Practice Areas

Mergers & acquisitions disputes

Entrepreneurs who build and sell successful companies sometimes end up in disputes with the buyers. Often, entrepreneurs sign contracts providing some combination of upfront money and money payable later. The later payment often requires the seller to hit financial milestones. In other contracts, to receive the later payment, the seller’s founder must work for the buyer for a defined time period without being fired “for cause.” Several entrepreneurs turned to our firm after buyers tried to avoid these later payments, including:

• Earnout disputes concerning the allocation of profits among related entities, the calculation of earnout payments, and seller delays affecting milestones.
• Disputes concerning termination “for cause” where buyers fire company founders for what they claim is “cause” to avoid making payments.
• Fraud and breach of fiduciary allegations made by buyers against sellers to attempt to justify refusing to make contractual payments.

Employment Disputes

Far too often, employers take advantage of their employees, thinking that employees lack the means and sophistication to stand up for themselves. We can help level the playing field. Our clients range from blue collar employees to seasoned executives. Our firm represents clients in a wide range of employment disputes:

• Wage disputes in which employers fail to pay employees their agreed compensation, including unpaid bonuses, accrued time off, “off-the-clock” time, or other wages that employers promised to their employees.
• Commission disputes in which employers promise commissions and then refuse to pay them.
• Misclassification cases in which employers misclassify employees as “independent contractors” to avoid paying employees the full wages and benefits required by law.
• Retaliation disputes where employers fire or otherwise punish workers for engaging in protected activities, such as taking time off to care for an ailing relative or complaining about their employers’ failure to pay agreed wages.

Class and Representative Actions

Companies sometimes violate the rights of large numbers of consumers or employees and the only way to hold them accountable is through class or representative actions. We represent consumers and employees in a wide variety of cases, including:

• Unilateral changes to contract cases, where companies purport to change consumer agreements to deprive consumers of what they thought they were buying.
• Bait and switch cases, where companies promise consumers one thing and then deliver something less valuable.
• False advertising cases, where companies make representations about their products that aren’t true.
• Biometric and privacy cases, where companies collect biometric or other private information in violation of privacy laws.
• Employment cases where companies systematically violate the rights of large numbers of their employees.

Real Estate Disputes

Real estate professionals often prefer our model. Our firm represents real estate investors, developers, individuals and tenants in a wide range of real estate disputes, including:

• Partnership disputes between owners of closely held real estate companies.
• Construction defect disputes.
• Tenant disputes with landlords, ranging from individual tenant disputes to large commercial lease disputes.
• Real estate broker disputes.

Insurance Coverage Disputes

Insurance companies sometimes refuse to pay valid claims by their policyholders. Sometimes, insurers deny coverage entirely. Other times, insurers refuse to pay for clients’ full losses, especially where clients seek lost revenue or other loss that can be complicated to calculate. We represent individuals and companies in disputes with their insurers, including:

• Disputes regarding whether clients’ losses are covered by their insurance policies.
• Disputes concerning the amounts that the insurers must pay clients for losses that are covered by insurance.
• Disputes regarding improper claims handling under property insurance policies.
• The duty to defend and indemnify under commercial general liability policies.
• Bad faith.
• Underwriting disputes.

Other Commercial Disputes

We also represent individuals and companies in other high-stakes commercial disputes involving a range of legal claims and factual situations, including:

• Claims for harm caused by data loss, including claims against insurers refusing to pay clients full value for data loss events and against technology service providers that cause clients to lose important data.
• Disputes between partners or shareholders of closely held corporations.
• Professional negligence claims against attorneys, accountants or other professionals.
• Contract disputes.
• Fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of trust disputes.