Mr. Schrot is also a trained professional in collaborative divorce practice and is able to explain your different options for divorce. He is a member of the Collaborative Practice Institute of Michigan, as well as the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.
Child Support
Child Custody and Visitation
Be careful if and when you light up, or otherwise consume, marijuana, as you may get burned. In spite of shifting legal and cultural norms, using recreational or medical marijuana can work to your disadvantage in divorce and/or child custody/parenting time cases.
Adoption
With 40 years of experience, John J. Schrot, Jr.’s legal career has predominantly focused on family law and other complex civil litigation matters. He also has extensive experience in contract negotiations, commercial transactions/litigation, employment law, real estate, insurance, construction, securities, corporate law, arbitration, and other intricate personal and contractual relationships. For the past 40 years, Mr. Schrot has been helping business people and their spouses through complex divorces. He is known for handling high-stakes divorce, and for keeping clients’ cases private. He helps families achieve amicable divorces while ensuring clients receive their fair share and/or protection of their children. With experience in all areas of family and domestic relations law, Mr. Schrot skillfully guides his clients through the legal process, always mindful of the fact that he is dealing with emotional and stressful situations. His broad range of services includes divorce, complex property settlement, business valuation issues; child and spousal support matters; prenuptial and postnuptial agreements; annulment and separation matters; custody, parenting time and grand parenting time issues; guardianships; step parent adoption; change of domicile, personal protection orders; Friend of the Court matters; enforcement and post judgment issues. When disputes end up in the courtroom, Mr. Schrot is also a seasoned litigator.
Paternity
Premarital Agreement
Harvey B. Wallace II focuses his practice in the areas of estate planning, business corporations (including compensation, employee benefits, and business succession planning), and charitable organizations. His estate planning practice includes the preparation and funding of flexible lifetime and post death trusts for asset management and disposition, creditor protection, and tax minimization. His practice also includes the design and preparation of premarital agreements, family partnerships, and charitable remainder trusts. He has formed, merged, and terminated charitable foundations, both private foundations and section 509(a)(3) supporting organizations, and gives administrative guidance to such organizations.
Guardianship
Spousal Support
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) was signed into law in December, 2017, and it changes the treatment of spousal support (alimony). Currently spousal support is tax deductible for the paying spouse and taxable as income to the receiving spouse, unless the parties otherwise provide in a judgment of divorce or separate maintenance. The spousal support deduction was enacted in 1948 with the idea that if a former family’s income is divided between the parties that tax treatment should correspond.
Temporary Restraining Order/Breach of Non-Compete/Tortious Interference – automobile supply chain dispute. In this automobile manufacturing supply chain dispute, plaintiff sought a temporary restraining order to prevent our client, a Chinese manufacturer, from selling cylinder liners directly to plaintiff’s customer instead of selling them through plaintiff pursuant to a pre-existing contractual arrangement. Our client’s position was that the prior contract no longer applied due to plaintiff’s prior material breach. The federal district court in Milwaukee agreed with us that a temporary restraining order was not warranted and stayed the proceeding pending arbitration in Singapore pursuant to Chinese law as required by the contract.
Forgery
Will and trust contests, including claims of duress, undue influence, and forgery in the creation, amendment, or revocation of wills and trusts...
Money Laundering
Corporate Transparency Act: Small Business Compliance Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) on January 1, 2021, which will require certain small businesses to identify and disclose information about their owners. The purpose of the law is to help stop money laundering by inhibiting the abuse of shell...
Corporate Law and Finance – The European Practice Group provides advice, documentation, office registration and general corporate, international corporate, and corporate finance services to our clients.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Among other mergers and acquisitions, Mr. Foy represented a global automotive market forecasting company in the sale of its stock for $27 million to a publicly-traded company, which is a leading global source of critical information and insight.Mr. Foy also represented a publicly-traded global energy company with its $20 million acquisition of a Michigan company.
Business Formation
Founded in 1926, our firm provides legal representation and services in matters ranging from estate and succession planning, to labor and employment, tax, business formation and growth, mergers and acquisitions, financing and contractual transactions, family law, litigation, international law, and immigration.
Business Disputes
Mr. Wright is general counsel to numerous corporations both in the United States and abroad, advising senior management regarding general corporate affairs, finance, business planning and the resolution of business disputes.
Business Transactions
Mr. Wright is often called upon to negotiate complex business and legal issues, including the purchase or sale of a client company or its assets, and the resolution of contentious disputes between clients and suppliers, competitors, or government regulators. Mr. Wright frequently lectures to lawyers and business executives on the topics of international business transactions, enforcement of commercial agreements, and business financing.
Limited Liability Companies
From our Detroit, Birmingham and Ann Arbor offices, Berry Moorman represents every form of business entity, including profit and nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, professional firms, and sole proprietorships, in Michigan, throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Our clients engage in a broad range of business endeavors, including manufacturing, computer and high technology, real estate, finance, retail and wholesale industries, and include service providers of all kinds. They comprise publicly-held companies, as well as closely held and family-owned companies that range from start-up entities to large established enterprises.
Trade Secrets
Your IP and trade secrets should also be protected from internal and external misappropriation from employees, business partners, and others with access.
Because we have been engaged in M&A transactions for such a long period of time, we know and are able to advise our clients on the practical aspects of and respond to questions relating to the pros and cons of earn outs; determining the best form in which to complete the transaction; what is customary in indemnification and hold backs; what is typically negotiable and what items are more difficult to negotiate; how to properly conduct due diligence; what to look out for from a tax perspective; how to best deal with the employees, their benefits, workers compensation issues and other potential liabilities; and perhaps, most importantly, to bring the transaction to closure or help you decide that it is best that the transaction should not close.
Wrongful Termination
David Foy has 30 years of experience representing private, nonprofit and municipal employers in all areas of employment law. He has successfully defended employers against claims asserting breach of contract, wrongful discharge, discrimination, harassment and retaliation (age, disability, sex, national origin, race and religion), wage and hour and whistleblower violations. Mr. Foy represents employers before federal and state courts and administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michigan Department of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Labor, Michigan Wage and Hour Division, National Labor Relations Board and Michigan Employment Relations Commission. He also represents employers in matters involving enforcement or defense of non-competition/non-solicitation agreements and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Employment Discrimination
Former employee failed to establish a prima facie case of race discrimination under Title VII when he failed to establish similarly situated members of an unprotected class and or show employer’s reason for termination was pretext.
Employment Contract
In labor matters, Mr. Foy represents private and public sector employers in collective bargaining negotiations, arbitration, grievance resolution and defending unfair labor practices.Mr. Foy assists clients with drafting employment agreements, employee handbooks, policies and procedures and confidentiality and non-competition/non-solicitation agreements. He also assists clients with protecting intellectual property and counsels clients regarding best employment practices, litigation avoidance, family and medical leave, reductions in force, and the classification of employees who are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act overtime and minimum wage provisions. Mr. Foy helps clients employ strategies to prevent and defend FLSA claims, including FLSA collective actions and Department of Labor audits regarding employers’ alleged failure to pay overtime or the minimum wage. Mr. Foy successfully defeated efforts to certify a FLSA collective action class of several hundred workers.Mr. Foy has represented municipalities in all aspect of employment and municipal law and made presentations to County Treasurers, Clerks and Registers of Deeds. He is a contributing author of the Michigan Nonprofit Management Manual, 5th edition.
Employment Litigation
We are experts in most types of business litigation, employment litigation and class action defense. Although most of our litigation is in Michigan, our attorneys have appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Michigan Supreme Court, the U.S. Tax Court, numerous federal and state courts of appeal and trial courts.
Non-compete Agreement
We provide on-going counsel with regard to specific incidents as well as in the drafting of personnel policies and procedures, employment agreements, employment applications, immigration issues, confidentiality and non-compete agreements, severance and termination agreements and other employment documents.
Severance Agreement
Former CFO brought a breach of contract action against employer alleging entitlement to a contractual severance package based on a substantial adverse change in his duties. Appellate court affirmed dismissal of the action as a matter of law when it was found the former CFO failed to plead, and could not prove, that a condition precedent had been satisfied.
Sexual Harassment
Mr. Morgan has substantial experience in all aspects of private sector management-side labor and employment law. He has particular expertise in union organizational/organizing activities and union campaigns, collective bargaining, defending unfair labor practices, strikes and injunction proceedings and contract administration. He also counsels employers on labor issues in bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions and reductions in force. In addition, he has an extensive background in litigation and defense against claims of wrongful discharge, discrimination, sexual harassment, whistleblower and wage/hour violations. Mr. Morgan also assists employers with employment policies and consults with management regarding employee discipline as well as other human resource issues.
Mr. DiMercurio practice focuses on Real Estate, Business and Corporate, Civil Litigation and Labor and Employment law. Mr. DiMercurio has jury trial experience on a variety of employment law issues, and recently played a large role in helping a client win a jury trial involving Family Medical Leave Act and Whistleblower Protection Act claims. Additionally, Mr. DiMercurio continues to conduct extensive research on unfair labor practice issues given the evolving nature of this area of law. Mr. DiMercurio also provides litigation and transactional support to clients on a variety of complex issues, including real estate matters, general commercial and contract disputes, and Uniform Commercial Code issues.
Construction Litigation
Real Estate Transactions
Mr. Straetmans regularly handles business and real estate transactions. He also serves as outside general counsel for several companies providing his clients with guidance on contracts, insurance claims and coverage, corporate organization and entity governance.
Mr. Edelstein also represents Russian and other foreign companies doing business in the United States and advises them on developing corporate structures, on regulatory and general business and commercial matters. In his immigration practice, Mr. Edelstein represents individuals, closely held and family business, corporations and other institutions in deportation, asylum and naturalization matters, as well as in family-based immigration matters. Particularly, he assists in applying for H-1B, H-2B, E, F, J, K, L-1A and B visa applications, as well as Labor Certification and green card applications. Mr. Edelstein also assists clients in obtaining professional non-immigrant employment-based visas and in obtaining permanent resident status.
Work Visas
Immigration – We assist corporations and individuals with immigration matters including work visas, and other lawful forms of relief.
Investor Visas
The EB-5 program was created by the Immigration Act of 1990. The program provides EB -5 immigrant investor visas (“investor visas”) to alien entrepreneurs who invest in the United States. In general terms, the EB-5 program requires an alien to “invest or be actively in the process of investing” either US $1,800,000 in urban settings or US $900,000 in rural settings in exchange for the opportunity to obtain permanent residence (a “green card”) in the US.
To drive legally in Michigan, state law requires the purchase of no-fault automobile insurance. This includes Personal Injury Protection benefits, often referred to as “PIP.” In general, this includes medical bills, medical mileage, attendant care, work loss, and replacement services.
Donald F. Carney, Jr. concentrates his practice in the areas of estate and trust litigation, estate administration and planning, and alternative dispute resolution. He has been annually selected as a Michigan Super Lawyer in trust and estate litigation since 2006. He has also been selected as a Leading Lawyer in Michigan since 2016.
Wills
Mr. Carney is a frequent public speaker and has lectured for the University of Michigan’s Institute of Continuing Legal Education. He spoke to the ICLE 1992 Advanced Estate Planning Institute on the topic “Pre and Post Mortem Steps To Protect Clients’ Estate Plans Against Will and Trust Contests.” On February 23, 1995, Mr. Carney presented “Testamentary Capacity – The Legal Test” at the Macomb County Bar Association’s Probate Seminar. On February 26, 1999, he spoke to the Macomb County Probate Bar Association and The Financial and Estate Planning Council of Macomb on “Fiduciary Liability.”Mr. Carney then presented “Fiduciary Liability” to the Oakland County Bar Association Probate, Estate and Trust Committee on April 26, 1999.
Trusts
A revocable living trust is a legal relationship where a trustee holds title to trust assets for the benefit of the trust beneficiary. The person who creates the trust and transfers his or her assets to it is called the grantor or settlor.
Power of Attorney
An effective estate plan usually includes a will, a trust, a durable general power of attorney, and a designation of patient advocate. It is well worth the time and effort to put an estate plan into place because the plan will enable you to achieve important protections for yourself and your family.
Our Ann Arbor, Birmingham and Detroit real estate attorneys provide experienced litigation, bankruptcy, foreclosure, receivership and loan work-out services, as well as engage in restructurings and reorganizations.
Tax Law
The bedrock of Berry Moorman’s excellent reputation was founded in tax law, starting with Raymond H. Berry, a renowned estate tax lawyer, who founded our Firm to represent Horace and John Dodge in recovering taxes on the profit from the sale of their shares of Ford Motor Company. Through the years, we have been involved in a number of noteworthy tax matters, including our successful representation of Mr. Clarence P. Chamberlin in the first preferred stock bailout case, which resulted in the adoption of Section 306 of the Internal Revenue Code; our representation of the American Automobile Association before the U.S. Supreme Court to challenge the IRS’s taxation of subscription payments in the year received; and our role as appraiser of the shares of Hudson Motor Car Co. in connection with that company’s merger into American Motors Corporation.