Corporate & Business Law
New Businesses, Emerging Companies, and Private Equity:
Robbins Equitas will help you select the type of business entity that will meet your objectives. Every industry has unique considerations. Robbins Equitas represents new and emerging companies in sectors such as aviation, computer software, communications, and health care, as well as old-guard industries like construction, manufacturing, and finance.
Start-up is the best time to standardize business practices, get into good habits, and set the tone for what will hopefully be many profitable years to come. Our team will handle organization of your new company. We will also create and draft all of your mission-critical business and legal documents.
Our attorneys have served as counsel to:
- Energy Transfer Partners, LP (NYSE: ETP)
- Uniroyal Engineered Products
- Quality Inn Hotels (NYSE: CHH)
- Mariah Fuels
- Digital 1 Media
- Petron Pacific
- Backchannelmedia, Inc.
We will also create and draft all of your mission-critical business and legal documents. These include industry-specific work product, such as services agreements, employee handbooks, operating agreements, contracts, copyrights, trademarks, employment agreements, suitable executive and employee compensation programs and much more. Our objective is to give clients the information and tools they need to minimize operational liability, to comply with the law, to minimize bad debt (a notorious start-up company killer), and to get off on a good footing.
For companies still in the planning stage, we review and comment on the company's business plan, provide guidance on methods of financing, and prepare assessments of legal and regulatory risks including challenges and solutions.
Since emerging businesses almost always require financing throughout their development, our lawyers have expertise with all types of equity and debt financing transactions in which an emerging company may engage, including bootstrap funding by the founders and close associates, angel investment rounds, traditional venture capital investments and other private placements, commercial bank loans, and asset-based loans. We believe our experience representing financing sources (e.g., angel investors, venture capitalists, investment bankers, banks, and other lenders) helps us understand their concerns and needs and thereby enables us to better structure and negotiate investments for our emerging company clients.
Contracts, Legal Advice, Legal Transactions, and Business Consulting:
Every Robbins Equitas client has unfettered access to our team for their ongoing needs. The Business and Corporate Law Group has a combined total of more than 70 years of experience handling all manner of contracts and transactions. Our experience with specific industries also puts us in a position of being able to spot issues important to our clients and to help them avoid industry-specific risks.
Employment Law:
Robbins Equitas is a leader in employment law, representing management in cases brought by employees and the government. The current regulatory climate can be stifling, and Robbins Equitas has the experience to help you navigate the alphabet soup of federal and state agencies created to control the workplace. Our employment law practice includes, among many other matters:
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) claims, which are brought by employees who accuse their employers of unpaid wages, overtime, or minimum wage violations
- Employment discrimination, civil rights, sexual harassment claims, and more
- The Americans with Disability Act (ADA)
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cases
- Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) cases
- Unemployment compensation
- Employment contracts
- Collective bargaining and preserving the non-unionized workplace
- EEOC (federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) investigations into alleged discrimination
- FMLA (the Family and Medical Leave Act)
Because litigation is something clients want to avoid, we strive to assist clients in establishing appropriate personnel procedures and provide training in hiring, promotion, discrimination sensitivity, progressive discipline, termination, documentation, and exit interviewing. Such procedures and training can help a company prevent costly and disruptive employment claims later.
Robbins Equitas also is well-versed in the more traditional employment issues such as breach of contract, trade secrets, antitrust, unfair competition, non-compete agreements, wage-and-hour litigation, and tortious or intentional interference with business relations.
Mergers and Acquisitions:
Robbins Equitas offers its clients experience, practicality and creativity in strategic transactions involving acquisitions and dispositions of businesses and other major assets. Our lawyers have represented public companies, emerging businesses and others in buying or selling businesses, real estate holdings and other major assets. These include both large and smaller transactions that are strategically important to our clients.
At Robbins Equitas, our lawyers have handled a wide range of negotiated transactions, including mergers, reverse-mergers, asset sales and purchases, stock sales, acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs and divestitures, exchange offers, tender offers and going-private transactions. Our lawyers can handle structuring of a deal, due diligence, and document preparation with energy and efficiency and are sensitive to the full range of legal issues involved in these types of transactions.
Arbitration and Litigation Services:
Robbins Equitas has experience fighting in court and before arbitrators for our clients. We have experience arbitrating claims before the NASD, the New York Stock Exchange, and the American Arbitration Association.
When an arbitration claim is filed, we will work with your brokers and your supervisory personnel to prepare an intelligent, vigorous and strategically aggressive defense. We will obtain the information and documentation necessary to effectively evaluate the merits of the claim and promptly analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your adversary's case and of your own. We will also prepare an effective answer, comprehensive discovery requests and persuasive briefs, when necessary.
Our Business and Corporate Law attorneys include:
If you would like to consult with an attorney regarding a legal matter, or if you have questions about what you have read on The Florida Lawyer Website, then please contact us at 800-934-5999. Robbins Equitas has offices in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota and Denver.