Business Ownership Divorce

Business Ownership Divorce Practice Group – DiTommaso Lubin, P.C.

For over 40 years, DiTommaso Lubin, P.C. has represented owners of closely held corporations, limited liability companies, and partnerships in what we call “business ownership divorce” – the separation or restructuring of co-owned businesses when the owners can no longer work together. Our attorneys represent majority and minority owners, managers, officers, and family members in closely held and family-owned businesses across a wide range of industries.

We prosecute and defend ownership and control disputes in state and federal trial courts, arbitration, and on appeal, in cases ranging from local family businesses to companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars with claims in the tens of millions of dollars.

Comprehensive Legal Services for Closely Held and Family-Owned Businesses

Our Business Ownership Divorce Practice Group handles the full spectrum of issues that arise when business owners part ways, including:

• Shareholder, LLC member, and partnership disputes in closely held entities, including disputes over management, control, access to information, and distributions.
• Business “divorce” for partners and co-owners, including family-owned businesses in which multiple family members or spouses share ownership and control.
• Freeze-out, squeeze-out, and minority shareholder or LLC member oppression litigation, including claims that controlling owners are using their power to eliminate, marginalize, or pressure minority owners.
• Breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and other insider-misconduct claims involving self-dealing, diversion of business opportunities, misuse of company funds, and concealment or manipulation of financial information.
• Direct, derivative, and double-derivative actions when injuries affect the company itself as well as individual owners.
• Business valuation and accounting disputes, including buy-out and redemption litigation, and cases requiring forensic accounting and expert valuation testimony.
• Emergency relief – temporary restraining orders and injunctions – to preserve the status quo, protect assets and records, and prevent a freeze-out or squeeze-out from succeeding while a case is pending.
• Negotiated buy-outs, redemptions, reorganizations, and sales of companies designed to resolve ownership disputes without destroying the value of the business.

A Practice Focused on Ownership and Control Disputes

Our lawyers have spent decades trying and resolving complex ownership disputes involving closely held corporations, LLCs, partnerships, and professional practices. We regularly work with forensic accountants, business valuators, tax advisors, and other experts to analyze financial records, trace money flows, and quantify damages and buy-out values.

Because we prosecute and defend business ownership divorce cases, we understand both sides of these disputes. We represent:

• Majority owners who have been wrongly accused of oppression, breach of fiduciary duty, or fraud.
• Minority owners, members, and partners who have been frozen out of management, cut off from information, or denied the benefits of their ownership interests.
• Family members embroiled in disputes over family businesses built over generations.

Closely Held and Family-Owned Business Disputes

Closely held and family-owned businesses combine legal complexity with deep personal and family dynamics. Many of our cases arise where:

• Siblings or cousins inherit a business and disagree over the future direction of the company.
• Active owners and non-working owners clash over compensation, distributions, or reinvestment in the business.
• A marital divorce involves a jointly owned business and one spouse wants to continue operating the company while the other wants to be bought out.
• Long-time partners or friends can no longer agree on strategy, succession, or financial priorities.

We help clients navigate these disputes with sensitivity to both the legal and personal stakes, focusing on preserving value while protecting our clients’ rights.

Tailoring Strategy: Negotiation, ADR, and Trial

Not every ownership dispute should be tried to a verdict. We work with clients to understand their goals – control of the company, a fair buy-out, a winding up and sale, or protection from unfounded claims – and then craft a strategy that may include negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or trial.

When necessary, we are prepared to aggressively pursue or defend lawsuits involving ownership and control, injunctive relief, and claims for money damages, disgorgement, or buy-outs. Our decades of experience in “bet-the-company” business disputes inform the strategies we bring to business ownership divorce matters of every size.

Talk With Our Business Ownership Divorce Practice Group

If you are facing a dispute with co-owners, family members, or partners in a closely held business, we invite you to speak with our Business Ownership Divorce Practice Group.

Contact attorney Peter S. Lubin or attorney James V. DiTommaso for a free consultation.

Call 630-333-0333 or reach us through our online contact form.

This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contacting us does not create an attorney–client relationship. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.