Business
Representation of business clients has been the keystone of the firm's practice since its inception. As the complexities conducting business have increased, our business attorneys have continued to provide timely, helpful, and comprehensive advice to a wide variety of businesses located throughout the state.
Our business clients are privately-held businesses of all sizes, engaging in a variety of activities. We represent businesses whose activities includes manufacturing, high tech, software, hospitality, sales, distribution, recreation, medicine, research, engineering, professional services, brokerage, construction, real estate, retail, and pooled risk management. We also regularly provide legal counsel to meet the needs of family-owned businesses of all types.
We typically serve as general counsel to our business clients and have the privilege of becoming involved in many aspects of their day-to-day legal needs. These needs are employment matters, commercial transactions, sales and acquisitions, mergers, financing transactions, borrowings, intellectual property transactions, contract negotiations, entity selection and formation, business planning, and entity reorganization.
Many business transactions carry with them the need for sophisticated tax analysis and planning. Our business attorneys often combine their expertise in commercial law with the expertise of our tax attorneys in developing comprehensive and innovative solutions and strategies to achieve a client's business goals, while minimizing and deferring the resulting tax consequences. This integration of business and tax law expertise distinguishes our firm from many other New Hampshire firms.
Our business attorneys also regularly handle labor and employment issues facing our clients, including drafting employment contracts, non-competition agreements, and confidentiality agreements, crafting compensation plans, reviewing policy and personnel manuals, advising clients as to employee hiring and discipline. In combination with our litigation attorneys, we defend clients against employment claims. Our business attorneys closely monitor developments in employment laws affecting business, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, in order to assist employers in planning for and complying with these laws.
Our business attorneys have also assisted clients in transactions dealing with intellectual property. These matters have included the use, licensing, sale, and protection of software, trade secrets, inventions, trademarks, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property.
Another significant part of the our practice involves the representation of financial institutions and other commercial lenders. As general counsel to these clients, our business attorneys have provided counsel on a range of client concerns, such as the organization and start up of state chartered banks, regulatory compliance and other operational matters, and lender liability issues, including the liability of bank officers and directors. In addition, we regularly provide banks and other financial institutions advice regarding sophisticated secured and unsecured loan documentation, complexities under the New Hampshire Uniform Commercial Code, the restructuring of existing loans, and creditors' rights and bankruptcy law. We also represent borrowers, providing a range of legal services in connection with complex loan transactions.
Our business attorneys represent business clients in dealing with a wide variety of state and federal regulatory agencies which affect every aspect of business operations. On the state level, this includes many different departments and boards of state government, including the Department of Environmental Services, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Revenue Administration. On the federal level, our business attorneys have represented clients before a variety of agencies, including the EPA, FDIC, OSHA, and IRS. Regulatory work is coordinated with our real estate attorneys, tax attorneys, and litigation attorneys.
Our business attorneys also are called upon to provide advice as local counsel for transactions that may be based elsewhere. These transactions have included complex mergers, acquisitions, financings, contract negotiations, due diligence, and regulatory matters.
