Major Areas of Practice
- Commercial and Corporate Law
- Real Estate
- Estate and Business Planning and Taxation
- Section 1031 Exchanges
- Municipal Law
- Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation
The firm represents individuals, business entities, and private and public corporations in the following areas:
- Entity formation, including limited liability companies, partnerships, and corporations;
- Business acquisitions, mergers, and commercial transactions.
- General governance of business entities and resolution of disputes among shareholders and directors.
We also serve as general counsel to a variety of established and start-up businesses, real estate firms, municipal corporations, non-profit corporations and homeowners associations.
The firm's practice includes all aspects of real estate law. We represent clients involved in the purchase, sale, development and leasing of real property, including the preparation of purchase and sale agreements, leases, easements, restrictive covenants and real estate financing documents. We also conduct all types of litigation involving real estate, including quiet title actions, partition proceedings, boundary disputes, adverse possession claims, prescriptive easements, enforcement of easements and covenants, homeowner association law, eminent domain and foreclosure proceedings.
Estate and Business Planning and Taxation
A significant aspect of our practice integrates estate and business planning for business owners and individuals, as well as providing tax planning for individual, business and corporate clients. This representation includes:
- Drafting comprehensive estate plans, wills, creation of revocable and irrevocable trusts, life insurance trusts, education trusts, grantor retained income trusts ("GRITs");
- Charitable gift planning, including the formation, qualification and governance of non-profit organizations, charitable family foundations, charitable remainder trusts, and charitable lead trusts;
- Administration of probate and guardianship proceedings;
- Tax evaluation and analysis of individual, partnership, and corporate business interests;
- Tax and estate planning; and
- Representation of clients before the Internal Revenue Service and other tax tribunals.
Since 2005, the firm has assisted clients in conducting tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code. Section 1031 exchanges allow a taxpayer to defer the capital gains tax that would otherwise be due upon the sale of a capital asset, by exchanging the asset for like-kind property. We have served as Exchange Facilitators and Exchange Accommodation Titleholders in more than one hundred Section 1031 exchanges involving real property, vintage automobiles, and other assets. Mr. Harris is a Member of the Federation of Exchange Accommodators, a national professional organization for Section 1031 practitioners. The firm is one of the leading 1031 practitioners in the nation specializing in 1031 exchanges involving vintage automobiles.
Among the municipal law services rendered by the firm are the following:
- Service as general counsel to several special purpose districts, for which the firm frequently conducts annexation proceedings, local improvement districts, construction contracting and litigation, municipal finance proceedings, comprehensive planning, general contracting and other services.
- Representation of public entities and private individuals in condemnation actions and land use disputes.
Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation
Our litigation and dispute resolution practice encompasses a wide range of substantive areas of the law. Significant areas of our litigation experience have included:
- Representing contractors, owners, and design professionals in construction and real estate litigation.
- Representing municipal corporations and property owners in condemnation proceedings.
- Representing real property owners in boundary disputes, adverse possession claims, easement disputes and quiet title actions.
- Commercial litigation
- Foreclosure actions
- Trust and probate litigation
- Representing clients in mediation and arbitration proceedings.