Are you a Sole Director?
An old client contacted me the other week. His accountant has told him that one of his clients had died leaving behind multiple companies of which he was the director and no Will. The companies will now languish until one or more administrators are appointed by the Supreme Court. Even with a will, the companies […]
Setting up a Charity
I have just helped set up a charitable Foundation. It is to help under-privileged kids participate in tennis, which can be a very expensive sport to get into. Last week it obtained Deductible Gift Recipient status in Category 1, the best category to be in. This means the all donations made to the Foundation are […]
Restructuring Ownership of Businesses
I had a query from an accountant seeking assurance that the transfer of a business from an individual to a company, the shares which were owned by a trust, of which the individual was the only beneficiary, on the basis that there was no change in beneficial ownership. Unfortunately, the rule is not as cut […]
Sale of Share Agreements
We are helping some long-term clients with the exit of the main business partner via a buy out from the more junior partners. The principle documents will be a share sale agreement and a new shareholder agreement. However, we are in a tricky situation because of the potential for conflict. We need to decide who […]
Stressful Court Case
We were seeking an adjournment of a hearing which was set for last Friday, due to one of our clients having had a recent double mastectomy and being told not to do anything too stressful. The Claimant would not agree to an adjournment, because her husband is dying and she wanted it out of the […]
Sale of Accounting Practices
We finalised the documents for the sale of 3 accounting practices. For 2 of them, 70% of the purchase price is being paid now and 30% in a year. In the other, its 80% now and 20% later. My clients are concerned that they will not see the balance of the money, but we arranged […]
Mediating Disputes
I had prepared a shareholder agreement for some clients. An issue arose between two groups of shareholders and one group asked me if I could interpret the shareholder agreement and that everyone had agreed that they would abide by the opinion. However, when I spoke to the other group, it was not that clear cut. […]
Lots of Litigation
We are flat out at the moment with: A major Supreme Court matter with a hearing next week; A district court and a magistrates court hearing tomorrow; and 2 arbitrations with relatively short time tables, … all running at once! We like keeping busy 🙂
Intellectual Property Dispute
Kellie has been working on a breach of confidentiality and trade restraint case this week. With the help of Steve Edwards, we have found evidence of confidential information being sent to a competitor of our client by an employee, and an attempt to restore the computer to factory settings to cover his tracks, which luckily […]
Speedy Settlement
An old client came to us last week seeking independent advice on loan contract, guarantees and mortgages being given as security for a loan. The deal involved borrowing just over $175k for 6 months, but only receiving $150k after application fees, interest paid in advance and legal fees, on top of our fees for the […]