Practice Areas

Platt Richmond attorneys provide solutions to clients in distressed asset and special situation matters, allowing clients to maximize value, minimize costs, and position for the future. We represent boards of directors, management, owners, creditors, lenders, investors and acquirors in the full spectrum of in- and out-of-court restructuring transactions, including claim prosecution, financial recapitalizations, acquisitions and liquidations. Our lawyers also advise on insolvency issues in corporate and financing transactions.

Whether asserting claims, negotiating a debtor’s chapter 11 plan to maximize return, or advising on executory contracts and other issues to resume normal business operations, Platt Richmond leverages its experience with insolvency laws to help clients achieve their bottom-line business goals.

Platt Richmond’s representative experience includes:

• Claim prosecution for creditors, including financial institutions, landlords, trade vendors, and other stakeholders
• Distressed asset acquisitions under Section 363
• Management advisory on corporate and financial structuring considerations for bankruptcy risk minimization
• Secured creditor foreclosures under state and federal law
• Insolvency litigation, including prosecution and defense of state and federal fraudulent transfer and preference claims
• Debt workout negotiations on behalf of lenders and borrowers

Whether a client focuses on real estate deals or corporate transactions, the tax considerations are critical yet ever-changing from a regulatory and legal standpoint. Unique among firms of our size and value, Platt Richmond provides national quality tax planning and structuring counsel for business transactions of all types.

Platt Richmond’s representative tax experience includes:

• Business structure and succession planning, including choice of entity (partnership, limited liability companies, S corporations, and C corporations), joint venture ownership and waterfall structuring, and reorganizations with an eye to tax optimization
• Transaction tax planning and structuring, including sale of assets or equity, tax deferred like-kind exchanges, rollover equity, and the availability of special tax regimes or benefits such as Section 1202
• Section 1031 transactions
• Executive compensation and employee incentive equity benefit plans and related issues, including applicability of Sections 280G and 409A, options, profits interests, phantom equity, and deferred compensation plans
• Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund organization and transaction structuring
• Cross-border, state, and local tax planning and restructuring
• Cryptocurrency and DeFi taxation
• Federal and state tax controversy matters, including examinations and appeals

Platt Richmond represents corporate clients in a variety of complex commercial and intellectual property disputes. Our clients, including Fortune 100 companies, trust Platt Richmond with resolving matters involving contractual, statutory, and business tort cases, including:

• Business disputes and fraud, including litigation regarding contracts with vendors, competitors, and employees
• Real estate litigation, including disputes regarding leases, acquisitions, financing, and easements
• Partnership, corporation, LLC, and other entity disputes between owners
• Legal proceedings and lawsuits over trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets
• Class action defense
• Cryptocurrency litigation

Platt Richmond’s team of litigators and trial lawyers practice in state and federal courts across the country, and are experienced in all aspects of dispute resolution. Whether mediation, arbitration, jury trials or appeals, Platt Richmond offers our commercial clients efficient and effective representation in their most critical controversies.

Platt Richmond offers robust services on commercial real estate transactions representing developers, sponsors, investors, lenders, landlords, tenants, and Fortune 500 companies. Core deals handled by Platt Richmond’s real estate section include leasing, acquisitions, sales, and loan transactions as well as corporate and tax considerations in deal structuring, entity formation, and joint ventures.

Platt Richmond’s attorneys have experience with a variety of types and asset classes including hospitality, restaurants, industrial, office, multi-family, residential developments, mixed use, distressed assets, oil and gas real estate, raw land, and farm and ranch.

Platt Richmond partners with employers to be a front-line guard in risk mitigation and strategic employment law planning. This collaborative consultation includes counseling on and preparing company policies, handbooks, and employment agreements to help mitigate risk, reduce potential litigation exposure, and ultimately reduce costs and internal employee dissatisfaction.

For employers in the midst of conflict, we bring a diverse litigation team to bear as your zealous advocate. We are trial-tested, experienced litigators that have represented companies of all sizes in employment law claims, arising from:

• The Texas Labor Code (including Chapters 21 and 451)
• The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
• The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Title VII
• Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)
• The Texas Whistleblower Act
• The Texas Citizens Participation Act (“Anti-SLAPP”)
• The Equal Pay Act
• The Pregnancy Discrimination Act

We also represent clients litigating disputes involving restrictive covenants such as non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, as well as conflicts over use of trade secrets and other confidential information. Translating this expertise, we also counsel executives and physicians in the negotiation of their employment agreements, compensation and incentive plans and strategic planning of legacy and exit strategies.

Platt Richmond represents both lenders and borrowers in connection with commercial loans of various kinds, including senior, mezzanine, royalty-based, and receivables purchasing. Our lender clients include banks, debt-focused investment funds and other non-bank lenders. Our borrower clients include operating businesses, investment funds and their affiliates, and non-profits. Platt Richmond’s corporate finance experience includes leveraged buyout transactions, management buyouts, and growth capital loans. We have extensive experience with matters involving collateral, guarantees, and other credit support.

Platt Richmond’s representative experience includes:

• Senior secured loans by banks and non-bank lenders
• Mezzanine loans (often with warrants or minority equity investments) by investment funds
• Royalty-based loans by investment funds
• Intercreditor agreements
• LBOs and MBOs
• Factoring and other receivables purchasing
• Merchant cash advances and other distressed lending

On the real estate finance side, Platt Richmond has extensive sophisticated experience representing lenders and investors in the senior debt, junior and mezzanine debt, and equity financing of complex commercial real estate transactions. Platt Richmond represents various regional banks and non-traditional lenders in managing the legal side of real estate lending transactions.

Platt Richmond’s Land Use and Zoning practice focuses on helping clients navigate legal issues around permitting, construction, entitlements, zoning, and other real estate development matters.

From government approvals/incentives to public/private partnerships, Platt Richmond is experienced in the full development life cycle of “earth to exit” development including issues particular to construction companies, general contractors, and related development stakeholders.

Platt Richmond is also uniquely situated to handle Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) disputes.

• Media contracts including licensing, likeness, creative works, advertising/sponsorship, and fulfillment
• Social media regulatory compliance and dispute resolution
• Sports law issues including
  • Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) agreements
  • Advertising/sponsorship agreements, and
  • Venue contract agreements and disputes
• Trademark and Copyrights
  • Obtaining trademark and copyright protection/registration
  • Prosecuting and defending before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); Federal TTAB Appeals
  • Civil Disputes Regarding Trademark and Copyright Infringement, including enforcement and defense

Platt Richmond represents businesses, investors, and entrepreneurs in connection with corporate deals, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, and private equity or venture capital financing. Platt Richmond also assists in the formation and organization of startups with a variety of growth models, including venture capital, real estate sponsor, professional service businesses, and traditional family-owned small business, and all of it in a variety of industries including in the real estate, health care, insurance and software/technology sectors.

Platt Richmond’s representative experience includes:

• Acquisition or sale of operating businesses through asset, stock, or merger transactions
• Formation and organization of startup businesses with a venture capital growth model or a sole proprietor or family business
• Outside general counsel—governance, risk management, and contractual matters

Platt Richmond represents non-profit organizations, social entrepreneurs, social investors and other changemakers in connection with non-profit formations, tax exempt applications, social enterprise structuring, governance, impact investing, fiscal sponsorships, loans, non-profit mergers and acquisitions, and other transactions. We also represent clients in this sector in connection with disputes with vendors and other third parties, leases and other real estate matters, issues relating to intellectual property and licensing, and employment matters.

Platt Richmond’s representative experience includes:

• Tax exemption applications
• Formation and organization of non-profits
• Outside general counsel representation of non-profits—governance, risk management, employment, real estate, IP and contractual matters
• Structuring social businesses and enterprises
• Structuring impact investments
• Establishing fiscal sponsorships
• Mergers and acquisitions involving non-profits
• Loans to non-profits
• Litigation and other dispute resolution

Platt Richmond advises established operating companies, investment vehicles, and earlier-stage businesses on capital formation and exempt securities offerings.  Our expertise in this area includes representing sponsors on the formation and capital structure of private investment funds, including real estate funds, as well as independent sponsors, special purpose investment vehicles, and joint ventures.

• Private securities issuances and capital raising;
• Independent sponsor, search fund, pledge fund and similar structures;
• Family office, private investment funds transactions, and joint ventures and other investments;
• Seed, venture capital, and other earlier-stage financings, such as SAFEs, convertible notes, and preferred stock