Shareholder Disputes

Businesses conduct business through contractual relationships, and the competitive marketplace can be a rough-and-tumble world. Unfortunately, disputes sometimes arise. The attorneys in our Litigation Practice Group regularly assist the firm’s clients in navigating the troubled waters of business and commercial litigation and have amassed many years of experience in litigating all manners of business and commercial disputes. They have participated in the federal and state courts at both the trial and appellate levels.

Just as “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” shareholders in closely-held corporations, despite the oneness of purpose that brought them together in their enterprise, sometimes find themselves at odds, resulting in the eruption of disputes that can threaten the very existence of the enterprise. Corporate shareholders at times feel that management is not being sufficiently assertive in pursuing the corporation’s rights, and shareholder derivative litigation can result. Shareholder disputes take many forms and our attorneys in our Litigation Practice Group represent our clients in handling shareholder disputes of all types.

“Class action” is a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of many a business executive, as class-action litigation is frequently high-stakes, complex, protracted, and expensive. Consumer class-action lawsuits often carry the additional specter of multiple-damage and punitive-damage awards. With their experience, the attorneys in our Litigation Practice Group can help take the fear out of class-action litigation and advocate on your behalf.

Bailey Cavalieri’s trade secret and restrictive covenant team helps our clients navigate through these disputes, by advising them of the steps they need to take to minimize their risk of being drawn into them but also being prepared to aggressively litigate them should that need arise. Our team draws on a deep understanding of trade secret and restrictive covenant law and extensive trial experience in litigating these disputes. We represent not only employers who believe their intellectual property may be at risk, but employees accused of misappropriation and their new employers.

Bailey Cavalieri’s trade secrets litigators pursue emergency and expedited proceedings, including TROs and preliminary injunctions, to help clients protect their critical trade secrets and defend against claims of misappropriation. And should a case go to trial, our team is experienced in presenting these disputes to judges, juries and arbitrators.

We have litigated these disputes in virtually every industry, including healthcare, technology and software, manufacturing, financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food services and military contracts. Our team has represented clients in over a hundred state courts, federal courts and arbitrations throughout the United States, including arbitrations under FINRA and AAA. Because these disputes sometimes involve related intellectual property, our experience in patent or copyrights allows us to take a broad and holistic view of the different areas of the law that might be impacted by that litigation.

Prior to litigation, we advise Fortune 500 and closely-held companies on their agreements and policies to prevent trade secret risk and to be in the best position possible to litigate if the need arises. We do this by gathering critical technical evidence as well as strategically addressing breaches by employees, business partners or vendors. Perhaps just as importantly as our proven litigation results, we provide practical and customized counseling for each and every client.

Litigation in the courts, while time-honored and oftentimes the only way to achieve resolution of business disputes, is increasingly being recognized by many as cumbersome, slow, and expensive. Many a businessperson has lamented: “There must be a better way.” Well, there are other ways to resolve many business disputes, and sometimes they are, indeed, better. While not exactly panaceas, processes such as early neutral evaluation, mediation, arbitration, summary jury trial, and summary bench trial which collectively have come to be known as “alternative dispute resolution” techniques or just “ADR” in many instances result in faster and cheaper resolution of disputes. The attorneys in our Litigation Practice Group are well versed in all ADR techniques and frequently represent clients in court-annexed ADR proceedings, as well as ADR efforts conducted through private ADR-sponsoring organizations, such as the American Arbitration Association, the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution, JAMS, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.