Directory of In-House Law Departments Top 500 Companies ...

2006
potential disputes: contract formation and negotiation; contract administration; dispute
resolution; and dispute analysis and training.
Corporate and Securities
Seyfarth Shaw’s corporate and securities law practice offers focused, sophisticated and
efficient attention to client matters, delivered with the resources of a full service national
practice. Our attorneys effectively blend broad knowledge of corporate law with extensive
experience in key subdisciplines. Representing individuals, closely held companies, multinational
corporations, investment companies, financial institutions, investment banking
firms and others—on both sides of the dealmaking table—we strive to understand the
unique legal, regulatory, economic and competitive forces our clients face.
We help our clients find the right solutions to their key issues, from ongoing, day-today
concerns such as vendor agreements, outsourcing alternatives, leases, tax planning,
corporate governance and regulatory compliance, through the major initiatives and transitions
associated with business growth and development, such as finding and obtaining
venture and private equity capital, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations
and public offerings.
Employee Benefits
Seyfarth Shaw has one of the nation’s largest and most diverse employee benefits and
executive compensation practices, with attorneys working in offices across the country. With
42 lawyers nationwide, Seyfarth's Employee Benefits Practice Group has the depth, bench
strength and know how to handle the largest and most sophisticated employee benefits and
executive compensation matters in the country. The Employee Benefits Practice Group takes
pride in its responsiveness and its ability to listen and understand the business needs driving
employee benefit and executive compensation change. Through our consultative, businessoriented
approach and efficient staffing, we can quickly respond to client needs in all areas
of employee benefits and executive compensation law, including retirement plans, welfare
benefit plans, retiree medical issues, executive deferred compensation, incentive arrangements
and equity compensation, ESOPs, corporate transactions, restructurings and severance
plans, multiemployer plans and employee benefits litigation.
Environmental, Safety and Toxic Tort
The careers of our lawyers in the Environmental, Safety and Toxic Torts group track
the development of the nation’s major environmental and safety laws. We work closely with
clients to help them navigate through the complex web of federal and state regulations governing
the control of environmental contaminants and unsafe work practices. In our role
as counselors—and if necessary litigators—we draw on our knowledge of client-specific
industries and our experience with the major federal environmental laws, such as the
Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, Superfund, TSCA, the Clean Air Act, and the
Occupational Safety & Health Act, to advance our clients’ interests nationwide. We also track
and provide guidance on developing trends that might affect our clients, such as landfill
gas, climate change, Sarbanes-Oxley, brownfield development, and new OSHA rules.
Building from our regulatory knowledge and our experience as litigators, we also defend
clients against a variety of toxic tort claims, ranging from those arising involving contaminated
property to chemical releases and workplace exposures.
Financial Services
Our financial services practice represents financial institutions, mezzanine lenders,
private equity investors and others in the issuance of secured commercial loans, asset-based
loans, leveraged financing, mezzanine loans and equity funding to businesses. Our attorneys
have specific, in-depth experience in providing strategic legal and business advice to
public mutual funds, investment advisers, private investment funds and broker/dealers
throughout the United States, in regard to growth funds, value funds, income and international
equity funds, variable annuity portfolios, bond funds, funds focused on convertible
securities, money market funds, real estate funds and U.S. Government securities funds.
On behalf of institutional funds, private investors, entrepreneurs and companies in
early and emerging growth stages, we offer counsel on choice of entity, capital structure,
intellectual property protection and other issues faced by emerging enterprises. In doing so,
we draw on our significant securities, corporate, employee benefits and intellectual property
experience.
Go-To Law Firms Profiles
Government Contracts
The government contracts attorneys help clients manage the forces that affect the
process of negotiating and performing government contracts. With decades of experience representing
clients through all phases of negotiating, winning and performing contracts, our
attorneys provide counseling, training and dispute resolution services that enable businesses
to recover on and defend against claims, steer clear of compliance and fraud allegations, and
maintain solid relationships with key customers. From our offices in Washington, D.C., San
Francisco, and around the country, we represent clients from a broad range of industries,
including the world’s largest defense contractor, aerospace and electronics suppliers, facilities
management and construction companies, small-parts manufacturers, and developers and
providers of cutting-edge technology.
Intellectual Property
Our veteran team of intellectual property attorneys represents a diverse roster of
clients with the strategic vision to help them turn their corporate creativity into a lasting
competitive advantage. We are a full-service partner, helping clients secure intellectual property
rights in the United States and foreign countries, exploit them in the marketplace and
defend them anywhere business is conducted. As a leader in the field, Seyfarth Shaw regularly
provides counsel in all areas of patents; trademarks; copyrights; trade secrets; Internet
transactions and privacy; and advertising, promotions and sweepstakes. Our attorneys routinely
handle high-stakes intellectual property litigation in the state and federal courts and
in matters before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and other government agencies.
Labor & Employment
With one of the country's largest labor and employment practices, Seyfarth Shaw has
the size, expertise and national presence to help our clients achieve their labor and employment
objectives. Our deep bench of labor and employment attorneys includes many practitioners
who specialize in areas such as employment discrimination class actions, employee
benefits litigation, wage-hour disputes, union-management relations, business immigration,
affirmative action compliance, and California state employment law. Our technology
platform and knowledge management initiatives have been built to leverage our expertise
and maximize client service.
The firm is the only United States member of ius laboris – a global alliance of some
of the leading employment, benefits, labor and immigration law firms. This alliance further
provides the opportunity for us to respond immediately to a client’s global business
needs. In addition, Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a subsidiary of the firm, is one of the nation’s
premier legal compliance and management training companies, providing highly engaging
and interactive employment law related training over a variety of platforms.
Real Estate
The Real Estate Group provides comprehensive legal solutions for companies whose
primary business is real estate, investors for whom real estate provides a key investment vehicle,
and organizations of all types for which real estate is an important asset in the course
of their daily operations. Our clients are representative of today’s diverse business climate;
we advise institutional lenders, real estate developers, management companies, privately
held and public investors, government entities, not-for-profits, and those in the retail and
shopping center industry.
We place a premium on delivering cost-effective services, achieving this by staffing
projects and transactions with attorneys whose skills and experience complement our
clients’ needs, monitoring the expenditure of resources and by developing innovative fee
arrangements.
Tax
We emphasize both creative and practical solutions to various federal and state tax
problems, and help clients to identify and act on opportunities to achieve the maximum
tax benefits allowable by law in structuring their businesses and operations. We have
substantial experience in forming and representing tax-exempt entities. Additionally, we
represent taxpayers in contested matters before the Internal Revenue Service; in litigation
in the United States Tax Court, Federal District Courts, and in the Court of Claims;
and in connection with the contest and settlement of proposed state income-, sales- and
use-tax liabilities.
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