defining the rights and responsibilities of family members toward business operations and seeking the remedies that are best suited for your situation – with special emphasis on negotiated settlements that preserve family ties along with the business
• Implementing the right solutions on corporate compliance, D&O liability insurance, records management, conflicts of interest and auditing standards
• Evaluating all options for business succession planning
• Crafting personalized estate planning solutions and making sure they are carried out the way you intend, maximizing financial benefits while minimizing taxes and fulfilling all fiduciary responsibilities

Related Practices

Learn More About Our Successes +

Key Contacts

Our Team

Experience

• Counseled the founders of Airwaves Networks, Inc., a wireless entertainment provider, in the sale of their company in a $42.5 million transaction with a private equity-backed buyer
• Counseled the Cline Group, a family owned company with investments in mining, real estate and other assets, in the acquisition of two mining complexes and related rights in Nova Scotia and Alberta, Canada
• Represented the second-generation owner of Commercial Insurance Services, Inc., a large commercial insurance broker, in the sale of that company to Assured Partners, one of the fastest growing national insurance brokerages
• Outside counsel to the Southern-Dickinson Companies, a multi-generational family office with investments in mining, oil and gas and commercial real estate
• Counsel to DARCARS Automotive Group, a second-generation family owned business and one of the largest automobile retail groups in the eastern United States
• Represented family trust as the lender in the negotiation and documentation of a credit facility designed to provide development and operating funds in excess of $500 million in project finance for an industrial development; also served as counsel to the lender in a restructuring to materially improve the collateral package provided to the lender
• Counsel to a family office in the acquisition of oil and gas interests and related royalty streams for hundreds of wells located in the Marcellus Shale formation; coordinated all due diligence, drafted all documentation, and drove the matter to closing
• Structured and documented the intra-family sale of majority ownership of an industrial contracting company as part of a complex estate plan
• Sale of industrial manufacturing company located in Indiana while avoiding and obtaining indemnification for significant but unknown environmental obligations; developed the sale strategy with the head of the family office and their general counsel then executed the plan

Case Studies

News & Insights