Kennedy, Archer & Giffen’s highly experienced attorneys provide comprehensive legal services in a broad range of practice areas. The firm’s clients vary widely, and include major corporations, privately held businesses, insurance companies, investment partnerships, and entrepreneurs. Our team is robust enough to handle the most complex legal matters, but lean enough to provide efficient and cost-effective legal services.
On the transactional side, we assist companies in a variety of industries with organizational and compliance matters, buying, selling and merging businesses, forming joint ventures, and general business planning as well as counseling regarding corporate and partnership operations.
The firm's civil litigation group has experience in all types of business and individual litigation and appellate practice. We have handled business disputes of virtually every type, including cases arising from business transactions between small private companies to disputes involving large publicly-held corporations. These cases have included complex contract actions, employment law issues, construction defect allegations, medical malpractice and other professional liability defense, business interference claims, unfair competition, corporate and partnership disputes, product liability, and real estate matters.
Our business lawyers counsel all types of business entities, including profit and nonprofit corporations, partnerships (both general and limited), limited liability companies, and joint ventures at many different stages in the business life cycle – from selecting the form of business entity and capitalizing and financing the organization, through mergers, acquisitions and dissolutions.
Representative transactions:
- Organizing a joint venture to develop approximately 800 acres of real property into estate-size homes;
- Establishing and administrating an employee stock option plan for a large agricultural firm;
- Obtaining capital through a private securities offering for a local health care facility;
- The sale of groups of restaurants in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties; Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties; and Las Vegas, Nevada;
- Organizing a number of non-profit organizations and obtaining tax exempt status; and
- Organizing numerous limited partnerships and limited liability companies to finance (obtain both equity capital and debt), own and operate a variety of real estate holdings across many states.
Lawyers within the firm’s real estate practice area have a long and successful tradition of serving clients in all areas of real estate law and real estate transactions. We regularly represent sellers and purchasers, as well as landlords and tenants, in real estate sale, purchase, finance and leasing transactions of all degrees of complexity. These transactions may involve large parcels of undeveloped land, industrial facilities, major shopping centers, and commercial office buildings.
Representative transactions:
- The sale of a large parcel of undeveloped land for the Pasadera residential and golf course development in Monterey;
- The sale of a multi-building commercial office complex;
- Development of a master lease for a company owning multiple commercial office developments;
- The sale of a number of regional shopping centers;
- Representation of the underlying owner of property which is a part of a property assemblage development for major retail use; and
- The purchase, structuring, financing and sale of over $2 billion in multi-family apartment projects located throughout the United States.
We provide counsel in a full range of M&A transactions involving small and large businesses at all stages of development. This may include counseling regarding transaction structure, finance, employee impact, success planning and more.
Representative transactions:
- The merging of a local high technology company into a publicly held company;
- The merging a Northern California chain of automobile lubrication centers into Quaker State Corporation;
- The acquisition of the assets and business operation of a pioneer in the organic specialty salad category (and associated mergers and reorganization of affiliates) by a privately held company that is a leader in the business of developing and marketing value added organic and conventional salads, vegetables and ready-to-eat kits;
- The acquisition of stock and reorganization of a leading manufacturer and distributor of healthy beverage products; and
- The acquisition or sale of a number of other business interests.
We counsel numerous non-profit entities in a variety of legal issues, advising on statutory compliance, governance, issues involving California’s Open Meetings Law (“Brown Act”) and Public Records Act, finance issues, employee issues, contracting, and environmental compliance.
The firm has decades of experience in counseling health care professionals and practices in business planning, including structuring transactions to account for professional licensing issues, financial issues, employment issues, insurance issues, and to minimize litigation risk.
Our business and commercial litigation team works closely with clients to develop case and trial strategies that add value to our client’s businesses. We aim to solve client problems in a practical, efficient manner through the pursuit of negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, and/or trial. The firm has a wealth of experience in handling court and jury trials, arbitration and mediation, and in appellate practice.
Representative matters include:
- Represented Monterey homeowner through trial, obtaining favorable judgment for client in easement dispute;
- Defended San Francisco-based technology company in breach of contract and fraud trial, obtaining favorable outcome in the form of a damages award substantially below what Defendant had offered to settle the case;
- Obtained favorable settlement on behalf of City of Carmel in lawsuit involving unlawful encroachment over public property;
- Obtained full victory on behalf of Carmel restauranteur in litigation and arbitration involving disputed ownership of business, and various landlord-tenant issues; and
- Represented Santa Clara City Police Department in bench trial, obtaining full victory in civil rights lawsuit.
Our firm has significant knowledge of and broad experience in the practice of municipal law. We have more than fifteen years of experience representing government and public entity clients including the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA), City of Pacific Grove, County of Monterey, City of Monterey, City of Salinas, City of Carmel-by-the-Sea, City of King City, and City of Santa Clara in a wide variety of matters, including defending personal injury claims, environmental claims brought pursuant to California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), land use disputes, and civil rights claims. We regularly advise on issues of employment, real estate, constitutional, government tort claims, construction, breach of contract, writs and appeals, among other matters.
Representative matters include:
- Authority Counsel to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority
- Obtained favorable settlement on behalf of City of Carmel-by-the-Sea in lawsuit involving unlawful encroachment over public property; and
- Represented Santa Clara City Police Department in bench trial, obtaining full victory in civil rights lawsuit.
Our attorneys represent growers, shippers, and suppliers in legal disputes involving product liability claims, food safety issues, contract claims, and provide general litigation counseling to these entities to enable them to find business solutions to complex legal issues. With extensive backgrounds in both agricultural law and in the high technology practice of the Silicon Valley, our attorneys are uniquely positioned to handle legal disputes for AgTech clients.
Representative matters include:
- Represented vineyard owner in partnership dispute;
- Represented grower in product liability action involving contaminated produce; and
- Represented grower in dispute against compost supplier who misrepresented the nature of its product.
Our team represents owners, developers, subcontractors, contractors, architects and vendors in all aspects of construction cases before state and federal courts, and administrative agencies.
Representative matters include:
- Represented contractor in construction defect case involving more than 30 subcontractors;
- Regularly advise contractors in connection with document production obligations and appearance for depositions in connection with third party subpoenas; and
- Obtained favorable settlement in lawsuit involving defective car lift in San Francisco parking garage.
We regularly counsel clients on labor and employment issues, including claims based on discrimination and harassment, unlawful termination, or wage and hour violations.
Representative matters include:
- Defended small business in wage and hour dispute with former employee;
- Defended company in dispute involving allegation of wrongful termination and retaliation; and
- Conducted employment investigation regarding allegations of hostile work environment.
Our firm’s experience includes representing companies in product liability actions involving alleged design and manufacturing defects.
Representative matters include:
- Obtained favorable settlement of lawsuit against retailer based upon alleged sale of asbestos products;
- Represented grower in product liability action involving contaminated produce; and
- Represented grower in dispute against compost supplier who misrepresented the nature of its product.
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We have broad experience handling real estate and land use disputes in Monterey County and beyond, with respect to both commercial and residential projects.
Representative matters include:
- Represented Monterey homeowner through trial, obtaining favorable judgment for client in easement dispute; and
- Obtained favorable settlement on behalf of City of Carmel-by-the-Sea in lawsuit involving unlawful encroachment over public property.
Mediation services provided in most areas of civil law, including:
- Business/Contractual
- Product Liability
- Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith
- Real Estate Disputes
- Medical and Legal Negligence
- Personal Injury
- Architectural E&O
- Construction Disputes
Kennedy, Archer & Giffen’s mediation practice is led by veteran attorney, Robert G. Simpson. Mr. Simpson’s practice coincides with a 44-year career as a civil litigator, enhanced by extensive training in mediation along with representing clients in hundreds of mediations. His unique perspective is a recognition of what clients are trying to achieve, and what is actually achievable for both sides. Mr. Simpson has a unique ability to analyze complex situations and assist parties at arriving at the very best solution to the problem from both perspectives. It is this desire to help resolve conflicts that brought Mr. Simpson to the field of mediation.
Mr. Simpson’s career spans decades of experience advocating on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants. During the first 22 years of his career, Mr. Simpson handled matters from the defense side of the bar, principally representing clients of insurance companies and private businesses, along with certain public entities. Mr. Simpson’s practice included defense of catastrophic injury and death cases, automobile accident, product liability, medical and legal malpractice, complicated business disputes and public entity liability. The next 18 years of Mr. Simpson’s career were devoted to the representation of injured persons in all fields of potential liability. In the course of that practice, Mr. Simpson obtained a number of verdicts in excess of $1,000,000 and settlements totaling over $500,000,000.
Since 2014, Mr. Simpson has worked with the firm of Kennedy, Archer & Giffen, primarily handling complex litigation representing both plaintiffs and defendants. Mr. Simpson’s latest successful trial was a multi-week affair in San Francisco involving a dispute between technology companies.
Appellate matters often involve complex and novel issues of law. Our firm has developed a respected appellate practice by its significant experience handling appellate matters in the California Court of Appeals. We work with clients through all stages of appellate advocacy, from initial case evaluation and review of the trial court proceedings, through drafting appellate briefs and presenting oral argument.
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