New York law imposes some strict limits on the ability of closely-held business owners and fiduciaries to recover advancement and indemnification of their legal fees from the entity in defense of derivative actions and other business divorce disputes. When advancement rights are abused, there are ways for minority owners to fight back. Read on in this week’s New York Business Divorce.
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Can the Company Pay My Legal Fees?
Business divorce litigants ask all the time, “Can the company pay my legal fees?” In this week’s New York Business Divorce, the first in a two-part series, we take a look at ways in which closely-held business owners and managers may defend themselves with funds advanced or indemnified by the business.
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Lawyer Says, “I’m Not a Partner, No Wait, I am a Partner!” Which is It?
Law firms see more than their fair share of business divorce litigation. But what are the chances of lightning striking twice? In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about a fascinating, post-trial decision in which an upstate law firm endured a bitter partnership breakup for the second time in a decade, with the same partner taking the opposite position in each lawsuit.
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Business Divorce in the Surrogate’s Court
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider an interesting question raised by the occasional overlap of two niche areas of law practice: the jurisdictional power of New York’s probate courts to resolve business divorce disputes.
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How Not to Start a Corporate Dissolution Proceeding
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a would-be dissolution petitioner just could not catch a break in a series of procedural losses emanating out of Bronx County Supreme Court.
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The Brothers Cortazar Wage War Once Again
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, read about two bitterly antagonistic brother/co-owners making their second appearance on this blog, this time in a juicy decision following a full-blown trial on the merits.
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Can an Arbitrator Order Extra-Judicial Dissolution?
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we consider the important but rarely litigated question of whether an arbitrator has the power to extra-judicially dissolve a New York business entity.
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How to Initiate a Fair Value Appraisal Proceeding – a Dissenter’s Checklist
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, we go step-by-step through a tricky process, confusing to many: the procedures leading up to the commencement of a fair value appraisal proceeding.
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The Law Firm “Partner”- A Rose by Any Other Name . . .
If a Schedule K-1 lists you or your client as a “general partner” and 2% owner of a partnership, is that the end of the story for proving ownership status? This week, we consider that question in the context of a long-running litigation between a well-known insurance litigation firm and its former “partner” over his standing to sue to dissolve the business.
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A Pig in a Poke: The Rollercoaster Kadosh Settlement Litigation
In this week’s New York Business Divorce, a wild tale of a settlement achieved, settlement spurned, and a litigant threatened with incarceration for contempt in an intensely bitter, nine-year battle between two brothers over their Manhattan-based real property LLC.
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