Overview
Business & Corporate Services
Amy’s corporate law practice concentrates on advising entrepreneurs and closely-held companies in connection with business formation and entity selection, succession planning, contract review, disputes between owners of closely-held companies, asset and stock sales and acquisitions, and other issues that may arise during the life-cycle of a business. Amy assists business owners with their day-to-day business operational needs as well as with long-term planning matters.
Amy’s practice in corporate law has included:
- Advising a closely-held company in restructuring its corporate ownership structure, including entity conversions
- Negotiating the buyout of a minority owner’s interest in a closely-held company following a dispute between owners
- Developing a complex buy-sell agreement for the owners of a holding company involving a series of purchase options with a view towards maintaining the percentage of the company’s stock held by each family ownership group
- Assisting a dentist with the acquisition of the dentist’s first dental practice, including negotiation of a purchase agreement and related purchase documentation, due diligence review and selection of a business entity with analysis of tax issues
Creditors’ Rights & Liabilities
Amy’s creditors’ rights practice involves protecting the rights of lenders, landlords and other creditors in bankruptcy, including seeking available remedies for secured creditors such as relief from the automatic stay, limiting a debtor’s right to use a creditor’s cash collateral, asserting landlords’ rights with respect to unexpired leases, including administrative rent and cure of arrearages prior to lease assumption, and negotiation of the treatment of a creditor’s claim in connection with plan confirmation proceedings.
Amy’s creditors’ rights practice has included:
- Representing an out-of-state financial institution in connection with the bankruptcy of a local borrower, including asserting and protecting the bank’s rights in its collateral against other secured creditors in the case
- Assisting a lender with obtaining relief from the automatic stay in the bankruptcy of a single-asset real estate borrower so that a sheriff’s sale could proceed as scheduled
- Advising a landlord regarding an unexpired lease in a tenant’s bankruptcy and negotiating an administrative claim for post-petition rent
Estate Planning and Administration
Amy’s estate planning and administration practice consists of working with individuals and families to develop wealth-transfer plans, considering factors such as succession of business ownership and management, asset protection, minimizing gift and estate taxes and achieving charitable objectives. Amy also counsels personal representatives, trustees and beneficiaries regarding estate and trust administration matters, including advising court-appointed personal representatives in unsupervised estates, assisting with the administration of statutory small estates and asserting the rights of trust and estate beneficiaries.
Amy’s practice in estate planning and administration has included:
- Establishing a grantor-retained annuity trust for the transfer of a grantor’s business interests
- Counseling a personal representative in connection with negotiation of a property settlement agreement among beneficiaries