Family owned and operated businesses are unique in nature. While the concept of a family business implies benefits, it can also mean burdens to the structure and operation of your company.

In typical business settings, companies tend to document agreements whereas in some family business settings, agreements are often assumed rather than directly stated or documented. Family owned businesses often have unstated or weakly defined roles which make forthright partnership discussion awkward and uncomfortable. For this reason, misunderstandings and disputes often surface.

Émigré Owned Business

We believe that engaging in a frank and thorough review of rights and obligations between family member business partners often avoids miscommunication and disputes. We have considerable experience at guiding such discussions and preparing family agreements because we understand the special needs of a family owned business and provide sensitive and thorough counseling.

It is not uncommon for business owners, born in other countries and experienced with other customs to attempt to operate their business according to the rules and customs from other cultures. Sometimes that is compatible and sometime it clashes with California and Federal laws and with expectations of California customers, vendors and employees.

 We provide sensitive legal counseling aimed and respecting and valuing the unique contributions from other cultures while still avoid avoiding problems and dispute in California which may require intervention by an attorney.