Are you looking for sound advice and counsel for a partnership dispute or potential litigation?  The Watkins Firm’s seasoned business and partnership dispute resolution attorneys have served the San Diego business community for decades.  We understand the nature of a partnership dispute and the havoc it can reap on both your professional and personal life.  Our unique approach to partnership disputes will help to resolve the issues associated with this challenge quickly and cost-effectively.

Partnership disputes often include important issues which are actually more personal than professional.  Many business partners are close friends or actual family members.  San Diego partnership disputes often affect social relationships affecting the rest of the family, spouses, children and your extended social circle.  Watkins Firm attorneys work to resolve the specific issues which lead to the actual business dispute while helping to repair the underlying personal relationships as well whenever possible.

In many cases the parties desire to work things out and move forward.  In other cases it may be necessary to bring in a new investor or someone with experience or expertise in an aspect of business which has grown beyond the reasonable capacity of the partnership.  If one of the parties must leave the partnership, there will be questions regarding appropriate compensation or valuation of their partnership interest.

Watkins Firm attorneys are a source of sound advice and counsel for a partnership dispute involving poor decisions, unethical actions or criminal behavior.  Are you concerned one of your partners is misappropriating funds or business assets, commingling or conducting business transactions in an unethical or illegal manner?  These cases can have serious implications for you as a partner as well as the business you’ve worked so hard to develop.  The failure to take action could allow creditors to pierce the corporate veil and pursue you personally for business related debts and liabilities.

Pro-Tip: “We want to get the facts down and we want the evidence they have in chronological order, because that’s the best way to communicate to the other party, to a third party, to anyone, is in chronological order. That’s how we think. Then I want to help our clients analyze the damages. Whether you are feeling like they owe you something, they’re not complying with the agreement or vice versa. I not only want to work with you to you analyze the damages, we’ll  need to analyze what it’s going to cost to fight, and also look at the future business. Can we can salvage this relationship?  Can we re-establish trust or place safeguards into the “system?” All of those important things should come into play. We give good advice, and sometimes we’ll even advise our clients how we would think about it and then let them go talk to their partner or whoever they’re dealing with on their own armed with our knowledge and our negotiation technique.

They are married to the dispute, to every little fact. And if they have any kind of good business skills, we can coach them give them the law in layman’s terms so that when they negotiate, they’re negotiating with the knowledge of what we would say and even more facts. So they can actually be better than us. I have an example of a client. I told them, ‘you’re never going to get a better lease negotiation than this. It’s not possible.’ And, uh, so we had long discussions about it. I gave him all the law strategies what’s going to happen if this happens. So what happens if that happens? And he went and talked to the other side and got twice the deal I ha could have ever gotten. And to this day, we just joke: and I’ll say ‘I wish you were a lawyer. I’d hire you in a minute. Because you’re the best negotiator I’ve ever seen.’

Negotiations between two people are difficult because there are personal matters in the equation. And when you talk with somebody like your wife, like anyone, anyone you’ve had any kind of relationship with, just because you believe what you’re saying is correct doesn’t they mean that there’s not emotion involved there, right? And you have to understand that. So person to person negotiations can only go so far. And then when you have somebody speaking representative to representative, well, the two representatives aren’t going to have hurt feelings. We’re going to be able to work past hurt feelings and look at the bottom dollar line. And also look at the bottom line with business going forward, seeing if there’s a way to heal it, or if there’s nothing to heal, giving our client good advice.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Protect yourself and get the sound advice and counsel for a partnership dispute you need and deserve. We invite you to review our podcast Episode 11 – Business Dispute Resolution as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.