Business Divorce Litigation

Business Divorce Litigation

Our trial attorneys represent clients in complex business divorce litigation, including majority and minority owners and investors in private companies across Texas.

• We are a sophisticated boutique trial firm hyper-focused on advancing our clients’ litigation interests in business divorces.
• Our trial attorneys have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being named to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Lawyers in America list, Super Lawyers, and recognized by Chambers & Partners as among the leading attorneys in the United States, as well as recognized as the “Leading Tax Controversy Litigation Attorney of the Year” for the State of Texas.
• Our litigation attorneys include former government trial attorneys, former law clerks, federal judges, law professors, and dual-credentialed CPAs with deep experience in complex financial reporting, accounting, and fraud. Nearly one-third of our attorneys serve as law professors at tier-one law schools.

Business Litigation is Our Business

Freeman is a “go-to” business divorce litigation firm—trial counsel for the cases that count. Our trial attorneys bring significant experience in complex business relationships and agreements, as well as breach-of-fiduciary-duty matters, representing owners and investors in private companies. Well-versed in high-stakes litigation, our attorneys are trial-ready and battle-tested; we’re ready when you are.

Business Divorce Litigation

Business divorces present unique and complex considerations. They may be influenced by an array of business entities, complex agreements and provisions, and conflicts. Our attorneys bring a wealth of business and accounting experience, combined with extensive experience litigating complex disputes.

Unique Litigation Insights

Our attorneys bring a wealth of tax litigation and white-collar dispute experience, providing a uniquely insightful perspective in business divorce disputes. Our attorneys often forensically evaluate tax returns, uncovering analytical insights and following the money. Our unique and in-depth understanding of partnership and company agreements, capital accounts, and partnership accounting positions us to forensically analyze business divorce disputes with clinical insight, seeing issues that others miss.

We Try Cases. We Win Cases

Freeman is a sophisticated trial boutique, hyper focused on advancing our clients’ litigation interests. We are committed to delivering world-class counsel in the courtroom using bold, tactical, state-of-the-art approaches to litigation. Our attorneys bring big-firm talent, think-tank intellect, and analytical precision.

Clients need a winning strategy. Our experienced litigators employ creative, trial-tested strategies that position clients for courtroom success. We craft detailed strategies and trial plans designed to convey the most impactful, psychologically moving themes and storylines—moving juries to action.

Our attorneys are not just litigators—they are trial attorneys. We instill and cultivate a difference, creating a focus on the end-game from the beginning.

Clear and Focused

We are client-focused problem solvers. Tireless advocates that work best under pressure, we are committed for the long haul, and relentless in our pursuit of justice.

Our award-winning attorneys make the complex clear, bringing the issues and facts into focus with perspective and clarity.

Strategic

The right move at the right time can mean the difference between the right outcome and the wrong one. Strategic victories are no accident. We begin thinking through the end game from day one. And we have tactical trial experience built on strategic approaches that keep the big picture in mind.

Comprehensive Business Divorce Representation

Freeman’s skilled trial counsel regularly resolves sophisticated business disputes, representing clients in courthouses and arbitration throughout Texas and across the country. We are business-minded and client-centric. Our client’s objectives drive our strategy. We offer skilled and practical insight to vindicate and defend our clients and their causes during high-stakes disputes.

We represent clients in complex business divorces, offering practical, innovative solutions to complex issues. Our business divorce representations include:

• Closely-held business disputes
• “Buy-sell” agreement disputes
• Breaches of partnership fiduciary duties
• Embezzlement
• Books-and-records requests
• Business valuation disputes

The Right Litigation Model

We were built to take on anything—from the largest law firms to the Department of Justice. And we are rewriting the odds in complex, high-stakes litigation one case at a time. We leverage technological advances; eschew wasteful staffing; and employ collaborative, end-result-driven litigation systems that avoid knowledge segregation and enhance ideation.

We represent a paradigm shift—a change in the historic litigation model. We believe that the trial boutique model simply outperforms the large-firm approach. The ability to scale trial preparation has never been greater. Intelligently designed law firm models can not only go up against the largest firms and parties, they can—and should—win. Indeed, the boutique model offers advantages that larger firm models simply can’t match.

Authentic

We pledge transparency and authenticity, bringing candid, pull-no-punches trial strategies that home-in on the issues that matter. Though often overlooked, authenticity is the single most impactful virtue in a trial lawyer. Without it, the best-laid plans and preparations are lost. When the issues are make-or-break, trust our attorneys to see them through.

Legal acumen

Our attorneys bring big-firm talent and backgrounds, think-tank intellect, and analytical precision. Our trial attorneys are not only skilled advocates, they are steeped in substantive expertise gained from years of experience in the trenches. We provide sophisticated representation and penetrating legal acumen.

Driven

Our firm’s founding principles and vision of exceptionalism permeate throughout our litigation and trial practice. We are driven by uncompromising attention to detail and a desire to exceed expectations.

Ready for the Moments that Matter

Every Freeman attorney participates in the firm’s Trial College, a rigorous training program focused on trial advocacy and procedure. Our attorneys are experienced, trial-honed, and ready for the moments that matter.

Any Time, Any Place

We eschew a siloed-specialist focus; rather, we employ a cross-functional, integrated multi-disciplinary and team approach to the practice of law and litigation. Siloed, narrowly focused attorneys inevitably view client’s disputes through an every-problem-is-a-nail framework, missing the forest for the trees. We cultivate judgment and an appreciation for the bigger picture. After all, litigation, though at times necessary, is a means to an end.

Bet-The-Company Business Divorces

Litigation can represent an existential threat. When business divorces threaten mission-critical interests, jeopardizing years of work and investment, clients turn to our trial attorneys and our insightful counsel. When everything is on the line, Freeman steps up to it for you.

In an evolving and increasingly complex environment, businesses face unprecedented challenges and risks. Freeman represents clients in complex business disputes, including fraud, breach-of-contract, fiduciary duty, and other disputes. With our historic background in white-collar litigation—both civil and criminal—we are uniquely positioned to represent clients in matters involving embezzlement, fraudulent transfers, fiduciary breaches, and other complex financial disputes.

Our skilled trial counsel regularly resolve sophisticated business disputes, representing clients in courthouses and arbitration throughout Texas and across the country. Many matters entrusted to us require managing outside factors and mitigating collateral consequences, such as parallel regulatory investigations. We offer skilled and practical insight to navigate our clients and their causes during high-stakes disputes.

Even successful long-term business relationships can break down and suffer from “irreconcilable differences.” When this occurs between co-owners of business entities, they may desire to undertake a unilateral or mutually agreed “business divorce.” There are complex legal, tax, accounting and other issues at play in these situations, and success requires a team that understands these multi-disciplinary issues.

Co-owners desiring to separate their investment from a going concern may not always be able to withdraw or separate their capital from the business. A threshold consideration for owners of a minority stake is whether the owner has a withdrawal right, a right to sell the minority interest to a third party, or a right to force a dissolution, redemption, or a buyout. Alternatively, a majority owner might prefer to continue to manage and control a business without being encumbered by a bothersome minority interest owner. Preserving value can require ensuring that offers and other conduct in connection with a buyout (or a “squeeze-out” attempt) are consistent with any fiduciary duties that apply because of an owner’s position in the company, or as a result of special circumstances.

Just like with a marriage, a business divorce may be brought on by a number of issues, including: disputes regarding personal or business issues; inactive or unproductive business partners, and the financial or personal problems of an owner. These situations can impact a company’s ability to operate and its owners’ futures and livelihoods. In a business divorce, the goal should be to reach the best resolution as possible.

Even when owners of a business agree in principle that they desire to separate subject to finalization of detailed agreements, a solid understanding of background law, negotiation dynamics, and a client’s business and personal interests are key to achieving the best price or distribution of assets possible. Freeman Law’s well-rounded team of litigators, tax, and transactional lawyers, including dual credential attorney-CPAs understand these concerns. Common issues to address when seeking to split up a business involve the following, for example: (1) the value of the business and whether to hire expert appraisers; (2) employee relationships, contracts, and whether any necessary confidentiality agreements are in place, (3) whether to conduct a forensic investigation into key or all aspects of the business; (4) tax issues and planning; (5) ownership of intellectual property; (5) any terms and conditions governing future collaboration or business competition; and (6) determining how to deal with unresolved issues such as outstanding contracts or unresolved liabilities or litigation.

Our firm stands ready to litigate business divorce issues, and when appropriate, to negotiate resolutions and business divorce agreements (or vice versa). Our skilled trial counsel regularly resolve sophisticated business disputes, representing clients in courthouses and arbitration throughout Texas and across the country.

We are trial boutique, positioned to represent clients in business divorce litigation.  We are:

• Recognized and Sophisticated.We are a sophisticated boutique trial firm, hyper focused on advancing our clients’ litigation interests in litigation between business owners.  Our trial attorneys have been recognized nationally and internationally, including being named to U.S. News and World Report’s Best Lawyers in America list, Super Lawyers, and recognized by Chambers & Partners as among the leading attorneys in the United States, as well as recognized as the “Leading Tax Controversy Litigation Attorney of the Year” for the State of Texas.
• Multi-Disciplinary and Qualified.Our litigation attorneys include former government trial attorneys, former law clerks to federal judges, law professors, and dual-credentialed CPAs with deep experience in complex financial reporting, accounting, and fraud.  Nearly one-third of our attorneys serve as law professors at tier-one law schools.
• Freeman is a “Go-To” Litigation Firm—Trial Counsel for the Cases that Count. Our business divorce attorneys are versed in business litigation and disputes between co-owners. Well-versed in high-stakes litigation, our attorneys are trial-ready and battle tested; we’re ready when you are.
• We Try Cases.  We Win Cases. We are committed to delivering world-class counsel in the courtroom using bold, tactical, state-of-the-art approaches to litigation.  Our attorneys bring big-firm talent, think-tank intellect, and analytical precision.
• Strategic. Our experienced litigators employ creative, trial-tested strategies that position clients for courtroom success.  We craft detailed strategies and trial plans designed to convey the most impactful, psychologically moving themes and storylines—moving juries to action.
• Clear and Focused. We are client-focused problem solvers. Tireless advocates that work best under pressure, we are committed for the long haul, and relentless in our pursuit of justice. Our award-winning attorneys make the complex clear, bringing the issues and facts into focus with perspective and clarity.
• Legal acumen. Our attorneys bring big-firm talent and backgrounds, think-tank intellect, and analytical precision.  Our trial attorneys are not only skilled advocates, they are steeped in substantive expertise gained from years of experience in the trenches.  We provide sophisticated representation and penetrating legal acumen.
• Driven. Our firm’s founding principles and vision of exceptionalism permeate throughout our litigation and trial practice.  We are driven by uncompromising attention to detail and a desire to exceed expectations.
• Ready for the Moments that Matter. Every Freeman attorney participates in the firm’s Trial College, a rigorous training program focused on trial advocacy and procedure.  Our attorneys are experienced, trial-honed, and ready for the moments that matter.