Corporate Law
Madu, Edozie and Madu is able to handle a broad range of matters in the area of Corporate and Partnership Law Litigation, including cases involving consent and proxy solicitations, controlling and minority shareholder issues, misappropriation of corporate opportunities, director and shareholder meeting formalities, enjoining competitors from appropriating trade secrets, the fiduciary duty of directors, formation and operation of special committees, officers, shareholders and partners, indemnification, interested director transactions and questions concerning limitations of liability and piercing the corporate veil.
The firm is also positioned to handle disputes arising under stockholder and trust agreements; actions seeking review of elections to determine the rightful directors and officers of the corporation; inspection of the stock lists, books and records of a company; appraisal of securities; dissolutions; and appointment of custodians and receivers for insolvent or deadlocked corporations.
Corporate and partnership disputes frequently involve businesses from different states, many of which often file an action in their home state in order to secure some strategic benefit. The firm is also able to represent clients regularly in such cases, including conflicts concerning first-filed forum selections, choice of law determinations, proper assertions of personal jurisdiction, effective service of process, questions of inconvenient forum and the preclusion of judgments obtained in different courts. Madu, Edozie, and Madu, therefore, is uniquely positioned to assist clients in resolving issues of corporate and partnership law governance, fiduciary duty and operation whenever such is needed.
Read MoreCommercial Litigation
Litigators in Madu, Edozie and Madu’s Commercial Litigation Department have represented clients in a broad spectrum of business and commercial litigation matters in state and federal jurisdictions in the United States as well as in Canada and Africa. Their clients include government and private domestic and international corporations, banking and financial institutions, real estate development companies, partnerships, foundations, nonprofit associations, professional corporations, sole proprietors and individuals. Their litigated matters include a wide variety of commercial transactions as well as contract matters, business and securities litigation, restrictive covenants, trade secrets and confidential information disputes, bank fraud claims, municipal and government liability, civil and constitutional rights, business torts, real estate disputes, trust and estate cases.
When appropriate and cost-efficient, they represent clients in alternative dispute settings such as mediation, arbitration, appraisals and other effective alternatives to the traditional litigation model. The department’s attorneys have tried cases to verdict, or have successfully defended, numerous matters.
Attorneys in the department have been able to attract such a diverse roster of clients, and to secure successful results for them, for two reasons. The first is their skill, creativity and wide-ranging experience. The second, and of equal importance, is their emphasis on direct relationships with clients on a personal level, with a particular sensitivity to each client’s business and financial needs and time constraints.
Read MoreArbitration
Madu, Edozie & Madu, P.C provides the highest-quality legal representation for complex international commercial arbitrations, international construction arbitrations, and investor-State arbitrations, combining excellence, rigor, experience and an outstanding track record with the best rates available for high-quality international arbitration legal representation, in order to offer exceptional value to its clients.
Arbitration is a type of alternative dispute resolution process in which parties that have a legal dispute forego the court process and submit their case to an arbitrator or arbitration panel to decide the matter. Arbitration is still litigation since the parties will want to conduct the usual discovery including requesting relevant documents, submitting interrogatory questions, and taking depositions. However, the parties have the ability to mutually select an arbitrator that they feel will be impartial and fair and may restrict the issues to be decided and modify the rules of evidence and procedure by agreement.
The prime advantage of arbitration is that it is generally less expensive and gets your dispute resolved much faster without the constant delays that characterize most courts because of lack of courtrooms, judges and the flood of litigants waiting for their day in court, which can take years in some cases. The testimony of experts can be submitted by report or deposition transcript that can save litigant thousands of dollars and without worrying about subpoenaing witnesses or their availability. The parties can decide when it is time to arbitrate and not be concerned with the vagaries of jury selection, juror improprieties, or a judge’s schedule. Should the parties wish to delay a hearing, they can do so on their own terms.
The arbitration process consists of:
- The parties agree to binding arbitration
- They select a mutually acceptable arbitrator and agree to split the fees equally or have the losing party bear the costs
- Deciding on which issues to arbitrate; agreeing on which facts are not in dispute
- Crafting an agreement on how evidence will be handled–live testimony or by deposition transcripts, exhibits, and submission of documentary evidence such as medical records and reports, employment and school records without the need for formal foundation requirements, or reports or testimony submitted with notarized affidavits and under penalty of perjury
- Any other conditions such as length of time to present a case or presentation of the issues
- An arbitrator’s finding or verdict is binding and generally not subject to appeal unless the aggrieved party can demonstrate undue bias, fraud, corruption or partiality on the part of the arbitrator.
In theory, any legal matter in dispute can be arbitrated. The firm works hand-in-hand with clients in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa, allowing them to play as significant a role in the resolution of their dispute as they desire. It also frequently collaborates with co-counsel who have less experience in the intricacies of arbitration law and procedure but are seeking a firm that rigorously respects the boundaries of pre-existing client relationships.
Read MoreAfrica Practice
Madu, Edozie & Madu Law Service Firm responds to the needs of its clients in Africa and beyond specializing in providing client support on litigation, arbitration, and alternative dispute resolution. Our unique understanding of the political, cultural, linguistic and legal nuances in handling transactions in multiple jurisdictions makes us the leader and go to firm when it comes to helping clients overcome challenges and avoid pitfalls of doing business on the continent.
Read MoreReal Estate Law
Estate Planning and Administration
The firm has experience in estate planning and the administration of estates and trusts. The firm provides counsel during the initial estate planning phase and prepares wills, durable powers of attorney, living wills and other instruments that employ lifetime transfer techniques and other estate planning strategies.
Various alternatives are utilized to maximize a client’s estate planning goals while minimizing income, gift, estate, inheritance and generation-skipping tax consequences, including the use of testamentary and inter vivos credit and marital trusts, generation-skipping trusts, revocable and irrevocable trusts, insurance trusts, special needs trusts, charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts, personal residence trusts, GRATS, GRUTS, family partnerships, charitable foundations and other sophisticated estate planning tools. The firm also provides representation and assistance in the actual administration of the estate or trust, including postmortem tax and economic planning. Finally, the firm’s attorneys have experience in estate and trust controversies and litigation.
Real Estate
The Real Estate section represents a broad variety of clients engaged in all facets of real estate development, ownership, financing, acquisition, disposition, investing and leasing.
Clients include developers, investors, retail and office tenants, real estate brokers and managers, banks, and other lending institutions, title insurance companies, architects and building contractors.
Our attorneys have also been engaged in condemnation, real estate tax reassessment appeals and condominium conversions.
Because real estate is often an integral facet of other commercial and financial transactions, the firm’s real estate attorneys often work on major corporate transactions in concert with other attorneys in other departments.
Real Estate Litigation
Madu, Edozie and Madu’s Commercial Litigation Department is able to call upon its dedicated and knowledgeable attorneys to assist clients with litigation needs arising out of their real estate interests. Whether by way of leasehold or ownership, substantially all commercial entities at one time or another face issues attendant to their real estate holdings. When these issues arise, Madu, Edozie and Madu’s litigators are adept at resolving disputes, through either traditional litigation or alternative dispute resolution.
Firm attorneys have pursued and defended actions in federal and state court in which claims for breach of agreements to sell commercial real estate or for fraud in connection with commercial real estate agreements is asserted. These actions involve disputes arising out of aborted closings because of a seller’s alleged inability to deliver marketable title and circumstances in which a seller is alleged to have made misrepresentations as to the condition of the property or zoning or other land-use restrictions.
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