Are you looking for a proven legal partner with extensive experience to protect your interests in a California shareholder dispute effectively and in a timely manner?  The Watkins Firm has more than 40 years of proven experience protecting shareholders, investors and minority shareholders and defends corporate executives, officers and directors in business shareholder disputes and litigation here in California.  Our unique approach to shareholder disputes is designed to resolve the matter in a timely and cost-efficient way while protecting our client’s goals and objectives.

Are you a minority shareholder who is facing a “freeze out” or intimidation tactics by majority shareholders?  Are managing interests withholding information or attempting to limit or prevent your access to corporate financial records and documents?  Are you concerned about the distribution or withholding of dividends or retaliation?  Are corporate executives or directors entering into contracts or agreements which favor majority interests over your own?

There are several potential remedies available for protect your interests in a California shareholder dispute.  The experienced shareholder dispute and shareholder’s rights attorneys at the Watkins Firm help you to understand your options while providing sound advice and counsel.  We work to negotiate a resolution using constructive and leveraged tactics designed to gain the attention of the opposing party and their counsel and drive them to the table to discuss and resolve the issue(es).  Resolving shareholder disputes in San Diego effectively may involve mediation and arbitration.

Mediation is a much more relaxed and flexible environment where our attorneys can have a strong impact and influence on the ultimate outcome.  We are not bound by the recommendations of a mediator, however this strategy often helps to resolve part or all of a dispute.  Arbitration is much more legally structured, and the finding of an arbitrator are final and cannot be appealed unless fraud or similar actions can be proved against the arbitrator themselves.

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.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

We represent our clients at every step of the process, negotiation, mediation and arbitration and in trial before a San Diego court when necessary.  If you seek an experienced legal partner who with a proven track record to effectively protect your interests in a California shareholder dispute in San Diego we invite you to review our podcast Episode 14 – Resolving 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.