Are you searching for investor dispute resolution lawyers in California?  The Watkins Firm takes a unique approach to investor or shareholder disputes which is designed to achieve your goals in a timely and cost-efficient manner.  There are a variety of reasons why investors may be involved in a dispute or lawsuit.  Some of these reasons include, but are not limited to:

• Merger or Acquisition
• Sale of the Corporation
• Minority Shareholder or Investor Disputes
• Dissenting Shareholders
• Shareholder Oppression and Freeze Outs
• Derivative Actions
• Access to Corporate Books and Correspondence

The minority shareholder and investor dispute resolution lawyers in California at the Watkins Firm are most often able to resolve questions of shareholder or investor rights through effective, leveraged negotiation.  The Watkins Firm works to identify your available options and understand your goals and objectives for a successful outcome.  We open constructive professional negotiations designed to identify common ground while discussing the core issues involved in the dispute.  California law provides additional protections and specific rights to minority shareholder interests.  This is true regardless of the actual state of incorporation.

We put the opposing interest(s) on notice and assert our client’s rights.  We work to resolve the issues and negotiate a resolution or solution which accomplishes their goals.  When negotiation does not resolve part or all of the issues within the dispute, we represent our clients in mediation and arbitration.

Mediation is a confidential and more informal venue.  The parties select a neutral third party who is an expert in shareholder rights and disputes.  We work with the mediator and other parties to identify alternatives and reach agreement or settlement.  Arbitration is a much more legally structured venue.  We work to help select an effective, neutral arbitrator to hear the case.  We provide the arbitrator with a well crafted brief.  The arbitrator will collect evidence and witness testimony and render a decision within a short period of time.

Pro-Tip: “We’ve had so many investor or shareholder fights where a company takes a group of friends, or a group of friends who know friends, maybe 30 people to invest in a company and it’ll be doing well, but not great. And the investors, the shareholders won’t be receiving 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.

Obviously not all shareholders need legal advice, but many of them do. When should a potential shareholder seek the advice of the Watkins Firm?

Well, if you’re investing $500, no, but if you’re making a substantial investment in a company, you are a buyer of that company. So all the same thought process that we go through when we acquire a company or we sell a company and we do our due diligence should come into play. And law firms have resources that average people don’t. We have computer databases, we can do background searches, we can pull up, or request disclosures. We can actually help you ask certain questions of the corporation. We can literally even hire our CPA to review the financial documents to make sure it adds up. For example, there’s something called EBITDA. Now your average person doesn’t know what Ida is, but a business broker, a lawyer or a CPA will know that that’s what we judge the profitability of a company on.

And let’s say normally the company’s worth four times EBITDA. The company makes a hundred thousand dollars a year. It’s worth $400,000. You come along and you are going to buy 5% of the company and you offer $200,000. If you had gone to a lawyer, we would say, you’re, you’re overpaying just from the accounting point of view. And you might want to do some further due diligence to see why the price is set so high. And then you can have us discover how much the president of the company makes. How much does the vice president of the company make? What are they spending profits on? That’s a big one. You’ll invest in a company it’s doing great, but somehow it never says it’s making the money that it should because the people who control the corporation have the right to pay their key employees, whatever they want. And usually that’s a million dollars a year for the president.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If you are looking for investor dispute resolution lawyers in California with a proven track record of resolving complex disputes we invite you to review our podcast Episode 14 – Shareholder 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.