PRACTICE AREAS

Estate Planning

Estate planning is your opportunity to memorialize how your want your life to be conducted if you lose capacity to direct those persons overseeing your physical care (i.e., Power of Attorney; Living Will) and to designate how you want your assets to be distributed upon your death (e.g., Last Will and Testament; Living Trust). You may also want to separately memorialize who you would want to take over parenting your minor children if they survive you.

Wills & Trusts

A Last Will and Testament is one of the most important documents a person can create during his/her lifetime. With a valid Will, a person can determine how assets will be distributed (within the bounds of applicable laws) upon death. If a person dies without a Will, he/she is said to have died “intestate” and state law will determine how the person’s assets will be distributed.

A Trust may be used as, among other things, a means of distributing assets after a death by specifying a more controlled distribution of assets, or a means to minimize taxation, or a means of achieving other goals of the owner of the assets.

Power of Attorney

Through a “power of attorney” a person grants authority to another person to act as his/her agent to undertake certain acts on his/her behalf. The scope of authority of a POA can be limited or very broad.

Without a valid POA, if a person becomes incapacitated, a court-appointed guardian will be needed to exercise financial decisions on his/her behalf. The guardian process takes time, may cost substantial attorneys’ fees, and may result in someone not of your choosing to make financial decisions for you.

Living Will

A Living Will specifies a person’s wishes regarding the termination of medical procedures when diagnosed with a terminal condition or an end-stage condition, or in a persistent vegetative state. A Living Will may also include the designation of the person who is authorized to make other health care decisions for you if you lack the capacity to make the decision. Without a valid Living Will, only a court will be able to authorize decisions regarding medical procedures when you lack capacity to make decisions or to communicate them.

Probate

Probate is the process through which the court administers the assets and debts of the deceased (the “estate”) so that the valid creditor claims are paid and the remaining assets are distributed to the person(s) named in the deceased’s Last Will and Testament, or if there is no Last Will and Testament, then by the State's intestacy laws. Probate also offers an orderly means to contest the validity of a Will and any creditor claims. However, in some instances, proper estate planning can avoid the delays and cost of probate if Will and creditor disputes are not anticipated.

Corporations & LLCs

Corporations and Limited Liability Companies (LLC) are business entities created under State law. The owners of the entity receive the benefit of limited liability for the obligations of the entity and are generally shielded from the entity's creditors. To avoid disagreements, the owners should execute certain documents from the outset specifying the rules under which the entity will be run and the owners relationships will be governed. These include Bylaws and a Stockholder Agreement (for a corporation) or an Operating Agreement and a Membership Agreement (for an LLC).

Business Law & Contracts

Running a business can involve many complicated issues of federal, state and local law. Unfortunately today, a wise person cannot rely on just a handshake to memorialize an agreement. Disagreements leading to costly litigation are common. Whether you are creating a new business, adding a new co-owner, hiring employees (e.g.,non-compete and confidentiality provisions), renting an office, buying/selling a business, obtaining a loan, entering new vendor or distributorship agreements, creating new forms (e.g., invoices, sales contracts, bid proposals), creating a new website (disclaimers, privacy policy) and more, a lawyer can help you efficiently and properly move forward with your plans.

Intellectual Property

Sometimes a company's most important asset is its intellectual property, that is, confidential information that makes the company unique and valuable. Whether it is a secret sauce, a special process, a customer list, or other proprietary trade secret information, steps should be taken to protect the information from competitors. The steps may include filing a patent, trademark or copyright application. The company may also choose to license the confidential information but should do so only with a well-drafted contract.

Asset Protection

Asset protection planning involves the use of various techniques to protect a person's wealth from future potential creditors. Asset protection planning does not involve hiding assets from creditors, tax evasion, or defrauding creditors. It is strategy designed and implemented before the protection is needed, for example, buying the car insurance policy before an accident occurs. Potential legal exposure comes in many forms: divorce, professional malpractice, breach of contract (mortgage foreclosure, business failure), landlord liability, tax liability, and household liability (dog bite). Timely creation of a global strategy may minimize the impact on a person's accumulation of assets.