By the time a shareholder dispute reaches a lawyer, both sides have stopped talking and started collecting evidence. The job is to work out, quickly, what each side actually needs and whether the company can pay for it.
Read the agreement first
Most shareholder agreements have a deadlock clause, a buy-out mechanism or a valuation formula that nobody has read since signing. It usually decides the dispute before anyone sues.
Price the fight honestly
Litigation to trial costs a mid-sized company a year of management time and a sum that would have bought the other side out. We put that number on the table in week one.
Settle on a page
The deals that hold are simple: who leaves, what they are paid, over what period, and what they can say afterwards. One page, signed the same day, and the company gets back to work.
