What issues might arise when a law firm breaks up? Attorney in ,
What issues might arise when a law firm breaks up?
What issues might arise when a law firm breaks up?
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00:04
partnerships disputes happen all the
00:06
time
00:06
especially you know i’m a lawyer it
00:08
happens in law partnerships probably as
00:10
much as any others
00:11
it’s usually over money either the
00:13
partnership is making too much money
00:15
or the partnership is not making enough
00:17
money usually when this
00:18
partnership not making enough money
00:20
there’s somebody
00:22
uh being blamed and everybody wants that
00:24
partner out
00:26
if the partner is making too much money
00:28
then everybody wants more
00:30
uh and somebody wants more than their
00:32
share a memorable case involves
00:35
where i represented the partner in a two
00:38
lawyer
00:39
law firm it was this was a very
00:41
successful trial firm
00:42
the partners had had been in in the
00:45
partnership for decades
00:47
and their agreement was essentially
00:49
split the
00:50
the profits from the partnership uh 5050
00:54
which had worked for decades but it got
00:57
to the point
00:58
where one of the partners was generating
01:00
about 20 percent of the revenue
01:02
but was getting 50 of the profit and
01:05
they were also
01:06
splitting all the expenses equally so
01:09
our client came to us
01:10
wanting to uh to provide an exit ramp
01:14
for him out of the partnership and we
01:16
looked at the
01:17
the partnership agreement partnership
01:19
agreement was not very detailed or
01:21
specific on this
01:22
but we suggest in that client agree that
01:25
we present a proposal
01:26
a general’s proposal to the his partner
01:29
and that proposal would be that the
01:31
partner who was getting the
01:33
50 percent of the profits only
01:35
generating 20 of the revenue
01:37
would be relieved of all partnership
01:40
obligations
01:41
and would get a a sum of money to walk
01:44
away
01:46
and given that the partnership
01:47
obligations were well into the six
01:48
figures
01:49
we thought the offer was a very good one
01:52
we gave the
01:54
now former partner the weekend to think
01:56
about it expecting
01:58
him to agree to it maybe tweak it a
02:00
little bit but ultimately to agree to it
02:02
and lo and behold the partner actually
02:05
filed suit which was a surprise
02:08
so we obviously prosecuted our clients
02:11
claims and defended against the partners
02:13
claims
02:14
uh litigation was very protracted very
02:17
contentious as you might expect in a
02:19
business divorce
02:20
i’ve always said that business divorce
02:21
cases are like
02:23
regular divorce cases which i would
02:25
never handle but they involve some of
02:26
the same issues because
02:28
uh because of the relationship between
02:30
the parties
02:32
if there’s a lease involved that is
02:34
essentially the the analog to the
02:36
property
02:37
in a marital divorce if there are
02:40
employees involved
02:42
that that’s essentially the children in
02:44
a marital divorce so so the analogs are
02:47
very similar
02:48
and so some of the the issues you deal
02:51
with are very similar they’re not
02:52
only legal they’re relationship issues
02:55
and that makes them complicated
02:56
but we were able to uh to prosecute our
02:59
clients claims and defend the claims
03:01
asserted against him
03:03
and ultimately and at the end of the day
03:05
on the eve of trial
03:07
we were able to resolve the case for
03:08
less than that
03:10
precede offer that we made throughout
03:13
the process
03:14
our client was happy with the result and
03:16
that we were able to uh he was able to
03:18
maintain
03:19
all his key client relationships and
03:21
maintain
03:22
uh all the key employees
03:26
so at the end of the day it was it was a
03:28
good result it was a tough result
03:30
a tough case very tough
03:33
and sometimes non-legal issues were
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Houston, TX commercial litigation attorney Dwaine Massey discusses the issues that might arise when a law firm breaks up.
