Corporate Divorce – Preventing and Managing the Break-Up of a Business Partnership
Building and Exiting Business Partnerships
Navigating Corporate Divorce With Michael Einbinder
Episode 23: LLCs as They Approach the 50-Year Milestone: A Conversation with Professor Susan Pace Hamill
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Buy-Sell Agreements: A Conversation With Expert and Author Paul Hood
I Wish I Knew What I Know Now: Conversations with AGG on FDA Issues - Business Divorces in the Food and Supplements Space
Law Brief ®: Alan Gaynor and Richard Schoenstein Explore Business Divorce
Episode 8 | Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Navigating the Domestic Relations Arena
Episode 021: Member Liquidity, Default Rules, and the Corporate-ization of LLCs: A Conversation with Dean Donald J. Weidner
Episode 17: Arbitrating Deadlock: A Conversation with Arbitrator Erica Garay
Episode 015: Confessions of a Business Appraiser: A Conversation with Chris Mercer
Episode 014: Business Divorce Stories: Business Appraiser Tony Cotrupe and Attorney Jeff Eilender
One of the thorniest issues private company owners and minority investors may be required to confront in going through a business divorce is determining the value of the minority interest being purchased. It is not unusual...more
We’ve written about accountant liability. We’ve written about bookkeeper liability. A carefully crafted complaint can state viable claims for either. But business appraiser liability?...more
In early July 2024, Florida enacted a significant amendment to its equitable distribution statute, particularly concerning the treatment of personal goodwill in divorce proceedings. These changes, coupled with the pivotal...more
When divorcing couples hold ownership interests in private companies as part of their marital estate, they will have to address a number of business issues related to these interests in their divorce settlement. Planning...more
As both a practitioner and a close follower of New York business divorce caselaw, I’ve seen a recent uptick in disputes centered on the breakup of professional services firms and cryptocurrency businesses. Perhaps the crypto...more
One of the best parts of being a business litigator is the frequent opportunity it affords to work with (and against) expert witnesses of all stripes. And perhaps because there are so many ways that a business divorce can...more
After devoting long hours and years of hard work in building their companies, majority owners of private businesses may reach a point where they consider whether it is time for them to sell. This large question – Is now the...more
“Under any standard of value, the true economic value of a business enterprise will equal the company’s accounting book value only by coincidence . . .” says the late business valuation expert and author Shannon Pratt. So...more
In Bermuda, it is not uncommon for divorcing couples to own a business together. The couple may be equal partners in the business, bringing different skills. One person might be the inspiration behind the business or the...more
Marital divorces are often difficult under the best of circumstances, but tensions may be even higher when the marital estate includes substantial interests the married couple own jointly in private companies, which they are...more
We accept that beauty is in eye of the beholder but determining what a private company is worth should be much more objective. Yet, for a business owner who is considering a sale of the company, it may come as a surprise that...more
The authors of this blog have a special affinity for fair value appraisal proceedings. The narrow hearings—where the sole issue before the court is the fair value of an owner’s interest in a business—require attorneys and...more
Justice Masley’s valuation decision in Quattro Parent LLC v Rakib, 2022 NY Slip Op 30190(U) [Sup Ct, NY County Jan. 14, 2022] is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it is an extraordinarily rare example of a business...more
Most businesses start with a group of dedicated people identifying a problem, coming up with a solution and then figuring out how to share their solution with the world. Launching a business takes vision, vulnerability, grit,...more
In most of the business valuation cases that I’ve litigated, it’s not long before one side accuses the other’s valuation expert of mixing apples and oranges. And at the risk of endorsing the overused expression, it’s easy to...more
There’s tremendous diversity from state-to-state when it comes to statutory and judge-made law in business divorce cases. The basic fact patterns one sees in cases from across the country, however, don’t vary nearly as much....more
Three shareholders co-own an 8-year old internet-based “marketeer” business that imports Chinese-manufactured sinks, faucets, and related plumbing fixtures that it sells primarily to distributors and retailers in the United...more
Two of my pet topics — dysfunctional buy-sell agreements and application of federal court abstention doctrine in private company disputes — intersect in a decision issued last month in Ray v Raj Bedi Revocable Trust, Case No....more
In my business divorce travels occasionally I encounter instances in which shareholder distributions are made in the period between the valuation date for an elective buyout of a minority shareholder who sued for dissolution...more
Navigating a successful business exit when a marriage ends in divorce often presents challenges for both parties. Leaving aside the emotional tensions present in divorce, resolving conflicts regarding the ownership of...more
Over the years, we’ve written a lot about limited partnership, corporation, and LLC “fair value” appraisal proceedings....more
When it comes to business valuation principles in contested appraisal proceedings, I’d say the 50 states have far more in common than separates them. Certainly this is true in cases applying the fair market value standard...more
Before we get to the case: A fixed price buy-sell agreement is one in which co-owners of a business select a specific dollar amount, expressed either as enterprise or per-share value, for calculation of the future buyout...more
I’m very pleased to present my 11th annual list of this past year’s ten most significant business divorce cases. This year’s list includes four important appellate decisions, including one likely to stand as a landmark...more