Business, Commercial & Real Estate Litigation

Our Firm is experienced in handling matters in all state and federal courts in central and eastern Massachusetts, as well as appellate litigation; with emphasis in all areas of commercial creditor issues, business litigation and real estate litigation. We represent clients successfully in a wide range of business litigation, including contract, commercial and construction disputes, and in real estate litigation, particularly, lately, relating to marketability and insurability of title issues. We also represent many business clients in litigation arising from contract disputes including employment issues, non-compete agreements, failure to pay, and distributorship agreements.

When litigation is necessary, we represent your interests aggressively and ethically; seeking positive results in the most efficient and economical way possible. We emphasize keeping our clients informed of the progress of their case to be sure that they have the information they need to understand the litigation process and the cost of litigation.

Commercial Work-Out and Loan Recovery

Howard B. D’Amico, PC has spent over twenty years successfully representing banks, credit unions, private corporate lenders and individuals, in loan workout, asset recovery and collection. We represent lenders on residential and commercial foreclosure work and in bankruptcy court, as necessary. We can represent creditors on all aspects of their debt recovery needs, from suits, attachments, injunctions and wage attachments in state court, to relief from stay, cash collateral stipulations and disclosure statement review and plan confirmation hearings in bankruptcy court.

Family Business Dispute Litigation

Over the years, we have had many clients involved in family business disputes, over estate proceeds or real estate disposition, over monies loaned to family members but not paid back, over ownership interests in family small businesses, or over compensation disputes with siblings or other family members. We try to handle these matters as delicately as possible, while still trying to obtain the best result for our client.

Negotiating Contracts

We have successfully negotiated terms and contracts for clients, ranging from employment or non-compete agreements, to commercial leases, to purchase and sale agreements, to equity participation agreements. We can negotiate and document any contract you need, whether the other party is represented by local counsel and the agreement is three pages long, or there is national counsel involved and the contract documents involve hundreds of pages of word by word fine tuning.

Business Counsel and Transactions

We provide legal advice and counsel in all aspects of business law. We structure many different forms of contract, shareholder agreements, stock option and deferred compensation agreements. Other practice areas include corporate, LLC, LLP, and partnership strategy, joint ventures, franchise law, and protection of technologies and proprietary information.

Corporate Strategy and Business Organization

We advise our clients continuously on the advantages and disadvantages of the available forms of business organization and structure: Incorporation, Limited Liability Corporations, Partnerships. We strive to keep our clients updated on changes in the law which may affect corporate strategy and business organization.

Pre-Litigation Strategy & Negotiation

We believe one of our great strengths is in pre-litigation and litigation strategy and negotiation. We try to provide clients with a very early perception of where we think litigation might go, including in terms of time, litigiousness, cost and likelihood of recovery. We think that too often emphasis is placed on 'winning' at all costs, when, at the end of a trial a client could wind up with a large judgment that they cannot collect on. We think that, from the start, it's important to analyze cost, likelihood of a successful trial or judgment result, and the likelihood of recovering money on that judgment. At D'Amico & Chenelle, our litigation focus is always on getting you the best net result - factoring in your time and costs - rather than on just getting an expensive judgment that may still take you additional years to successfully withstand an appeal, and more time to collect. We always try to focus on the best net financial result, not on some pyrrhic victory.

Alternative Dispute Resolution: Arbitration and Mediation

We are experienced in representing clients in various forms of alternative dispute resolution. Mediation and arbitration can often be a faster and more economical means of resolving business disputes; we provide our clients with the information and counsel needed to make wise business decisions in this respect. We have had a number of successful arbitration results before the American Arbitration Association and we have repeatedly, successfully used various local and regional mediation forums to obtain successful results for clients.