Areas of Practice
Partnership/Corporate/Family/Inheritance and Will Contests

Mr. Fish has extensive experience representing individuals and businesses in partnership, corporate and family disputes. Disputes with family members, business partners, customers, or other companies can be daunting. It is important to know when to fight, when to settle, and how to avoid getting into these disputes in the first place.

Examples of cases Mr. Fish has handled:

• Representing franchisors and franchisees in disputes throughout the United States. These disputes often involve the violation of non-compete agreements, the non-payment of franchisee fees, the violation of terms of a franchise agreement, and intellectual property issues.
• Representing family members in disputes over inheritances, jointly held property, jointly owned businesses, and jointly owned investments.
• Represented partners and shareholders in disputes over how profits are being shared, accounted, allocated, and distributed.
• Representing companies in disputes with creditors, debtors, shareholders, officers, and directors.

  Click here for our July 2008 Newsletter which discusses minority shareholder rights in corporate disputes.

  
  

Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Minority Shareholder Litigation

In defending a $9 million shareholder derivative lawsuit, Mr. Fish achieved a complete defense victory as the 14 plaintiffs dismissed their lawsuit without his clients paying anything. The lawsuit alleged our client had: looted the company of assets, committed fraud in obtaining investors, and violated minority shareholders' rights by oppressively operating the corporation. (DuPage County, Judge Popejoy, 2005)

In 2007, Mr. Fish recovered $1.3 million on behalf of a group of minority shareholders of a community bank in Harvard, Illinois. The lawsuit alleged that certain directors of the bank had breached their fiduciary duties under Illinois law to a class of shareholders when the bank converted from being a subchapter C to a subchapter S corporation. The case was filed in the Northern District of Illinois and the Honorable Judge Joan F. Lefkow appointed David Fish to serve as co-lead Class Counsel for the minority shareholders who were forced to sell their stock. See Shearon v. Harvard Bancshares, et al, 240 F.R.D. 383 (N.D. Ill. 2006)

Shareholder Litigation

A former shareholder of an Illinois corporation retained The Fish Law Firm, P.C. after creditors of the Illinois company sought to "pierce the corporate veil" by suing him, and two other shareholders of the same company, for fraud. Mr. Fish's client was dismissed from the case, with prejudice, a few months before trial was scheduled. However, the remaining shareholder defendants (who were not Fish Law Firm clients) were unsuccessful in having the cases dismissed. (CAE Management, Inc. v. Fox Valley Investments, LLC, Judge Wheaton, DuPage County, December 2007)

The Fish Law Firm defended an Illinois corporation after one of its former officers (who owned 49% of its stock) sued for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, violations of ERISA, seeking the payment of dividends, and requesting dissolution. The lawsuit settled on very favorable terms shortly after we filed a counterclaim alleging that the 49% owner had breached his fiduciary duties by: engaging in a ghost payroll scheme by paying himself when he did not show up to work, used company assets for personal expenses, stole company equipment, and committed negligence by neglecting his duties when he was employed. (August 2008, Judge Popejoy, DuPage County, Illinois)