This week’s New York Business Divorce proudly presents the 14th annual edition of Summer Shorts featuring brief commentary on three recent decisions of interest in business divorce cases in the New York courts.
Continue Reading Summer Shorts: An Unusual Application of LLC Law § 608 and Other Decisions of Interest
Just a few weeks ago, I commented on a recent uptick in disputes centered on the breakup of professional services firms. In those disputes, we expect that the demands of the legal, accounting, and medical professions draw individuals with keen attention to detail, focused on documentation, and prepared for all contingencies. Less expected is the irony that many attorneys, accountants, and medical professionals fail to bring those attributes to the table when organizing their business relationships.
The result of that failure is a tinderbox—poorly defined “partnership” relationships, mixed with high profit margins, difficult to value businesses, and type A owners willing to litigate their disputes. The right spark triggers bitter and hotly contested litigation. That part-legal, part-psychological phenomenon explains why business divorces of professional services corporations—especially law firms—can get complicated fast.
Motivated by that uptick, Becky Baek and I were pleased to recently present a CLE on the complexities that arise in the dissolution or breakup of law firms. Here are the highlights.Continue Reading Special Considerations for Law Firm Breakups
An Operating Agreement that calls for “annual updates” to its dissolution procedures is begging for trouble. This week’s post demonstrates why.
Continue Reading A Lifeline for the Stale “Schedule A”
This week’s New York Business Divorce examines a noteworthy decision by Justice Richard Platkin involving the break-up of a law firm organized as a professional services limited liability company, in which the court addressed the potential liability of two members to buy out a third member’s interest after they withdrew from the firm.
Continue Reading Forced to Buy Out Law Partner’s Interest In Defunct Firm, Years After Withdrawing? It Can Happen
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.
Continue Reading The Law Firm “Partner”- A Rose by Any Other Name . . .
This week’s New York Business Divorce features the “double whammy” of a fight over ownership of a highly successful dental practice, spiced with allegations of illegal kickbacks for patient referrals, intertwined with an acrimonious matrimonial divorce between the two litigants.
Continue Reading Divorcing Husband Not Smiling Over Court’s Rejection of Ownership Interest in Wife’s Dental Practice