Protecting the rights of a minority shareholder and investor here in San Diego or anywhere in California has been one of the primary areas of practice for the Watkins Firm for over four decades. Are you searching for an aggressive and experienced law firm with a proven track record of helping to protect your San Diego minority shareholder or investor rights? Are you concerned about shareholder oppression, the failure to declare a dividend, access to crucial corporate documents and information or a pending sale or merger associated with your holdings or interests?
Key Takeaways about Protecting the Rights of a Minority Shareholder or Investor:
- Minority shareholders have specific protections under California law, in addition to federal laws.
- Unfortunately, many minority shareholders and investors experience challenges such as access to the books or important corporate information, the failure to pay dividends, or even a breach of fiduciary duty by an officer of the company or majority interests.
- You must assert and protect your interests as a minority shareholder or investor. Look for a law firm with extensive experience protecting and defending the rights of shareholders and investors here in San Diego and throughout California.
Minority Shareholders and Investors Often Face Many Challenges
Minority shareholders often unfortunately face substantial challenges while seeking to protect their interests and investments. The Watkins Firm provides sound business counsel and advice in all aspects of protecting and increasing the value of a minority shareholder interest. We ensure you have access to the books and other crucial corporate documents. and work to resolve challenges associated with shareholder oppression or aggressive tactics such as a “freeze out.”
Disputes with officers of the company or a member of the Board of Directors must be handled professionally. Are you concerned about the direction of the company? Do you believe a conflict of interest, or a violation of the duty of care or a breach of fiduciary duty has taken place? Our attorneys will work to efficiently document all issues and supporting evidence and develop a strategy to accomplish your goals and objectives promptly and at a reasonable cost. In some cases it is necessary to bring a derivative lawsuit on behalf of the corporation, in order to address the underlying issues and concerns of minority shareholders.
California Law Protects Minority Shareholders and Investors
California law provides additional protections for minority shareholders. We represent minority shareholders in disputes and litigation. Is the majority interest attempting to reduce your influence or the value of your interests? Are you concerned about a potential merger, acquisition or the sale of your corporation? How do you protect your investment and hold majority interests accountable? Ask the Watkins Firm for strategies to protect San Diego minority shareholder rights and exercising dissenting shareholder rights. If you are concerned about the decisions of corporate executives and the direction of the corporation a derivative lawsuit can protect what is best for the corporation, and by extension your corporate interests.
Pro-Tip: “we’ve, we’ve had so many shareholder fights where, um, a company group of friends or a group of friends who know friends, maybe 30 people invest in a company and it’ll be doing well, but not great. And they investors, the shareholders won’t be receiving, uh, disclosures, or they will be receiving them, but they sort of don’t add up. And then they do an investigation and they come to some law firm like ours and they say, well, let’s, let’s get in there seeing the books and records and you get some pushback from the company. And that’s when all the hairs in your neck stand up and you come to the Watkins firm and we file a motion. And we discover through our due diligence that the company’s doing very good and that they also formed an offshore corporation of the same name. And they’ve taken all the assets and they’re all driving Rolls-Royces. So this has happened more times than I can say, because it just does happen. Nobody fights over anything unless there’s money involved. If it’s just doing okay, they would tell the truth and say, it’s all great. But if that big money offer comes in the door and they have a way of, of keeping it for themselves, it’s very tempting for human nature to turn that down.
We’re talking about breach of the shareholder agreement and most importantly, lack of access. What can we do as an attorney to help protect our clients contract in their shareholders agreement and their access to information? Well, we like to say, if it’s off a penny, it’s off a million. So we look at the financial disclosures you’ve given, and if they don’t add up or doesn’t seem straightforward, we suggest you demand for documentation. And if they don’t give it, that’s sort of like them pleading the fifth, you know, something’s wrong when they’re not willing to give their investors, their owners full access, full transparency into what’s going on with the company.
So that sense that you have that something’s just not right. That should also be a sense that maybe I should get some help. And you should do it right away. because, when shareholder fraud or shareholder breach happens, it’s almost always for a purpose. There is an immediate opportunity for management, and its usually about to go down, and it’s probably going to involve a lot of money. They usually won’t do it unless it’s worth something.
This is about money and timing . If let’s say you don’t have a shareholder agreement, or you have a weak shareholder agreement and management has broad discretion to do a lot of things, and they’re getting ready to do some questionable things, to make a big profit. And you come along and say, wait a minute, I think something’s wrong here. And you pose an objection. Well, before you file a lawsuit, this opportunity that management has is still there. So if you are the squeaky wheel right away, before they go forward with whatever they’re doing, then you may profit from that. But if you’re not, then it’ll just happen. And you’ll, instead of being sharing in the profits, you’ll be fighting to claim you had rights to get some money back.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner
We defend the rights of minority shareholders and investors and aggressively assert these rights as they are established in the corporate documents and by-laws of the corporation as well as federal and state laws. If you are searching for a law firm with decades of experience to protect San Diego minority shareholders and investors rights and resolving related disputes and business litigation we invite you to review our podcast Episode 14 – Shareholders Rights and Disputes as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.
Meet Dan Watkins:
Daniel W. Watkins is a true people person who sincerely listens. He cares about things that occur in other people’s lives. Dan enjoys digging into the facts and finding creative solutions to problems. He is not shy about giving his opinion either.
Dan’s interest in people make him deeply invested in every relationship and his exuberant personality makes him a true litigator. Dan fights for his clients with a fierce and calculated commitment.
Dan has practiced in the areas of business, medical practices and healthcare business, high tech/science, real estate and employment defense law since 1987. He is a seasoned litigator and true trial attorney with over 50 jury and bench trials to his credit. Dan has successfully represented both large companies and individuals and achieved substantial victories in well-publicized trials throughout California and the U.S.
He is experienced in business and corporate formation and administration, as well as all forms of alternative dispute resolution, including binding arbitration and mediation.
THE ROAD TO BECOMING A BUSINESS LAWYER AND LITIGATOR
Dan has almost 40 years of experience working with, for and against some of the largest insurance companies in the country. He has successfully tried and litigated cases in the areas of Healthcare Compliance, Commercial Litigation, Unfair Business Practices, Fraud, Breach of Contract, Battery, Premises Liability, Product Defect, Medical Malpractice, Discrimination, Sexual Harassment, Construction Defect, as well as Unfair Competition, Defamation, and Trade Secrets.
In December 2003, Dan commenced litigation against Health South Surgery Centers-West, Inc and its’ subsidiaries, exposing the company’s extensive mismanagement and misconduct of its’ surgery centers. Dan has also been asked by some of California’s largest municipalities and corporations to conduct legally required investigations into matters involving alleged employment discrimination and harassment.
