CLM is a full-service, New York City law firm with the ability to assist both our domestic and international clients with most legal needs that arise. This includes corporate, litigation, real estate, tax, trusts and estates, environmental and other practice groups. We have a particular focus on assisting foreign individuals and corporation with their needs in entering New York and U.S. markets. We do this work in conjunction an extensive network of clients and law firms in Italy to whom we provide our full suite of legal services, including as part of Meritas—a global alliance of law firms in most major international cities including Rome, Milan and beyond.[1] Additionally, we offer several attorneys who are fluent in Italian to better serve our clients’ needs. CLM builds on strong traditions dating back to our founding in 1854, making us one of the oldest law firms in the United States.
From our offices in the heart of New York’s financial district our team enjoys a long and distinguished track record of assisting foreign and mid-sized domestic companies on a range of corporate issues—a one-stop legal services provider for our clients. We serve international clients with U.S. matters and our U.S. clients with their global matters. We help organizations navigate through cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures and handle issues involving capital markets, debt, regulatory requirements, and in family groups and high net worth organizations handle complex assets.
Additionally, we assist our clients in overcoming the difficulties – including the cross-cultural challenges that often arise. Our experience with and understanding of the important global matters that affect our Italian clients such as imports and tariffs, corporate finance and securities are top of mind when we deliver our services. Our attorneys advise companies navigating the complex regulatory landscape and related issues associated with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), including compliance programs, internal investigations, sanctions, and enforcement inquiries. We represent clients seeking the release of blocked funds under OFAC sanctions programs and removal from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list and other sanctions lists, guiding them through the licensing and delisting petition process to restore their ability to operate in global markets.
Our team has been ranked in the IFLR1000 Guide, recognized for their work in Real Estate and Mergers and Acquisitions. And our fee structure provides more value than most larger American law firms—providing expert services that is far more accessible to mid-sized companies, individuals, government agencies and nonprofits.
What We Do
In particular, Carter Ledyard’s Italian practice delivers the following services seamlessly to our clients:
- Market entry and the critical legal guidance to successfully operate in the United States
- Mergers and acquisitions including advice on CFIUS and OFAC compliance
- Joint Ventures
- Due Diligence
- Trusts and Estates, private client and wealth legal services to individuals, estates, service providers and family offices
- Tax services to corporates and family offices
- Real Estate
- Disputes and litigation
- Arbitration and Mediation
- Trade secrets
- Intellectual Property
- Capital Markets and Finance
- Syndicated lending and leveraged debt
- Supply chain and logistics legal advice
- Employment law and compliance with state and local statutes
- Cybersecurity and data privacy compliance with state and local statutes
- Anticorruption and investigations
- Foreign Companies Entering the US Market
Carter Ledyard’s Corporate and M&A leaders provide their knowledge and experience for a variety of business matters, such as entity structuring and launching businesses; market entry to establish compliant corporate structuring, real estate, employment matters, and related issues when expanding a business into the U.S.; financing; drafting and negotiating software, app content and technology licenses; vendor, marketing, and social media agreements; evaluating data privacy issues; developing and launching websites and providing content to online service providers; and the full spectrum of legal needs for mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures.
Our lawyers help ultra-high-net-worth individual clients and families develop estate plans to ensure that their assets benefit those whom they intend to benefit – in the best way possible. We bring a mix of institutional knowledge and inventive strategies to counsel a wide range of clients including business owners, investors, entrepreneurs, executives, artists, collectors, inventors, philanthropists, authors, and public figures. Our representation of family groups involves handling a variety of assets including real estate, foreign investments and other portfolio assets. In particular, we assist individuals and families establish residence and move investments into the United States.
Lawyers in our Capital Markets and Leveraged Finance Group adopt a multi-disciplinary approach and work closely with colleagues in the firm’s other practice areas, structuring, negotiating and documenting secured and unsecured debt transactions, including unsecured and second lien high yield note offerings and leveraged loan transactions; acquisition loans, LBOs and mezzanine financings; negotiating complex covenant packages and descriptions of notes; drafting indentures, credit agreements, security documents and intercreditor agreements; and handling complex subordination, security and intercreditor issues. Our attorneys have represented underwriters and issuers in securities offerings and lenders and borrowers in a broad range of corporate finance transactions
Tax Exempt Organizations and Nonprofits
We have experience representing organizations based outside the U.S. in forming a wide variety of corporate entities, setting up its governance structure, securing tax exemptions, and advising on related issues. We have extensive experience setting up “friends of” organizations in the U.S. for our foreign clients. Our specialized lawyers in this group deploy extensive experience, in-depth knowledge, leading-edge legal strategies, and creative thinking to counsel public charities, private foundations and other types of tax-exempt organizations on a wide variety of legal issues. We represent clients across all aspects of their governance and operations, at all stages of the corporate life cycle. As part of a full-service law firm, we work with colleagues in other practice areas to advise our clients on a broad spectrum of legal needs with maximum efficiency and value.
Tax considerations frequently play a vital role in cross border business transactions and in personal financial planning. The firm’s Tax Department provides general tax planning for corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, tax-exempt organizations, individuals and estates. We also provide sophisticated advice regarding the tax aspects of business and investment transactions.
Trademarks and Intellectual Property
The scope of our trademark work is broad. We counsel clients from diverse industries on matters including evaluating the strength of proposed names and marks, clearing and registering marks, properly using marks for goods, services, using marks in advertising, campaigns, protecting trademarks in social media, managing trademark portfolios worldwide, anti-counterfeiting, trademark and domain name enforcement, recordation of trademarks with U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), and litigation. In addition, we support our clients in negotiating licenses, consent and coexistence agreements, assignments, purchases and sales, conducting intellectual property audits and due diligence investigations as well as developing ownership structures to permit shared uses of the same trademark.
With experience in all phases and aspects of litigation and dispute resolution, our lawyers represent domestic and foreign corporations and individuals. We advocate for clients in federal and state courts located throughout the United States and in mediations and arbitrations in the U.S. and around the world before FINRA, AAA, ICDR, JAMS, ICC and other tribunals. We provide top-quality counsel in internal investigations and agency and administrative proceedings and appeals. Our trademark attorneys practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), and in courts of general jurisdiction.
We handle the full range of real estate matters including commercial and residential property sales and acquisitions, commercial leases, long term ground leases, joint ventures, joint venture development projects, brokerage agreements, construction access agreements, construction contracts and architect’s agreements, mortgage and mezzanine loans and other financings, preferred equity investments, condemnation proceedings, re-development projects involving governmental agencies, and corporate acquisitions involving real property residential real estate.
Our team provides high-quality counsel on the full continuum of employment law matters, informed by many years of seen-it-all experience and a combination of deep institutional knowledge with fresh, innovative ideas. Conveniently offering a “one-stop” practice, our lawyers work diligently to resolve clients’ issues and concerns by using tools that range from a simple five-minute phone call to full-blown, save-the-company litigation strategies—and everything in between. We’ve earned a national reputation for providing practical, cost-effective advice that helps companies stay focused on what they do best: running successful businesses, providing good jobs, and enhancing their communities.