Taxation

Today, tax considerations permeate nearly every business decision. Our attorneys have extensive experience in evaluating the tax consequences of business decisions and providing innovative strategies to reduce the ultimate tax cost of a given transaction.

Estate Planning and Administration

We have extensive experience in dealing with both small and large estates. Our estate planning practice focuses not only on drafting instruments (e.g., wills, trusts, etc.), but also on advising clients on steps they can take to reduce the impact of transfer taxes during life and at death, including estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning strategies

Our estate planning practice goes hand-in-hand with our knowledge of business and tax law. Our understanding of these subjects assists us in counseling clients on reducing the ultimate burden of estate taxes on passing business interests to beneficiaries at death. We also assist business owners in making partial transfers of business interests to beneficiaries during the donor's life to avoid inclusion of subsequent appreciation in those assets in the donor's estate. In addition, we are experienced in creating family business entities, including family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies, which remove the value of assets from the donor's estate while still assuring the donor's continued control over those assets, often with discounted values for gift tax purposes.

We also have extensive experience in creating revocable ("living") trusts and irrevocable trusts, including life insurance trusts, and we regularly assist our clients in making beneficiary designations for life insurance policies and IRAs, 401(k) plans and other retirement plans.

We also help our clients achieve their charitable giving goals while still providing income for family members through the use of certain charitable trusts. We have special experience in representing charitable entities and donors with regard to gifting of interests in property, including conservation easements and outright donations, and various types of charitable trusts.

We regularly assist our clients in planning for personal disability through the use of durable powers of attorney and health care advance directives (e.g., health care powers of attorney and living wills). A growing part of our practice is elder law, and we can help clients not only plan for disability but also work through the maze of Medicare and Medicaid regulations.

We are available to counsel and assist executors with probate and estate administration, including payment of estate debts and taxes and distribution of assets to satisfy bequests. We are also experienced in advising executors on certain post-mortem tax elections which may substantially reduce the ultimate burden of estate taxes

LITIGATION AND EMPLOYMENT GROUP
Group Members: Michael Murchison, Andrew K. McVey

Civil Litigation

Our Litigation and Employment Law Group handles lawsuits for clients on a wide range of matters, in state and federal trial courts and administrative settings, including commercial disputes, intellectual property rights disputes, employment and employee benefit matters, construction matters, insurance matters, real estate matters, environmental matters and collection matters. We handle lawsuits on behalf of corporate and institutional clients, banks, insurance companies and individuals. Since we believe that the most cost-effective resolution to many matters is to avoid the delay and expense of court proceedings, our attorneys have extensive experience in methods of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation.

Employment and Employee Benefits

We counsel clients on a wide variety of employment-related matters including employment discrimination, employment contracts, employee benefits, sexual harassment, wage and hour, employment handbooks and the host of federal and state laws which govern the employer-employee relationship.

Health Care and Life Sciences

In conjunction with the Business Law Group, we consult with and advise health care providers and health care institutions on specialized regulatory and other matters affecting those organizations, including fraud and abuse, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, managed care issues, licensing arrangements, confidentiality and patient rights and credentialing. Our clientele includes a number of medical practice groups, pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical service providers, hospitals, nursing home facilities and mental health agencies.

REAL ESTATE GROUP
Group Members: Joseph O. Taylor, Jr., Frances Y. Trask, Faison Gibson Sutton, Scott M. Holmes, James E. Hill III

Our real estate group represents businesses and individuals in commercial real estate matters at every stage of a project, from initial site assessment and planning, through acquisition, financing, construction, leasing and disposition. Our primary focus is commercial real estate development, acquisitions, divestitures and financing.

We have extensive experience in assisting clients regarding zoning and other land use regulatory matters and number among our clients many of southeastern North Carolina's largest real estate developers, property owners and real estate investors. We provide representation concerning planned unit developments and homeowners' associations and have been involved in the development of many of the most prominent residential subdivisions and commercial projects, including mixed use developments, in the southeastern North Carolina area. In addition, we have extensive expertise in drafting and negotiating documents ranging from restrictive covenants to complex commercial leases and financing arrangements.