Corporate Litigation Lawyers Worldwide.

These lawyers handle “business divorces” and high-stakes internal fights. Their caseload is dominated by breach of contract (when a deal goes wrong), partnership disputes (when co-founders can’t agree), and shareholder oppression (when minority owners are frozen out). They also handle intellectual property theft if an ex-employee steals trade secrets, and M&A litigation if a company is bought and the new owners discover they were lied to about the finances.

A derivative suit is a lawsuit filed by a shareholder on behalf of the company, not for themselves personally. It happens when the company’s directors are the ones breaking the law (like stealing money or committing fraud). Since those directors obviously won’t vote to sue themselves, the law allows a shareholder to step into their shoes and file the lawsuit for them. If the suit wins, the money goes into the company’s bank account, not the shareholder’s pocket, though the company usually pays the shareholder’s legal fees.

Yes, and it is usually much cheaper than litigation. A lawyer can initiate Mediation, where a neutral third party helps the partners negotiate a settlement, or Arbitration, which is a private, faster version of a trial. If the relationship is unsalvageable, a lawyer often negotiates a “buy-out” using a Buy-Sell Agreement (if one exists), allowing one partner to purchase the other’s shares at a fair, appraised price so the business can survive the split.

The Business Judgment Rule is a legal presumption that protects directors from being sued just because a business decision turned out badly. It assumes that directors acted in good faith, with adequate information, and in the honest belief that they were helping the company. As long as you didn’t commit fraud, break the law, or act with a massive conflict of interest (like buying a building from your own brother), the court will not “second-guess” your strategy, even if it lost the company millions of dollars.

To win this claim, you must prove that a director violated one of their two core duties: the Duty of Care (they were lazy, ignored red flags, or didn’t read contracts before signing) or the Duty of Loyalty (they stole a corporate opportunity or put their own profit above the company’s). You need hard evidence, such as emails showing they hid information from the board or bank records proving they diverted company funds to a personal account.

Yes, through a process called “Judicial Dissolution.” If 50/50 partners are hopelessly stuck and the business is suffering (e.g., bills aren’t getting paid because no one can sign checks), a lawyer can petition a judge to forcibly close the company. The judge will typically order the company’s assets to be sold (liquidated) and the cash split between the owners, or they may appoint a “Receiver” (a neutral temporary CEO) to run the company until it can be sold to a third party.

The difference depends on who actually got hurt. If you personally lost money (e.g., the company refused to let you vote or didn’t pay your specific dividend), you file a Direct Lawsuit to recover your own losses. If the company lost money (e.g., the CEO wasted millions on a bad acquisition), you file a Derivative Lawsuit because the harm was to the corporate entity, and any money won must go back to the company to make it whole.

These disputes usually happen when a buyer realizes the company isn’t as profitable as the seller promised. A lawyer fights these battles over “Indemnification Claims” (demanding money back for hidden liabilities like unpaid taxes) or “Earn-Outs” (where the seller was promised a bonus if the company hit certain targets). The lawyer’s job is to prove whether the accounting numbers were calculated correctly according to the strict formulas in the purchase agreement.