Representation of business clients has been the keystone of the firm's practice since its inception. As the complexities conducting business have increased, the Business Law Department has continued to provide timely, helpful, and comprehensive advice to a wide variety of businesses located throughout the state.

Our business clients are privately held businesses of all sizes, engaging in a variety of activities, including manufacturing, high tech, software, hospitality, sales, distribution, recreation,  providing services, medicine, research, engineering, professional services, brokerage, construction, real estate, retail, pooled risk management, and much more. We also regularly provide legal counsel to meet the needs of family owned businesses of all types.

We typically serve as general counsel to our business clients and have the privilege of becoming involved in many aspects of their day to day legal needs. These needs are employment matters, commercial transactions, sales and acquisitions, mergers, financing transactions, borrowings, intellectual property transactions, contract negotiations, entity selection and formation, business planning, and entity reorganization.

Many business transactions carry with them the need for sophisticated tax analysis and planning. Members of the Business Department often combine their expertise in commercial law with the expertise of our Tax Department in developing comprehensive and innovative solutions and strategies to achieve a client's business goals, while minimizing and deferring the resulting tax consequences. This integration of business and tax law expertise distinguishes our Business Law Department from many other New Hampshire firms.

The Department also regularly handles labor and employment issues facing our clients, including drafting employment contracts and non-competition/confidentiality agreements, crafting compensation plans, reviewing policy and personnel manuals, advising clients as to employee hiring and discipline, and, in combination with members of our Litigation Department, defending clients against employment claims. The Department closely monitors developments in employment laws affecting business, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, in order to assist employers in planning for and complying with these laws.

Attorneys in the Department have also assisted clients in transactions dealing with intellectual property. These matters have included the use, licensing, sale, and protection of software, trade secrets, inventions, trademarks, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property.

Another significant part of the Department's practice involves the representation of financial institutions and other commercial lenders. As general counsel to these clients, members of the Department have provided counsel on a range of client concerns, such as the organization and start up of state chartered banks, regulatory compliance and other operational matters, and lender liability issues, including the liability of bank officers and directors. In addition, we regularly provide banks and other financial institutions advice regarding sophisticated secured and unsecured loan documentation, complexities under the New Hampshire Uniform Commercial Code, the restructuring of existing loans, and creditors' rights and bankruptcy law. We also represent borrowers, providing a range of legal services in connection with complex loan transactions.

Members of the Department represent business clients in dealing with a wide variety of state and federal regulatory agencies which affect every aspect of business operations. On the state level, this includes many different departments and boards of state government, from the Department of Environmental Services to the Department of Transportation to the Department of Revenue Administration. On the federal level, the Department has represented clients before a variety of agencies, including the EPA, FDIC, OSHA, and IRS. Regulatory work is coordinated with the firm's Tax Department, Litigation Department, or any one of several interdepartmental practice groups, including the Commercial Lending Practice Group and the Environmental Law Practice Group.

The Department is also called upon to provide advice as local counsel for transactions that may be based elsewhere. These transactions have included complex mergers, acquisitions, financings, contract negotiations, due diligence, and regulatory matters.