Sinclair v. O’Neil

Feb 22, 2021  •  commercial litigation

A family business can be extremely rewarding and extremely challenging. Our client devoted years of her life working side-by-side with her father in his car dealership. Unbeknownst to her, years before, her dad put a succession plan in place with his attorney that gradually provided larger and, ultimately, complete ownership to our client. Once he decided to retire, he revealed his plan to his family, leading to hard feelings and litigation by and between our client and her sisters.

Challenge: Our client needed help preserving her business, evaluating her claims and formulating a winning personal, business and litigation strategy to settle all business and family issues – quickly.

Solution

Helping our client meant not only evaluating the legal and business matters, but providing counsel and compassion for the personal and family challenges that caused a great amount of pain and sadness. Putting the whole puzzle together, we embarked on an aggressive, yet sensitive approach to meet our client’s goals of taking care of her father, preserving her business, and resolving tangential issues with her sisters.

Results: Throughout the case, we made clear that we were willing to proceed to trial. Shortly before trial, a comprehensive family settlement was reached allowing all family members to settle and resolve all issues with finality.