PRACTICE AREAS
PROBATE ADMINISTRATION
* Petitioning and applying for probate administration with the appropriate court
* Collecting and inventorying the assets
* Determining creditors and paying any and all legitimate debts
* Assisting in filing appropriate and necessary income, gift and estate tax returns
* Distributing assets as required under the decedent's Last Will and Testament, or under the State laws in the event that there is no will
* Closing the probate administration
* Probate litigation
* Conservatorships and Guardianships
When a loved one passes away, the weeks that follow are difficult. It is a profoundly emotional and disorienting time, filled with complex feelings and significant changes.
To make things even more difficult, surviving family members are left to deal with probate matters like proving a will, paying taxes, administering an estate, and distributing assets, all to the complete administration of a decedent's estate. In addition, disputes can arise among close family members.
Our firm specializes in probate law to make the process easier and less stressful for you. We work with personal representatives to assist in administering estates efficiently and fairly. We work with families to appoint conservators and guardians. When clients come to us with probate disputes, we stand tirelessly behind them to reach a sound resolution.
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WILLS AND ESTATE PLANNING
Estate Planning involves planning for the time when you are unable to act for yourself and make your own decisions, as well as planning for your eventual death. For young parents, estate planning often means putting in place a framework in case tragedy strikes. That might include appointing a guardian to care for children, and setting up a trust to protect life insurance proceeds and other assets. For others, estate planning might be focused on simplifying probate, protecting a special asset (such as a vacation home), preserving assets for loved ones, ensuring the right distribution of your estate, or creating a legacy.
We work closely with you to build a thoughtful, customized estate plan based upon your needs. At each step, we'll help you ask the right questions, and we'll explore various options that might make sense for you. These options include wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and living wills. In addition to drafting estate planning documents to fit your situation, we can assist you with completing beneficiary designation forms or titling of assets to align with your estate plan. Following your incapacity or death, we are available to assist your family with the administration of your estate (probate) or trust. We can also assist you and your family with both setting up and administering guardianships and conservatorships for both minors and adults if and when they become necessary.
COMMERCIAL, CORPORATE, AND REAL ESTATE LAW
* Entity formation (LLCs, S-Corps, C-Corps, etc.) and drafting of formation documents and agreements
* Counseling clients in connection with organization, business operations, and governance
* Ownership succession, transfer and buy-sell agreements
* Negotiating and structuring mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures
* Contract drafting and negotiation
* Highly customized LLC and shareholder agreements
* Commercial transactions
* Business succession planning
* Landlord and commercial tenant matters
We advise clients on the formation, operation, liquidation, merger, purchase, and sale of business entities, as well as day-to-day operational issues. We represent different types of business, including a significant number of limited liability companies throughout the Southeast, and we are involved in all legal aspects of such entities.
We also provide legal services to its clients and helps to guide them through various intellectual property related to Copyrights and Trademarks including, but not limited to, performing initial assessments, preparing applications, and taking protective actions to enforce our clients’ rights.
We provide legal services and counsel to commercial owners, residential and commercial building contractors, retail, commercial and industrial businesses, real estate agents, individual home and property owners, and landlords and tenants in all aspects of real estate such as buying, selling, lease drafting and negotiation from both the landlord and tenant perspective, development, leasing, construction, and related transactional matters. In providing these services, we have experience in the negotiation of purchase and sale contracts, review of survey and title work, and related agreements.
Disputes often arise between landlords and tenants. Whether the issue involves rent collection or compliance with building codes, we provide experienced representation to commercial and residential landlords, as well as tenants.
CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
Sometimes you cannot resolve a contract dispute. We have extensive experience in breach of contract matters, landlord tenant disputes, debtor-creditor disputes, and general litigation matters.
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We understand that in every representation, and must work diligently to understand our client’s position. Balancing the facts of each case with the needs and demands of the client, we conduct extensive but efficient discovery in order to gain a complete understanding of the case. We utilize discovery, rules of procedure and rules of evidence to aggressively seek pre-trial disposition of cases whenever appropriate. Throughout the investigation and discovery process, we actively work with our clients to formulate the best trial strategy based upon the individual facts of each case.