From incorporation to wind-up, Pretzel & Stouffer serves as a trusted counselor during every stage of the business life cycle. Our attorneys have advised our clients—ranging from Fortune 500 multinationals to closely-held businesses—on virtually all corporate and business law issues.
Unlike other firms, we have a unique perspective on corporate management and other business law matters. That perspective comes from our extensive litigation experience and involves an emphasis on full-scale risk assessment when advising our clients on a particular course of action.
Our attorneys are well-versed in establishing corporations and limited liability companies as well as partnerships. We regularly draft contracts and standard business forms, policies and procedures for clients as well as review their insurance policies, leases and other corporate documents to keep them apprised of the potential risks.
We frequently handle buy-sell agreements, succession planning, mergers and acquisitions as well as the legal due diligence process included therein, and we also provide corporate counseling for officers, directors, and managers, including during dissolutions and shareholder disputes.
Our attorneys are highly regarded in the legal community as authorities in the field of employee management, including drafting confidentiality agreements, employment contracts and non-compete agreements. We have secured numerous temporary restraining orders and injunctions to enforce these provisions. We have also negotiated severance agreements between management and employees in high and mid-level management positions as well as defended and prosecuted wrongful termination claims. Further, we regularly provide advice and assist clients with unemployment and workers’ compensation claims.
Our practice in this area also extends to health care, particularly on matters related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, medical service provider agreements and medical confidentiality agreements.
We are sensitive and efficient in matters relating to liquidations and corporate restructurings, and we work with clients to mitigate liability while retaining the most value for shareholders and members. We are also adept at helping clients plan for predictable and orderly business successions, especially companies with complex and multilayered ownership arrangements.
Our corporate and business law practice is full-service. Clients repeatedly engage us for their business needs because we deliver consistent, efficient and quality results.
Robert Chemers and David Larson won an affirmance in the Appellate Court, First District, of the summary judgment entered by the circuit court for their insurer client in a coverage dispute with a plaintiff insurer over whether the plaintiff insurer’s named insured was an additional insured on the policy issued by our insurer client to ...
November 2023
Robert Chemers and Matt Ligda obtained a dismissal with prejudice, after motion, extensive briefing and hearing, of a Supreme Court Rule 224 pre-suit petition where it was shown that petitioner failed to state a viable cause of action and the discovery sought was not necessary.
October 2022
Robert Chemers obtained a judgment for an insurer client in federal court in Chicago that the carrier had no duty to defend its insureds for an auto accident due to the auto exclusion in the CGL policy and that any duty to defend was discharged when the insureds failed to respond to the carrier’s written ...
September 2022
Robert Chemers and Dave Larson won a summary judgment and default declaratory judgment in federal court in Springfield, IL for an insurer client based on the insured providing notice of an accident 16 months after it occurred and notice of suit some 9 months after it was filed. The district judge held that the notice ...
September 2022
Pretzel & Stouffer attorneys Kayla Condeni and Donald Patrick Eckler published a column in the IDC Quarterly on the judicial estoppel doctrine and recent cases addressing it. The article is linked here.
March 2021 | Firm News
The Committee is responsible for receiving rule proposals from the Supreme Court, Supreme Court or Judicial Conference Committees, the bench, the bar or the public. Proposals offered by the bench, bar or public are reviewed by the Rules Committee and placed on the agenda for public hearing if the proposal is determined to have merit.
November 2020 | Firm News
Pretzel & Stouffer attorneys John Scheid and Ryan Shupe recently assisted a technology sales and distribution client review and analyze the strategic value and terms of numerous product distribution agreements with manufacturers and other suppliers as due diligence for a high-value asset purchase transaction. After the asset purchase closed, John and Ryan also reviewed, drafted, and renegotiated myriad distribution ...
October 2020
Pretzel & Stouffer partner, Richard Kenyon, recently obtained dismissal with prejudice of a defamation per se suit in a claim filed in the Circuit Court of Dekalb County. Rick defended a local businessman in the residential rental industry, who also hosts a well-known local radio talk show program where current community issues are discussed. ...
January 2020
Pretzel & Stouffer attorneys, John Scheid and Ryan Shupe, recently assisted a not-for-profit corporate client in the healthcare industry to obtain more than $20 million in secured financing for its acquisition of several subsidiary businesses. This financing deal involved in-depth analysis, drafting, and negotiation of numerous loan, security, and guaranty agreements and other supporting ...
January 2020
Pretzel & Stouffer partners, Jim Sipchen and Brendan Nelligan recently won a dismissal of a trademark infringement lawsuit brought in federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan against their client, a local California theater. The theater was sued for trademark infringement by a popular 80’s R&B band after it produced a concert performed ...
October 2019
A Pretzel & Stouffer trial team, led by Edward Ruff and Michael Turiello and including Paula Villela, along with Douglas Lipke and William Thorsness of Vedder Price P.C. obtained a judgment in the amount of $9,539,768.54 for damages stemming from Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland (“F&D”) for contempt and violation of a bankruptcy court’s ...
July 2019
Jim Sipchen recently forced a settlement of a copyright infringement suit for less than what it cost the plaintiff to file the lawsuit in the first place. The suit was brought by an Indiana attorney against a non-profit organization that promotes the health of single mothers and their babies. The plaintiff, who is notorious for ...
October 2016 | Firm News
Jim Sipchen, obtained summary judgment on behalf of a client sued on a personal guarantee. The client had formerly been a co-owner of a restaurant, who had been ousted from the business by its majority shareholder, but at the time the business was formed had signed a number of personal guarantees relating to a number ...
June 2015 | Firm News