Experience

Company Ownership and Succession

We provided advice to the sole owner of a significant privately held company in helping the owner to resolve the tensions inherent in his goals to maintain family control over ownership and management of the business, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to create substantial ownership opportunities for key senior non-family executives.

Dissolution Upon Retirement

On a pro bono basis, we represent a nationally known U.S. charity in connection with its dissolution upon retirement of the charity's founder. The advice related to compliance with both federal and state regulatory requirements and issues relating to protection and disposition of valuable intellectual property owned by the charity.

Estate and Tax Planning

Representation of a client in connection with estate and tax planning involving net worth in excess of $500,000,000.00, including major philanthropic plans, disposition of an exceptionally valuable art collection and provisions for a non-citizen spouse.

Estate and Tax Planning

We provided estate and tax planning, in conjunction with advice from other advisors, to the majority owner of a major family controlled network of businesses to ensure transfer of ownership and control to younger generation family members active in the business; plans to raise cash to pay substantial estate taxes without crippling the financial integrity of the business; and plans to treat equitably other younger generation family members not active in the business.

Family Business Termination

We represented key family members operating an extensive family business consisting of numerous operating companies and commercial real estate properties in delicate and volatile negotiations with a senior executive and family member leading to termination of his employment by the family firms.

Litigation and Negotiations of Trust

We represented the client and other family members in litigation and negotiations resulting in a settlement pursuant to which the Trustee of a Trust established by the client's late parent, with assets approaching $500,000,000.00 in value, resigned in the aftermath of many months of behavior hostile to family members and inconsistent with the wishes of the deceased grantor of the Trust.

Prenuptial Agreement

We represented the daughter of billionaire parents in negotiating a prenuptial agreement, including crafting disclosure of both interests in trusts of which she is currently a beneficiary and her contingent interests in assets that will pass to her in the future when her parents are no longer alive.

Sales of Interest

We have assisted a client and his other advisors in creating and implementing a plan, involving gifts and sales of interests to trusts for the benefit of younger generation family members, involving hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial real estate, in a fashion minimizing income tax liabilities and facilitating elimination of estate taxes on future increases in the value of those assets.

Trust Holding Dispute

We represented one of the independent trustees of a trust holding multibillion dollar investments in two public companies in the context of a family dispute respecting control of the family's interest in those companies.

Trust Termination

We represent charitable beneficiaries of a trust seeking early termination of that trust, in cooperation with the efforts of the New York Attorney General, to ensure that the early termination is consistent with the best interests of the charities and with the intention of the late grantor of the trust.

U.S. and Foreign Tax Liabilities

We furnished advice to a client who is a U.S. permanent resident (green card) but a citizen of another country, in coordinating his estate planning and that of his parent (a citizen of that same foreign country) to minimizing future U.S. and foreign tax liabilities to which the parent's estate and trust would otherwise be subject, while the trust is administered for the benefit of the next two generations of the family.