Commercial Litigation

The RH litigation team assists clients through all phases of litigation and arbitration involving business-to-business relationships, financial disputes, and corporate governance and control.  Some of our clients need early counsel to avoid litigation through smart and efficient negotiation before lawsuits become necessary, while others need extensive and thorough litigation counsel through trial and appeals.  Regardless of the term or intensity of the dispute, RH prides itself on working with its clients to achieve the outcomes that will allow its clients to successfully resolve their legal disputes and return to their endeavors.

COMMERCIAL DISPUtES

RH has assisted companies throughout Texas and the U.S. in resolving disputes arising between and among businesses.  The most common types of disputes that RH clients face include the following:

• Contractual relationships in which one party is not performing as agreed, or which need modification or termination;

• Corporate fraud and misrepresentation;

• Copyright and trademark infringement;

• Unfair competition from competitors and former employees;

• Theft of trade secrets;

• Anti-competitive commercial conduct; and

• Business disparagement.

FIDUCIARY LITIGATION

In business and financial matters, formal relationships of trust and confidence give rise to unique legal obligations that can lead to the need for judicial intervention.  Some of the more common relationships arise between 

• partners or joint venturers; 

• business entities and their officers, directors, managers, and employees; 

• trust or estate beneficiaries and trustees, administrators, or executors; and 

• agents or brokers and their clients.  

In the context of these relationships, the legal duties and obligations on the one hand, and the expectations and conduct of the parties on the other hand, do not always align.  Sometimes a request for an accounting or tracing is sufficient to clarify concerns as they arise.  Other times, the litigation process is a more formal and preferable way to resolve the parties' disagreements.  

BUSINESS ENTITIES AND GOVERNANCE

The expectations upon starting a new business are often not the same as the realities a year or several decades later.  When the ideas and goals of founders and executives diverge, sometimes a solution to the friction is not readily obvious.  The litigators of RH have helped businesses through these challenges when negotiations are no longer enough to resolve the problems that have arisen internally in a business.  Some of the solutions may include a judicial petition for winding up of the business, an enforceable demand for distribution of profits or confirmation of rights, litigation to determine the rights and obligations of the corporate leaders, or resolution of disputes between boards and executives.