A Complete Suite of Services
Wise, Trusted, Pragmatic, Experienced
If you are a company without in-house lawyers you still need legal advice. In fact, you can find yourself in hot water if you do not seek appropriate counsel. We have more than 50 years of experience dealing with all types of complex issues that affect businesses. In addition to our deep knowledge and expertise, we also bring keen analytical skills and good judgment to resolving our clients' problems. We understand how to communicate effectively with business people. In fact, some of our lawyers have in-house experience while others have functioned as outside general counsel for their clients.
Contract and License Negotiation, Review and Drafting
One area where we can be particularly helpful is assisting clients with the drafting and review of various contracts, including licenses and construction documentation. We have spent significant time litigating important contractual clauses in our breach of contract cases. We know how important it is to get key provisions such as termination, choice of law and forum selection right. All too often companies just mark-up copies of old contracts instead of tailoring the agreement to the particular situation.
Termination clauses in particular can present unique problems and often lead to hotly contested disputes. As a result, it is imperative that management thoroughly understand this important provision before executing an agreement. Management should discuss with counsel various scenarios and business goals to ensure that the clause is drafted appropriately. We also have extensive experience advising companies who do want to terminate a contract to follow the exact steps required to do so properly. Otherwise, if the correct steps are not followed exactly, a client may find itself the target of a lawsuit by the breaching party.
Another important clause that causes problems is the forum selection clause. These clauses are either permissive or mandatory depending on the law of a particular jurisdiction. If counsel is not aware of the required language, a forum selection clause that you think is iron tight, may actually get you stuck in court in some distant state, where you lose your home field advantage.
We understand these mine fields and have counseled clients and even written on the issue.
Internet Related Agreements
We have experience drafting and advising on agreements relating to website terms of use, privacy policies and other types of policies or agreements, which impact companies that conduct their business over the internet.
Indemnification Advice
Another important issue that frequently arises is the scope of indemnification provisions in construction, supplier, distributor and other types of contracts. We have advised clients on these provisions and whether or not businesses have a right to indemnification or a defense to such a claim. One of the first things that a company should do if it gets sued is look to see whether it has insurance coverage or whether the claim may be indemnified under a contract. We have advised numerous clients on what steps to take to trigger such indemnification. We are often hired by clients to shadow other law firms to ensure that fees are not being needlessly incurred and that the strategy being pursued by the indemnitor will not end up costing the client.
IP Strategy and Counseling
We have years of experience counseling and advising our clients on issues that involve their valuable intellectual property. We have assisted clients in responding to patent notice letters, cease and desist letters and take down notices. Although we do not prosecute patents or trademarks, we do have a network of excellent and reasonably priced lawyers who handle this type of work. Our clients often retain us to manage trademark and patent prosecution counsel to ensure that the needs of the business are being met and that the price stays affordable. We also counsel clients as to how to protect their trade secrets and implement strategies that prevent this valuable intellectual property from walking out the door when an employee departs to a competitor.
Responding to Subpoenas
Our lawyers have a wealth of experience responding to subpoenas, and work closely with our clients to gather documents with as minimal disruption to the business as possible. We negotiate with opposing counsel to limit the documents that must be searched for and produced and preserve appropriate objections to the production. We also oversee outside vendors who collect and process the documents so that our clients can focus on their business and not the distraction of hunting down a large number of documents.
Assisting Clients With In Responding to Government Investigations
We assist and advise our clients in responding to government investigations involving allegations of false advertising or privacy violations and related legal issues.
Contract and License Negotiation, Review and Drafting
One area where we can be particularly helpful is assisting clients with the drafting and review of various contracts, including licenses and construction documentation. We have spent significant time litigating important contractual clauses in our breach of contract cases. We know how important it is to get key provisions such as termination, choice of law and forum selection right. All too often companies just mark-up copies of old contracts instead of tailoring the agreement to the particular situation.
Termination clauses in particular can present unique problems and often lead to hotly contested disputes. As a result, it is imperative that management thoroughly understand this important provision before executing an agreement. Management should discuss with counsel various scenarios and business goals to ensure that the clause is drafted appropriately. We also have extensive experience advising companies who do want to terminate a contract to follow the exact steps required to do so properly. Otherwise, if the correct steps are not followed exactly, a client may find itself the target of a lawsuit by the breaching party.
Another important clause that causes problems is the forum selection clause. These clauses are either permissive or mandatory depending on the law of a particular jurisdiction. If counsel is not aware of the required language, a forum selection clause that you think is iron tight, may actually get you stuck in court in some distant state, where you lose your home field advantage.
We understand these mine fields and have counseled clients and even written on the issue.
Internet Related Agreements
We have experience drafting and advising on agreements relating to website terms of use, privacy policies and other types of policies or agreements, which impact companies that conduct their business over the internet.
Indemnification Advice
Another important issue that frequently arises is the scope of indemnification provisions in construction, supplier, distributor and other types of contracts. We have advised clients on these provisions and whether or not businesses have a right to indemnification or a defense to such a claim. One of the first things that a company should do if it gets sued is look to see whether it has insurance coverage or whether the claim may be indemnified under a contract. We have advised numerous clients on what steps to take to trigger such indemnification. We are often hired by clients to shadow other law firms to ensure that fees are not being needlessly incurred and that the strategy being pursued by the indemnitor will not end up costing the client.
IP Strategy and Counseling
We have years of experience counseling and advising our clients on issues that involve their valuable intellectual property. We have assisted clients in responding to patent notice letters, cease and desist letters and take down notices. Although we do not prosecute patents or trademarks, we do have a network of excellent and reasonably priced lawyers who handle this type of work. Our clients often retain us to manage trademark and patent prosecution counsel to ensure that the needs of the business are being met and that the price stays affordable. We also counsel clients as to how to protect their trade secrets and implement strategies that prevent this valuable intellectual property from walking out the door when an employee departs to a competitor.
Responding to Subpoenas
Our lawyers have a wealth of experience responding to subpoenas, and work closely with our clients to gather documents with as minimal disruption to the business as possible. We negotiate with opposing counsel to limit the documents that must be searched for and produced and preserve appropriate objections to the production. We also oversee outside vendors who collect and process the documents so that our clients can focus on their business and not the distraction of hunting down a large number of documents.
Assisting Clients With In Responding to Government Investigations
We assist and advise our clients in responding to government investigations involving allegations of false advertising or privacy violations and related legal issues.