We offer a wide range of business planning, counseling, and litigation services for a variety of entities and individuals, particularly in connection with family businesses, privately held businesses, and emerging businesses. We are especially qualified to serve the needs of entrepreneurs because we are able to coordinate personal and business finances in designing tax-minimizing estate plans that deal with the succession of business ownership, intellectual property, and other business issues in ways that benefit the family and the business. We also assist in asset-protection planning by arranging access, control, management, and ownership of assets to preserve value for the family or business against the risk of claims by creditors.

We additionally offer a full range of estate planning and succession services, helping to structure our clients’ financial affairs to increase the legacy to their families by minimizing the taxes to be paid upon death. We have helped hundreds of clients with estates, Wills, trusts, charitable giving, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, marital property agreements, powers of attorney, and other ancillary documents related to wealth of various magnitudes and degrees of complexity.

In addition, we handle all facets of estate and trust administration. As part of that process, we prepare and file federal estate and gift tax returns, advise and represent clients undergoing tax examinations, and guide the distribution of trust and estate assets. Our work includes the removal and appointment of executors and trustees and the representation of fiduciaries and beneficiaries in litigation.

A principal focus at Finley Law Group is our mergers and acquisitions practice. We have substantial skill and experience in facilitating the structuring, financing, and successful completion of acquisitions, divestitures, investments, mergers, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and recapitalizations.

Finley Law Group’s merger and acquisitions engagements encompass virtually all sizes, degrees of complexity, and industries. Our clients include both domestic and foreign companies, privately held and venture-backed companies, partnerships, private equity firms, management groups, and entrepreneurs.

We represent both sellers and buyers in transactions and use our tax, employment, banking, ERISA, real estate, intellectual property, and other areas of expertise to complement our core transactional experience in structuring, negotiating, and closing transactions for our clients.

Taxes are said to be certainties. Every level of government has ever-changing tax policies and regulations; and, as the rules change, interpretation requires experience and skill. Our tax practice encompasses all areas of tax planning, counseling, and litigation services for both businesses and individuals. We are experienced in forming entities; structuring domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate transactions; designing and preparing partnership and limited liability company agreements; and configuring real estate and other investment transactions, always taking into account our clients’ business strategies and the tax implications of these transactions.

In addition to larger enterprises, we also represent family businesses, privately held businesses, and emerging businesses. We help clients decided whether a limited liability company, a partnership, a strategic alliance, or a corporate entity is best for them, considering their growth and financial objectives.

Examples of engagements in which we advise clients on international, federal, state, and local taxation, include the following:

• Structuring transactions to achieve business goals in the most tax-efficient manner;
• Organizing ownership structures to minimize taxes while achieving clients’ business objectives;
• Representing clients in tax examinations through administrative levels of the Internal Revenue Service and state and local taxing authorities;
• Pursuing judicial relief in the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and in the federal and state courts;
• Establishing and advising various tax-exempt organizations;
• Preparing and submitting ruling requests to the Internal Revenue Service and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts; and
• Providing advice regarding income, employment, and state and local tax reporting.

Clients turn to Finley Law Group for counseling in business matters. We represent domestic and foreign companies, privately held, family-owned, and venture-backed companies, partnerships, private equity firms, management groups, and entrepreneurs.

Our experience includes corporate governance counseling, general corporate representation, e-commerce and internet transactions, energy transactions, international transactions, outsourcing transactions, private equity and venture capital matters, and technology transactions and licensing. We often function as outside general counsel for clients without internal legal staffs, and assist with all their legal needs, including structuring, negotiating, and documenting commercial transactions, supply and distribution agreements, license agreements, and executive compensation and other employment-related agreements.

Our clients also call on us to advise them on the appropriate entity for their business, taking into account tax and other considerations. We routinely assist in structuring new corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and other business entities, and providing guidance on corporate governance and shareholder and buy-sell agreements.

Finley Law Group is experienced in representing and advising directors, executive officers, controlling and minority shareholders, and other constituencies on governance issues. Our representations include such matters as director duties, disclosure obligations, governance documents, executive compensation, stockholder and director meetings, director and officer liability issues, and regulatory compliance. Although we have extensive experience with Texas business organizations, we also regularly counsel our clients on the advantages of using Delaware entities.

With more than 30 years of experience, Mr. Finley has worked with hundreds of clients to develop estate plans, wills, trusts, family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, powers of attorney, and other ancillary documents. He advises clients on critical structural and business formation issues, and provides counsel to clients involved in federal tax controversies and disputes with the IRS.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma (1978) and The University of Texas School of Law (1981), Mr. Finley has since lectured at the University of Tulsa College of Law, the Oklahoma Bar Association, Smith Barney, Inc., and the National Association of Credit Managers. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Dallas Estate Planning Council, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Between April 1969 and April 1975 Mr. Finley served in the Submarine Service of the U.S. Navy.

Lawyer W. Finley | Top Attorney Business

Jean Jones is a legal assistant with more than 20 years of experience in the legal profession. Ms. Jones is responsible for the organization and maintenance of Finley Law Group’s client document database, as well as the execution of routine legal tasks not requiring the skills of a lawyer.

Cassie Fisher is an administrative assistant at Finley Law Group. Ms. Fisher’s professional responsibilities run the gamut from facilitating day-to-day operations at the firm to scheduling client meetings and other organizational tasks.