Practice I
Commercial Litigation
Disputes between businesses rarely turn on a single document. We represent companies and their owners in contract, partnership, and shareholder litigation, with the judgment to know when a case should be settled and the preparation to try it when it should not.
Overview
Our commercial practice serves manufacturers, distributors, professional services firms, developers, and family owned companies across the Bayport region. Most come to us at a moment of real pressure: a key customer has stopped paying, a partner has walked away with the books, or a supplier’s failure has put the company’s own contracts at risk.
In those moments a client needs two things. The first is a clear account of where it stands, delivered early and in writing. The second is a team that can carry the matter as far as it needs to go, including through trial and appeal, without handing it off.
Matters we handle
- Contract disputes
- Supply, distribution, licensing, and services agreements; claims for breach, repudiation, and indemnity; disputes over earn-outs and purchase price adjustments.
- Shareholder and partnership disputes
- Deadlock, oppression, and dissolution claims among the owners of closely held companies, and the buyouts and accountings that follow.
- Fiduciary duty claims
- Claims against and on behalf of directors, officers, managers, and partners, including derivative actions and demands for books and records.
- Construction and real estate
- Delay, defect, and payment disputes among owners, contractors, and design professionals; commercial lease and purchase agreement litigation.
- Emergency relief
- Temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, sought and opposed, when a dispute cannot wait for a trial date.
- Judgment enforcement
- Post-judgment discovery, collection, and the domestication of judgments and arbitral awards from other jurisdictions.
The course of a dispute
Every matter is different, but most pass through the same stages. At each one we report on cost, risk, and options before the next decision is made.
Assessment
We read the documents, interview the people who know the facts, and give you a written view of the claims, defenses, likely cost, and range of outcomes. Many disputes are best resolved here.
Pleadings and early motions
Where a claim is weak on its face, we say so to the court early. Where it is strong, we plead it so the other side sees the whole case.
Discovery
Discovery is planned around the issues that decide the case, not the volume of material available. We preserve early, collect narrowly, and keep the business running.
Mediation and settlement
We prepare for mediation as we would for trial, with a clear view of value and the authority to resolve the matter on the right terms.
Trial
When a case should be tried, the attorneys who built it try it, before a judge, a jury, or an arbitral panel.
Appeal
Our appellate partner works with the trial team throughout, so issues are preserved and the record supports the result.
Courts and forums
We appear in the state trial and appellate courts, the federal district court and court of appeals that sit in Bayport, and in arbitrations administered under the major commercial rules. Where a dispute requires counsel in another jurisdiction, we work with local firms we know and trust.
Related insights
Litigation holds that hold up: preserving the record before a dispute begins
When the duty to preserve attaches, who should receive the notice, and how messaging apps and personal devices change the answer.
Arbitration clauses after the merger: who is bound, and by which agreement?
Successor liability, conflicting dispute resolution clauses, and the threshold questions courts still decide for themselves.
New matters
To discuss a matter in confidence
Call the office or send a short request. A partner reviews every inquiry, and we run a conflict check before any substantive conversation.