Business Litigation

Corporate law is a necessarily expansive practice area, touching myriad business and legal issues with extraordinary nuance. An excellent corporate law practice requires both thoroughgoing knowledge of every matter at hand and an adamantine desire to optimize the client’s standing. We have both.

Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona’s top-shelf reputation in corporate law has been well-earned in the trenches. We serve as outside counsel to more than 180 closely held companies, engaging all legal matters–transactional and litigation alike.

Our litigation practice is aggressive and very, very effective. When challenges arise, we litigate on our corporate clients’ behalves. These matters cover every imaginable theme, from contract disputes to complex commercial, employment, restrictive covenant and intellectual property cases.

GKWW’s attorneys reliably provide solid advice across the full breadth of the corporate practice area. We’re proud to support our clients with the knowledge and experience to ensure their business success–often serving as a sounding board for company executives regarding general business decisions as well as legal matters.

We’d love to partner with your business, too. We invite you to contact us for a free consultation.

Scroll down to see our focus areas within business litigation: Contract Disputes & Fraud Claims, Shareholder Disputes & Corporate Governance; Partnership Disputes; Employment Discrimination Claims; Sexual Harassment Litigation; Restrictive Covenants & Non-Compete Agreements; Negligence Claims; Regulatory & Administrative Litigation; and Real Estate Litigation.

In the United States, businesses run based upon a framework of contracts–with business partners, with vendors, with key employees, with independent contractors, with developers, and others. Our firm has handled hundreds of disputes involving every kind of legal document that a business might enter into. We determine the claim’s risk/reward balance early in the process, identifying the most effective method to pursue a resolution and acting accordingly.

Our attorneys have represented shareholders and members in every type of shareholder, corporate, and limited liability company dispute.

Over the years, we’ve handled every permutation of shareholder dispute: between partners, relating to partnership agreements; between members, relating to the operating agreements of limited liability companies; between shareholders, involving shareholders’ agreements on corporate bylaws and so on. We’ve handled disputes involving cram-downs, sales to third parties, breaches of fiduciary duty, embezzlement, claims under the Illinois Business Corporation Act, cases involving corporate law of Delaware and other states, clashes over executive authority, and challenges involving restrictive covenants, non-competes and trademark disputes.

We’re sensitive to the fact that, often, this is “bet the farm” litigation that involves our client’s life’s work. With that firmly in mind, we put our experience to work to make appropriate strategic decisions in preparing the case. We keep our clients meticulously informed of our progress as this crucial litigation unfolds.

In the process of settling this type of litigation, we often use mediators to facilitate. We’re extremely knowledgeable regarding the mediators available, and we use our tax lawyers to advise executives as to the financial impact on the scope of issues involved.

Over the years, our attorneys have handled nearly every permutation of partner dispute. We have handled litigation relating to partnership agreements, informal agreements, and operations. We’ve handled disputes involving sales to third parties, breaches of fiduciary duty, embezzlement, claims under the Illinois statutes, cases involving corporate law of Delaware and other states, clashes over executive authority, and challenges involving restrictive covenants and non-competes.

We’re sensitive to the fact that, often, this is “bet the farm” litigation that involves our client’s life’s work. With that firmly in mind, we put our experience to work to make appropriate strategic decisions in preparing the case. We keep our clients meticulously informed of our progress as this crucial litigation unfolds.

In the process of settling this type of litigation, we often use mediators to facilitate. We’re extremely knowledgeable regarding the mediators available, and we use our tax lawyers to advise executives as to the financial impact of the scope of issues involved.

Gardiner Koch Weisberg & Wrona has handled thousands of negligence cases: situations within which person who owes a duty to another has breached that duty and, in so doing, caused damages. Our attorneys have litigated, negotiated and settled negligence matters involving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Negligence cases occur across the spectrum of law. These include, for instance: automobile accidents, medical malpractice, nursing home liability, product liability and slip-and-fall injuries while visiting the property of a responsible person (or business). In the business world, negligence can also occur in a wide variety of commercial contexts in which one party is alleged to have breached a duty to another company or person.

We regularly litigate negligence cases in both the state and federal courts of the Chicago metropolitan area, as well as its surrounding suburban and exurban communities. We’ve also handled matters in northwest Indiana and southern Wisconsin (as well as federal courts throughout the country).

Over the years, we’ve built a reputation for our expertise, experience and achievement on behalf of our clients in cases involving regulatory matters before administrative and regulatory bodies. James B. Koch has particular expertise in this area, because he served as a lawyer for a regulatory organization before founding GKWW.

We have successfully represented our clients before the National Futures Association, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Merit System Protection Board, the Equal Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the Department of Professional Regulation and various other agencies, plan commissions, zoning boards and municipal entities.