Strategic Business Law Representation Since 1979
For more than 40 years, individuals and business entities in the Sacramento metro area have turned to Meissner Joseph Ruggles, Inc., for counsel. As a small yet powerful firm, our team of attorneys can give your needs personalized attention combined with strong advocacy.
Many of our clients are business owners and partners who are responsible for a longstanding family businesses. Often, we represented these clients’ parents and grandparents many years ago. We have helped our clients establish small businesses that are now multimillion-dollar operations.
How Can We Serve You?
We practice the full span of business law services. These include:
- Partnerships, LLCs, LLPs and S corporations
Our practice involves structuring investment and business entities, including the appropriateness of C corporations, S corporations, general and limited partnerships, LLCs, and LLPs. We frequently counsel partners and partnerships on the tax consequences of organizing, operating, and terminating. Our extensive experience in this highly complex and specialized area of the tax law allows us to emphasize to our clients alternative structures that will achieve a more tax-favored result, while still attaining their business or personal objectives.
- Mergers, acquisitions and transactions
We advise buyers and sellers of businesses in a wide variety of transactions, including sales of assets, sale of capital stock, mergers and corporate separations. We advise a diverse set of clients from buyers or sellers of family businesses to complex deals involving multiple owners. We advise our clients from the beginning, developing strategy throughout the acquisition process and structuring through due diligence, negotiation, closing and integration.
For over 40 years, Meissner Joseph Ruggles, Inc. has advised business people, attorneys, physicians, real estate developers, business brokers and accountants all throughout California on tax-advantaged acquisitions and dispositions.
One basic rule to keep in mind is the importance of tax planning early in the process of offer and negotiation. The tax structure of a transaction has a direct bearing on the purchase price and other essential economic variables of the deal. Without a clear understanding of the tax issues and tax consequences of different alternative structures, the parties cannot intelligently negotiate the key terms of the deal. When the parties attempt tax planning after reaching an agreement, it is often too late to repair the damage.
We have decades of experience in corporate formation, mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and spin-offs. We also provide counsel to our clients on significant internal corporate matters such as restructurings, admission of new shareholders, partners and buyout of existing shareholders and partners.
- Real estate law
Meissner Joseph Ruggles, Inc. has decades of years of experience with sales and acquisitions of various type of real estate including agricultural property, vacant land, commercial, industrial and office buildings and ancillary agreements such as brokerage listing agreements. The firm has structured tax deferred exchanges involving partnership drop downs, tenants-in-common holding structures and advised on the tax structure of exchanges.
Our attorneys have advised clients and negotiated complex lease transactions involving ground leases, office leases, commercial and industrial leases, retail leases and build-to-suit leases. We have represented both ownership groups and tenants.
- Financing
The firm has significant experience representing both borrowers and lenders in a variety of commercial loan transactions including real estate secured financing for the purchase or refinance of commercial property, seller financing in connection with the sale of property, corporate lines of credit, corporate term loans, and equipment loans and leases.
With multiple business lawyers on our staff, you always have someone available to assist with pressing business matters that arise.
- Business succession and estate planning
One of our other primary areas of practice is drafting estate plans. We combine our knowledge of business and estate law to help our clients plan for the future of their companies in their wills and other estate planning documents. You can create a business succession plan to lay out a road map of what should happen to your business if you die unexpectedly. Through an estate plan, you can also make sure that your business assets pass into the right hands. An estate plan is also a way to plan for the tax penalties and preserve your assets.
Your Success Is Our Business
We care about setting you up for short-term and long-term success, no matter your industry. To discuss our counsel, schedule your initial consultation today. Contact us by calling 916-282-5033 or by using our online contact form.