Food & Beverage

We have represented a significant number of food and beverage businesses for more than 40 years. These enterprises range from manufacturers of consumer branded and private label products, to food product and ingredient distributors, to service providers and restaurants. We have performed a wide variety of services for these dynamic businesses, including serving as de facto outsourced general counsel, acquisitions/divestitures, management incentives, distribution/supply/sales agreements and relationships, dispute resolution, human resources, food and safety issues, food recall issues, collection and customer/supplier dispute issues, and tax and financial planning for the companies, their owners, and management team.

Our food and beverage clients are located throughout the United States. In addition, we have assisted these clients as their needs arise in many different countries worldwide thanks to our seamless web of geographic coverage worldwide.

Many of our clients in this dynamic industry retain us as their general counsel, where we provide a 360-degree holistic approach to serve their business law needs, including:

•    Entity Formation.  Advising on the selection of the right type of entity from a tax, growth, financing, management compensation, and ultimately exit standpoint.

•    Financing.  Negotiating a vast array of financing issues on the capital spectrum from debt to equity including venture capital, senior secured through junior unsecured debt, leveraged buyouts, guarantees, leveraged and unleveraged leases, letters of credit, bonds, warehouse credit issues, and private placements.

•    Inter-Owner Relations.  Structuring agreements and handling dispute resolution among shareholders, members, and partners as well as the management team.

•    Employment Law, Human Resources Consulting, and Training.  Structuring employment agreements, stock options, and other employee incentives, pension and profit sharing agreements, independent contractor agreements, hiring and termination issues, non-competition agreements, union issues, and supervisory and anti-harassment training.

•    Structural and Organic Changes.  Negotiating investments, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and divestitures of businesses.

•    Third-Party Agreements.  Structuring contracts with customers, vendors, distributors, sales agents, licensees, warehousemen, bailees, and landlords.

•    Protection of Valuable Intangible Assets.  Protecting trademarks and trade secrets, licensing of patents and trademarks, and computer software and franchising.

•    Dispute Resolution.  Handling food and beverage product claims, which can result in out-of-court settlement or, if necessary, full scale judicial resolution or arbitration.

•    Reorganizations.  Negotiating workouts, bankruptcies, compositions, debt relief agreements, restructurings, and other types of reorganizations (from either a creditor or debtor position).

Our knowledge of the food and beverage industry is vast.  We are not just mere technicians that apply our craft oblivious to the industry and business context.  Bottom line, we provide a recipe for success.  

Representative Recent Experience:

Our recent experience in the food and beverage includes serving as counsel to:

•    A national manufacturer of caramel candied apples, including all aspects of contracts, litigation, and debt and venture capital financing.

•    A snack manufacturer and distributor that has grown from a local storefront operation to a nationwide distributor.

•    An investment fund targeting acquisitions and operations of seed distribution and gene licensing companies.

•    A manufacturer of Mexican consumer products including cheese.

•    A national distributor of sugar and sweetener products, including all aspects of contracts, acquisitions, financing, employment, and litigation matters.

•    A beef and pork processor serving food service and grocery market companies.

•    A gourmet specialty food company.

•    A manufacturer of juice concentrate.

•    The main investor in a national frozen pizza manufacturer.

•    A manufacturer and distributor of specialty seed for the agricultural and food product industries.