Litigation

Our litigators have decades of experience taking cases to trial and winning. We begin each representation by carefully listening to our clients and understanding their goals. Many clients have one goal: prevailing in the trial court, efficiently and overwhelmingly. In those instances, we look ahead to our closing argument from the outset and remain focused on obtaining an outcome in our client’s favor. Some clients wish to avoid the courtroom. For those clients, we investigate and analyze their leverage and pursue settlement on our client’s terms. Aggressive, experienced, attentive, thorough and victorious: those are the words we want our clients to use to describe us.

Business Litigation

Business litigation can be detrimental to a business. It can ruin relationships, take focus away from general operations, and have many other negative impacts. A few of the most common disputes that arise in business litigation include:

• Contract disputes: When two parties enter into a contract, they each have certain rights and responsibilities. These are not always upheld and when that occurs, the case typically needs to go to court.
• Partnership and shareholder disputes: Going into business with someone does not always go smoothly. When partners and shareholders become involved in a dispute and cannot resolve it on their own, they must enter litigation.
• Intellectual property disputes: Not all property is tangible, and that makes issues surrounding trademarks, copyright, advertising methods, and manufacturing processes even more difficult.
• Employment disputes: Employers and employees do not always agree, especially when matters of discipline, separation, termination, or alleged discrimination are involved. When this is the case and the two parties cannot come to an agreement, they can enter litigation to resolve the dispute.

All of these disputes involve very complex issues and a Chicago litigation lawyer can help with all of them.

Tax Litigation

When a taxpayer cannot or does not desire to settle a matter against the IRS at the administrative level (i.e., during an audit or appeals within the IRS), sometimes it is necessary to interpose litigation against the IRS or the United States of America.  The members of the Tax Controversy and Tax Litigation Team at Harrison & Held, LLP regularly litigate federal tax cases in the United States Tax Court, United States District Court, and the United States Court of Federal Claims.  The type of tax, the type of taxpayer, and other facts and circumstances will determine which court to a taxpayer will file a Petition or Complaint.

Harrison & Held, LLP’s Tax Controversy and Tax Litigation Team generally commences litigation for a taxpayer as a last resort.  The firm strives to be resourceful while, at the same time, representing a client’s interests effectively in the litigation process.  Thus, in the litigation context, our team is always seeking to obtain the maximum leverage possible for the client while seeking potential exit strategies in the litigation context and at various points prior to trial.  Our team assists clients in analyzing the costs and benefits of litigation prior to the commencement of a case as well as throughout the pre-trial, trial, post-trial, and appellate stages of litigation.

Our team has extensive experience filing and litigating cases in the United States Tax Court as well as in the United States District Court.  Further, our team has represented clients in various appeals of tax matters which commenced in the United States Tax Court or United States District Court, and which then were appealed to one of the 13 United States Courts of Appeal throughout the United States as well as to the United States Supreme Court.