Commercial Law Counseling

Chambers USA Ranked Morris Nichols First Among Delaware Law Firms in Corporate / Mergers and Acquisitions...

"This prestigious practice sustains its position at the top of the market and impresses clients by consistently hitting the mark without wasting a single breath.  With an impressive armory of resources, it is responsive and accessible, and is a favorite of clients for structurally complex international projects and joint ventures."

The Commercial Law Counseling Group provides a complete range of commercial law services to Morris Nichols’ local, national and international clients.  The Group handles a variety of complex transactions, including mergers, asset acquisitions and sales, joint ventures, leasing transactions and financing, bankruptcy related transactions, and business startups, as well as the preparation of contracts of all types.  In addition, because Delaware law is often selected as the governing law for major national and international transactions, the Group works with both in-house and regular outside counsel in the structuring and documenting of such transactions and provides legal opinions required at closing.

Alternative Entities.  Delaware has the most advanced statutes governing the formation and operation of limited liability companies, general and limited partnerships, and statutory business trusts.  These alternative entities are often required in complex transactions for structural flexibility and optimal tax treatment.  Typical applications for alternative entities include investment funds, joint ventures, holding companies, securitization vehicles, collateral trusts and mutual funds.  The Commercial Law Counseling Group provides specialized advice and legal opinion services for all types of alternative entity transactions.

Banking and Financial Services.  The Commercial Law Counseling Group represents lenders, borrowers, issuers, and investors in all forms of financing transactions.  Morris Nichols’ institutional financing clients include banks, S&Ls, insurance companies, finance companies and credit corporations.  The Commercial Law Counseling Group provides bank and insurance regulatory counseling and represents clients before the Office of the State Bank Commissioner and the Department of Insurance.

Governmental Affairs.  The Commercial Law Counseling Group represents clients before legislative bodies and city, state and federal agencies on diverse topics including bank, insurance, environmental and utility regulation as well as unclaimed property issues.  The Group drafts legislation and regulations that affect client businesses and provides ongoing review of legislative and regulatory developments.  The Group also advises public sector clients on matters such as labor and employment law, financing, construction, bidding procedures and general contract law.

Real Estate.  The Commercial Law Counseling Group provides a complete range of real estate law services to corporate, institutional and other clients, including institutional lenders, institutional and entrepreneurial developers, local business interests, charitable foundations, families and individuals.  The Group provides legal advice with respect to planning, zoning, subdivision and development of real property, environmental matters and contracts for purchase and sale of residential and commercial property.  The Group represents lenders and borrowers in the financing, acquisition and development of residential, commercial and industrial property, and landlords and tenants in the leasing of property of all types.

News

• Eighteen Morris Nichols Attorneys Recognized In Best Lawyers In America 2008
  According to Best Lawyers, Morris Nichols had the highest number of attorneys named in Delaware in the practice areas of commercial litigation (5) and corporate law (10).
• Seventeen Partners and Five Practice Areas Recognized by Chambers & Partners USA
  Morris Nichols Ranked First in Delaware for Chancery, Corporate/M&A, and Intellectual Property Law and Second in the State in Bankruptcy/Restructuring and Real Estate.
• Twelve Morris Nichols Partners Selected For Inclusion in Delaware "Super Lawyers"
  The Delaware "Super Lawyers” list represents the top attorneys throughout the state who have achieved high standards for their legal ability, and are recognized by their peers and in the business community for their legal prowess in their individual practice areas.
• Five Partners Named to The 2007 International Who's Who of Business Lawyers
  Frederick H. Alexander, Lewis S. Black , John F. Johnston, Kenneth J. Nachbar, and A. Gilchrist Sparks, III have been recognized in Who’s Who Legal – The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, 2007 Edition.
• BNA Unclaimed Property Treatise Co-Authored by Morris Nichols Attorneys
  Partners Michael Houghton and Walter C. Tuthill led a team of attorneys at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP in writing a comprehensive analysis of the law of unclaimed property, recently released by the nationally recognized legal publisher, the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA). Jointly authored by Morris Nichols and the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP, the treatise is published in BNA’s Corporate Practice Series Portfolio 74-2nd “Unclaimed Property.” [Michael Houghton et al., Unclaimed Property, 74-2nd C.P.S. (BNA)]

Publications

• Louis G. Hering, David A. Harris, 2008 Cumulative Survey of Delaware Case Law Relating to Alternative Entities (February 1, 2008). Presented at 2008 ABA Annual Meeting, Section of Business Law
• Houghton, Michael, Walter Tuthill, Josiah Osibodu, Valerie Jundt, and Mark Paolillo, Unclaimed Property BNA Corporate Practice Series No. 74-2nd (2006)
• Louis G. Hering, David A. Harris, 2006 Cumulative Survey of Delaware Case Law Relating to Alternative Entities (June 16, 2006). Presented at 2006 ABA Annual Meeting, Section of Business Law
• Louis G. Hering, Stanford L. Stevenson, III and David A. Harris, Limited Liability Companies: Legal Assets of Organization, Operation and Dissolution The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., C.P.S. 67-2nd. (2006)
• Louis G. Hering, David A. Harris, 2005 Cumulative Survey of Delaware Case Law Relating to Alternative Entities (July 31, 2005). Presented at 2005 ABA Annual Meeting, Section of Business Law
• David A. Harris, Recent Case Law Developments Relating to Delaware's Alternative Entities Delaware Law Review, Vol. 7, No 2 (2004)
• Michael Houghton, William M. Lafferty, Andrew H. Lippstone, The Expansion of the Delaware Court of Chancery's Jurisdiction to Adjudicate or Mediate Certain "Technology Disputes" -- An Evolution, Not a Revolution ABA Network: The Newsletter of the Business Law Section, Committee on Business and Corporate Litigation, Vol. 11, Issue 1 (Spring 2003)
• David Ley Hamilton, Michael Houghton, New Filings Under Revised Article 9– A Delaware Perspective Business Law Today, March/April 2002, at 57
• David Ley Hamilton, David A. Harris, Delaware Enacts Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (February 13, 2001)
• Louis G. Hering, David A. Harris, Recent Case Law Developments Relating to Delaware's Alternative Entities Delaware Law Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2000)
• Walter C. Tuthill, Thomas R. Pulsifer, Louis G. Hering, Limited Liability Companies: Legal Aspects of Organization, Operation and Dissolution The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.