Practice Areas
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Mediation
Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) where the parties work together in a private, confidential environment with a neutral third party to discuss facts & circumstances of their dispute to see if they can reach a voluntary agreement on how to resolve the issue.
Arbitration
Arbitration is a trial alternative that works exceedingly well, particularly where parties agree to arbitrate their disputes long before disputes arise. If you need sample arbitration language to include in business contracts, pre-nuptial agreement, trust, purchase and sale contract or other agreement, just get let us know.
Christian Alternative Dispute Resolution
Christians get into disputes just like anyone else. As a minister, he has seen the Lord move in extraordinary ways to resolve disputes, restore relations and work out solutions in situations that seemed impossible. He helps a wide variety of clients resolve family, business, estate, and other disputes through negotiation, litigation and ADR.
Business
Organizing Your Business
Choosing the right entity, owners and management structure are key to the success of most new businesses. Unfortunately, many business owners get this wrong because they do it themselves, trying to save themselves a little money. My role is helping them to implement the solution of their choice.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Sometimes intellectual property falls within traditional categories of trademark, copyright or patent law, but often it relates to your business’ methodologies, confidential information and relationships. It is critical that you not only protect that which you already have, but also that you plan for growth.
Navigating the Permit Process
Most business operations require federal, state and local permits. Frankly, such “red tape” is infuriatingly costly and inconvenient to most business owners. However, operating in accordance with relevant regulations can reduce your costs, help you better price your goods/services for profitability and make your business operation bulletproof.
Obtaining Financing
Most businesses need some kind of financing to conduct their operations. Unfortunately, few small business owners have a good understanding of their options and therefore approach financing haphazardly often securing the resources they need at very high interest rates and with little thought given to cash flow.
Purchasing, Selling, Leasing Real & Virtual Property
Whether your property is real or virtual, choosing whether to purchase, sell or lease space and how best to accomplish those tasks is often critical to your success every step of the way. Understanding pros and cons of each option knowing where you have come from and where you are going is critical.
Buying or Selling a Business
Buying or selling a business can often be laden with technical legal issues: confidentiality, assignment of contracts, asset valuation, financing, and transfer of real property, licenses and permits. The cost to address these issues can be prohibitive. Give us a call at the outset so we can help you properly plan your purchase or sale for ultimate success.
IRS Representation
Many small business owners get themselves into trouble with the IRS for one reason or another. Such problems can easily get out of hand quickly, threatening your business and personal financial security. We have helped many people successfully resolve their disputes with/debts owed to the IRS.
Family and Divorce Counsel
Most small business owners also have families. We understand the value of a good pre-nuptial agreement. Sadly, the unromantic nature of a pre-nuptial agreement means that it is seldom employed. This is short sighted and often unloving. In our experience a properly framed pre-nuptial agreement can be an expression of a couple’s love one for another.
Retirement and Estate Planning
Most small business owners are so busy running their business that they never address the questions in the back of their mind. What do I do when I want to retire? How do I protect my most valuable asset for the next generation? What happens if I die unexpectedly or become incapacitated? These are questions that need to be addressed well before the day of reckoning.
Avoiding Law Suits
A good offense is typically the best defense against costly disputes. This requires business owners to be proactive, addressing potential issues up front to avoid disputes later. Sometimes this can be as simple as inserting a proper dispute resolution clause into your contracts.
Resolving Disputes
Disputes are inevitable. How to resolve them, given the nature of your business and its goals can vary dramatically. Sometimes the high cost and length of time it can take to litigate your dispute is helpful. Other times, resolving a matter up front, even at significant cost to the business, is the best policy.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Breakups are hard to do, but when they must be done, it is critical that they be done correctly. With many years of experience litigating business, divorce and estates disputes, we have a keen understanding of both the inter-personal and the dollars and cents side of disputes.
Practice Areas
Real Estate
Real estate is one of the most fun areas of the law because people are generally happy when buying, selling or developing real estate. That ease, however, can often lead to complacency, mistakes, missed opportunities, and failure to structure agreements in manners that best protect you. Moreover, real estate has its own unique twists and turns. Disputes concerning boundaries, easements, construction defects, and land use can quickly turn nasty. Difficult negotiations, financing issues, and permitting problems often arise to threaten one’s dream. A steady, persistent hand, that remains cool under pressure and pays attention to details is often the difference in achieving your goals. Attorney Atherton’s depth of experience in so many different areas of the law give him a perspective that is uncommon amongst real estate practitioners, often enabling him to fashion outside the box solutions that others miss. Put that experience to work for you by contacting us for all your real estate needs.
Estate Planning
A sound estate plan is your last opportunity to say “I love you” to those who matter most in your life. It enables you to provide a clearly defined, structured path to accomplish your goals and to appoint the best person to perform that job for the sake of all concerned.
All the time, we hear people say I just need a “simple will” but as we listen a wide variety of nuances, such as second marriages, children and grandchildren with diverse needs, small business transition issues, inheritances, real estate holdings, difficult family dynamics, and sometimes tax issues arise that require special attention. Additionally, planning for end-of-life issues that we often avoid can take center stage.
No one wants to pay more for such services than necessary. We get that. On the other hand, failure to address issues in a well thought out manner often leads to bitter disputes within families and significant costs that could easily have been avoided for a far smaller investment. Let us help you to make prudent investments in your estate plan that will pay dividends for those you love well after you have passed.
Litigation
Over the course of his lengthy career, Attorney Atherton has litigated a variety of matters in civil, family, criminal, and probate courts. He has also litigated in federal court and handled a number of appeals. Over those years, he has seen the cost to litigate rise dramatically to the point where many disputes can no longer be cost-effectively resolved by the courts. At the same time, he has seen once novel alternative dispute resolution procedures become the norm, as courts routinely order parties to mediate their disputes.
At this stage of his career, Attorney Atherton is not looking to build a litigation practice. From time to time, he may take a case to court or up on appeal for a client, but he has turned his focus and experience to providing cost effective alternative dispute resolution solutions to the public. At times, this follows the normal path of parties in litigation, each with their own counsel, mediating their dispute with Attorney Atherton by order of the court. Attorney Atherton, however, is committed to helping the broader public (including those who cannot afford separate legal counsel) resolve their disputes cost-effectively before anyone has filed a complaint, initiated a divorce or parentage action, or otherwise instituted legal action.
- Through a variety of service options, Attorney Atherton is able to help people –
- Navigate their way through the perilous path of divorce from beginning to end;
- Affordably resolve their business and real estate disputes in practical, down to earth, durable manners that make good common sense; and
- Untangle complex and often bitter estate, family and other legally significant, intimate relationships in manners that preserve the dignity of all concerned and enables each of the parties a clear path forward that they can embrace.
Give Atherton Law a call to discuss how we may be able to help you efficiently and cost-effectively resolve your dispute.