Business Crisis Scenarios

You and your spouse founded your business together.  For years, you’ve worked together to build it.  Now, your marriage is crumbling. 

How will your impending divorce impact the business? 

What rights do you have as a partner in the LLC or corporation?  Will business assets impact your divorce settlement terms?

Best friends often start small businesses together.  Years later, they fall out of alignment or discover they aren’t as aligned as they thought. 

Can you buy-out your business partner?

What should the terms of the business buy-out be?  Are there other options for continuing with your business partner but protecting yourself better?

Over time, it’s common for small business officers – the president, vice president, secretary, or treasurer – or members of the board of directors, to disagree on key business decisions.  Sometimes, these disagreements ripen into open hostility as they did for !mpact Makers.  Whether they know it or not, these small business leaders are in treacherous waters that often ripen into litigation and can include personal liability for business decisions. 

How can you work through these arguments without violating Virginia law or the company’s Articles or Bylaws? 

Can a disruptive officer or director be removed or fired?  How can officers or directors reduce risks to their personal liability?

Family-owned small businesses are common.  Shareholders often span several generations.  Some shareholders may work for the family business.  Others may be disengaged and except for cashing the quarterly dividend check, they may not be paying attention. 

Over time, rifts emerge among shareholder factions as those engaged in running the business resent shareholders who merely sit back and collect a share of profits.  The disengaged shareholders are grumbling about some recent business decisions that they don’t understand. The seeds of a costly and potentially ruinous lawsuit have been planted. 

Can they work through these issues and get back on track before litigation kills the Golden Goose?