Practice Areas

BUSINESS LAW AND COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS

A significant portion of our practice involves assisting businesses with small or no legal staff with sophisticated and strategic legal counsel similar to that received from in-house counsel. With experience in real estate, mergers, acquisitions, accounting and tax matters (for taxable and tax-exempt entities), corporate governance, insurance law, labor and employment matters, and other areas, we understand enterprise-wide risk and how to mitigate it.

Our clients operate businesses engaged in construction, lending, oil and gas, timber, real estate development, retail, ranching, and many other industries. We often provide legal services to businesses in the following areas:

  • Business Formation and organization
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Debt collection
  • Employment matters
  • Shareholder/partner disputes
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Tax
  • Corporate Governance
  • Mediation, arbitration and litigation
  • International transactions

ESTATE PLANNING

We assist clients in developing estate plans that allow for the disposition of assets in a manner consistent with their wishes, while working to minimize administrative costs, unnecessary complications, and taxes (estate, inheritance, generation skipping, gift, and income). During the estate planning process, we seek to understand our clients’ personal and financial situations and then prepare the plan that best suits their needs and wishes. We help clients in several areas:

  • Trusts
  • Wills
  • Advance Directives for health care ("living wills")
  • Beneficiary planning for IRAs and other retirement accounts
  • Charitable giving plans
  • Gifting
  • Life insurance planning
  • Powers of attorney

PROBATE

Probate is the process by which assets are distributed in accordance with a will, or if there is no will, distributed to the heirs as directed by state law. We represent executors through the probate process. If a trust controls the estate, we assist the trustee in the administration of the trust. We also routinely assist out-of-state individuals with the ancillary probate or administration process. We represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in litigation related to the administration of a will or trust (will contests).

REAL ESTATE

We represent banks, buyers, sellers, owners, landlords in all matters related to real estate, including:

  • Real estate transactions
  • Commercial and residential leasing
  • Quiet title cases
  • Foreclosure

PERSONAL INJURY AND PROPERTY DAMAGE

We are able to guide clients through the process of obtaining fair compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and property damage. Our attorneys have the experience and resources to negotiate a prompt settlement with a negligent party when appropriate or to take a complex case to trial against a large insurance company.

GUARDIANSHIPS