Business Transactional, Tax, Corporate and Real Estate

The Business and Transactions Practice Area is dedicated to creating value for our clients through the design, implementation and maintenance of their economic relationships with third parties.  Whether these relationships are with financial institutions, underwriters, regulatory agencies, partners, shareholders, customers, vendors, acquisition targets, business disposition buyers, taxing authorities, landlords, developers, tenants or others; our goal is to maximize the value of each relationship and transaction for our client while working cooperatively with the other parties. We work closely with each of our clients to understand its business and how each relationship fits within the scope of, and enhances, that business. We believe that each client is unique and that our partnership with the client must be tailored to accommodate that uniqueness.

Collectively we have literally centuries of experience in this practice area. This experience includes a substantial wealth of knowledge and expertise that translates into efficient, prompt service benefiting our clients.
General Corporate
Our corporate, securities and commercial practice includes service as general counsel to a number of small to mid-market privately and publicly owned businesses, providing advice and counsel in connection with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, public offerings, institutional financings and securitizations, among many other transactions. We counsel entrepreneurs on the structures of their businesses, from initial organization all the way to dissolution or the dissociation of equity owners. We also counsel hedge fund managers, investment advisors and broker dealers in issues regarding registration and compliance with regulatory authorities. Our work in this area ranges from complex multi-party transactions and leveraged buy-outs to sales of divisions and lines of business, public and private offerings of securities, other federal and state securities law matters, and a wide variety of day-to-day business law matters, including copyright and trademark registrations.  The Department also advises for-profit and non-profit institutions and their governing boards on a variety of governance and operational matters.  In addition, the Firm has significant Japanese-language capabilities.
Tax and Employee Benefits
The Firm has represented individuals, corporations, partnerships and trusts in federal and state tax matters since the Firm’s founding in 1913. Our tax practice provides sophisticated tax planning and analysis to our clients including, among other things, structuring transactions and relationships, representing clients in administrative proceedings, as well as defending our clients in federal and state tax court litigation.  The Firm has extensive experience in resolving tax examination issues and voluntary disclosure matters.  In addition, the Firm’s tax and business practice includes a significant amount of ERISA and employee benefit plan work, as well as handling executive compensation matters, primarily for its corporate clients.  Further, and through coordination with members of the Firm’s Litigation Department, the Firm’s Business/Transactional attorneys have handled the successful defense of numerous accounting malpractice actions involving significant tax and employee benefits issues.
Real Estate
Our real estate practice provides counsel on a wide variety of general real estate matters with a special emphasis on commercial real estate development, including the negotiation and implementation of all aspects of development projects from the acquisition and development of the property, related financing, and the ultimate sale or leasing of the project. The Firm’s real estate lawyers are also engaged in real estate syndication work, generally involving a joint effort with the Firm’s tax and securities lawyers.
Business in a Divorce
Often the dissolution of a marriage, in addition to the personal aspects of the divorce, involves the valuing and division of business assets. The Firm’s family law practice has a special focus on resolving marital dissolution issues arising from closely-held businesses and financial transactions.