PRACTICE AREAS
REAL ESTATE LAW
Residential Real Estate Transactions:
Purchasing a home is often the single largest transaction that most individuals enter into. Even if it is not the largest transaction, it is almost always their most important personal and financial transaction. In North Carolina, it is recommended that an experienced real estate attorney be involved in the transaction in order to insure a smooth, efficient, and professional closing. Many of the services that are involved in the acquisition of a home should not be entrusted to non-lawyers, and one should not risk that most important asset.
We have assembled an experienced team devoted to insuring the proper handling of a residential real estate closing, maintaining sensitivity to the emotional and financial issues that accompany any such purchase. Our services include title examinations to insure the condition of title to the property for the buyer, identifying any legal issues that may impact upon “clean” title and working to address and rectify those issues. We also handle all aspects of the closing process, including dealing with surveyors, homeowners associations, insurance companies, lenders, buyers and sellers, and real estate agents. We insure that the closing process is handled both economically and efficiently, and with a professionalism not available in non-attorney closings. We also address all post-closing issues to insure all aspects of the closing process are completed.
Commercial Real Estate:
We represent a number of clients in their commercial real estate transactions. We are also routinely selected by title insurance companies to search title on commercial real estate transactions to insure clean title is conveyed in a transaction. Our commercial real estate transaction includes negotiating contracts for our clients, drafting the various agreements required, representing our clients in structuring transactions, searching title and identifying title issues, and closing the sales and acquisitions of the projects.
Builders and Developers:
We represent a number of builders and developers in the area. In that role, we assist our clients in buying and developing projects, addressing zoning and related issues, handling all aspects of financing transactions, developing restrictive covenants, and negotiating contracts.
Affordable Housing Projects:
We represent a number of developers of low-income and affordable housing projects for economically disadvantaged individuals or disabled individuals. We advise and assist those clients in various aspects of those transactions, including obtaining low-income tax credits, arranging the sale or syndication of such tax credits, financing the development and construction of the projects, and negotiating contracts and financing terms with financing sources. We represent our clients in all aspects of such affordable housing projects, including addressing all tax, real estate, and business matters.
Foreclosure:
We represent lenders involved in the foreclosure of properties securing their loans, and act as the trustee in the foreclosure process. This representation includes advising lenders as to their options, and filing all documentation necessary to foreclose on collateral in such a manner as to maximize the return to the secured creditor.
ESTATE PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION
Estate Planning:
Regardless of the size of the estate, it is crucial that you plan for the future, both for yourself and your heirs. Failure to plan adequately may result in significant costs to your heirs, and an unintended transfer of assets. In North Carolina, if an individual dies without a Will, the State will dictate what the distribution of his or her assets will be. That distribution scheme adopted by the State is one that is not likely to be desired by most individuals. Therefore, it is crucial that a properly drafted Will be prepared. Such a Will allows for the distribution of your assets according to your desires, and for planning adequately for the financial and tax needs of your heirs.
We can assist you with Wills, revocable trusts, life insurance trusts, living wills, durable powers of attorney, and health care powers of attorney. In more complex estates, we can provide estate planning tax advice to insure that your assets pass to your intended beneficiaries at the smallest tax cost possible.
Asset Protection:
No estate plan is complete unless proper attention is also given to the protection of an individual’s assets during life from creditors. There are a number of options that are available to individuals to minimize the risks that their assets face from unforeseen and devastating losses. We assist clients, including our professional clients, in arranging their assets and affairs in such a fashion that the assets are best protected from such exposure.
Estate Administration:
Upon the death of an individual, his or her estate must be “probated” in North Carolina. Probating is a process that insures that the Will is validated, that the debts are all paid, and that the assets are divided according to the Will or according to North Carolina law. We represent executors as they work through the probate process to make the process as painless and hassle-free as possible. We assist executors in preparing and making all probate filings, tax filings, addressing creditor issues, and distributing assets to beneficiaries.
BUSINESS AND CORPORATE LAW
We provide advice and counsel on all types of business and corporate law issues, having represented clients from small family-owned enterprises to larger publicly-traded companies. We counsel individuals on the formation of the business entity, whether it is in the form of a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, professional corporation, or any other business organizational structure. We address all of their contract issues, and provide advice and counsel regarding the various business and tax issues they may face. This representation includes negotiation of complex commercial transactions, acquisitions, sales, securities issues, joint ventures, and all types of business sales, mergers, and acquisitions.
We advise our clients on the proper choice of entity, taking into account business objectives and plans, as well as the tax issues that arise, including S election issues. We advise and counsel our clients on venture capital issues, and on financing issues they may face, both commercial loan transactions and raising capital through equity investments.
We also represent venture funds in their decisions regarding investment opportunities, preparing documentation for such investments and closing those transactions.
We represent a number of non-profit organizations, counseling them as to tax-exemption issues, as well as both the routine and unique business issues that non-profit corporations face.
