General Business Counseling
Our Practice
Pedersen attorneys meet the day-to-day and long-term needs of small and developing businesses, new and mature entrepreneurial concerns, middle market businesses, and well-established companies with targeted advice and a comprehensive array of legal services.
We serve as general counsel for a number of Midwest-based middle market companies, manufacturers, and distributors, immersing ourselves in their businesses in order to provide fully informed, responsive representation on a broad spectrum of legal issues. We spend time on-site, getting to know the people, values, environments, and needs that shape and define our clients' businesses – and affect their bottom lines.
Clients value the strategically sound guidance that results from this deeply collaborative partnership. We handle the full range of tax, employment law, employee benefits, intellectual property, and ownership succession issues that arise during a company's life cycle.
Our corporate transactional services include: advising clients on structuring or restructuring the entities through which they operate; negotiating, drafting, and reviewing commercial contracts with vendors, suppliers, and distributors; developing purchase, lease and distributor agreements; evaluating and maintaining sale warranty compliance; as well as advising on securities, real estate, and environmental issues. We also counsel clients on a range of corporate governance, tax, and finance matters.
Pedersen lawyers help clients form new limited liability companies, limited partnerships, corporations, and other entities. Once an entity is formed, we maintain an internal database to keep corporate records, such as filings to do business in all relevant jurisdictions and franchise tax payments, up-to-date. We also assist our clients with employment agreements, non-competition agreements, and deferred compensation agreements. We help our clients develop personnel policies, as well as manage stock option and ESOP plans. Should a dispute arise, we partner with our experienced litigation team to resolve disputes involving employment disputes, discrimination and sexual harassment claims.
Our general commercial litigation practice also handles such intellectual property issues as trademark and copyright infringement, trade secrets, and employment law claims. We have successfully resolved breach of contract, real estate, construction, and other general commercial issues and disputes.
Our Experience
- Serve as "on-call" counsel to a Chicago-based national steel product manufacturer by regularly meeting with corporate principals to provide legal advice on a range of operations and management issues, review contracts, and draft purchasing guidelines and employee policies.
- Serve as outside general counsel for a U.S.-based manufacturer and supplier of an international nozzles and spraying equipment entity, advising on acquisitions and divestitures; international distributor arrangements; employment contracts; real estate and leasing; financing; tax matters; and litigation. We handle the estate planning for company officers and directors and coordinate representation for the client's operations throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.
- Serve as outside general counsel to a Chicago-based online marketing lead generator. Our services include organizational issues, private equity and venture capital funding, employment policy development, employment contracts, real estate leasing, tax matters, and financing.
- Represented an OEM plastic component manufacturer with worldwide headquarters in the Chicago area in merger, acquisition, and financing transactions. Other general counsel services include structuring and negotiating a joint venture agreement and handling a range of employment matters.
- Handled and coordinated the U.S. and Canadian legal work for the U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese computer-controlled equipment manufacturer prior to its acquisition by a large publicly-held corporation. Provided general counsel to U.S. operations on distributor agreements, contract issues, debt collection, real estate issues, and product liability, employment contract, resolved distributor, warranty and product performance dispute resolution.
- Serve as general counsel for a restaurant concept with locations in Illinois and California, handling start-up and organization issues such as partnership formation and private equity funding; employment policy development; executive contract drafting; real estate site development, leasing, and construction; tax and other litigation issues.
- Structured a joint venture between a Chicago area manufacturer of metal components and systems and another manufacturer to establish manufacturing operations in Mexico. Assisted in formation of a new Mexican subsidiary, drafted a joint venture agreement with respect to the new Mexican operations, and negotiated the terms of a credit facility to fund the operations.
- Represented a Michigan-based plastic blow molding manufacturer in an equipment purchase transaction as well as a custom manufacturing and supply arrangement with a division of a publicly-traded corporation that sells children's toys to national retail chains.
- Serve as general counsel for a restaurant concept with 18 locations in Illinois, Michigan, and Georgia, handling legal matters ranging from capital raising and financing to employee claims.
- Serve as outside counsel to one of the Midwest's largest wholesale and processor of scrap metal. We represent clients in merger, acquisition and financing transactions, and general contract and employee issues.