Services

Commercial Litigation

White & Choate serves as corporate counsel to many leading businesses in North Georgia. Our firm provides legal advice from formation through growth to the exit.

Formation

Many clients choose to involve our law firm early in the formation of a new business. This allows for proper decisions to be made regarding matters such as choosing a business entity, planning tax strategies, establishing the proper agreements for structuring the entity, and drafting employment, compensation, non-compete and/or confidentiality agreements and shareholder agreements. In addition, our firm helps limit the risks many new businesses face by offering consultation to avoid litigation.

Growth

As businesses grow, White & Choate works with businesses to provide guidance in areas such as the retention of key employees through qualified and non-qualified compensation packages; the creation of holding companies and management companies; and the purchase and/or leasing of necessary real estate. The firm also assists in the preparation of various contracts, including manufacturing and distribution agreements, sales representative agreements and the various services agreements used by businesses, either with clients and/or independent contractors.

Due to extensive experience, White & Choate is uniquely suited to handle the special needs of family related business issues that often manifest themselves in very emotional ways.

The Exit Strategy

The firm regularly counsels clients on the best means to exit an existing business through vehicles such as business succession plans, stock options, outright sales and gifting, always factoring in the best possible tax advantages on behalf of the client.

Acquisitions

White & Choate also assists clients in planning for the continued growth, development and refinement of their businesses. The firm has the broad expertise necessary in tax, corporate and securities laws to assist clients in selecting and implementing the most appropriate form of acquisition model to enable clients to achieve both their short term and long term business objectives, whether a tax free and taxable merger, stock or asset purchase, joint venture, partnership or other growth model.

Corporate

Law

Land &

Zoning Use

White & Choate has extensive experience in assisting clients with a variety of zoning and land use issues. We actively represent individuals, residential and commercial developers, outdoor advertising clients, and industrial users before local, city and county governments in regard to their requests for rezonings, variances, sign permits, special land use permits and other land use and plat approvals. In addition, we provide assistance in negotiating the numerous regulatory issues related to the construction and permitting of land development projects.

Our firm understands the importance of teamwork and cooperation in the development process necessary to take a project from the drawing board to completion. We have successfully obtained numerous rezonings and variances in the Cartersville-Bartow County area for single family subdivisions, Planned Unit Developments, multi-family developments, retail developments and industrial uses.

The firm’s success in the zoning and land use area is a direct result of our knowledge of the rules and regulations and our working relationships with local governments. In fact, our firm has successfully handled numerous rezonings despite strong opposition by local residents.

We represent a variety of private property owners in regard to eminent domain actions brought by governmental and quasi-governmental entities. Our clients include individual property owners, real estate developers, business owners, and the outdoor advertising industry. Our approach seeks to obtain the most advantageous result for our clients, whether that involves maximizing the monetary compensation they receive, challenging the right of the government to acquire the affected property, or working with the governmental agency to develop a more advantageous public project for all affected parties. In addition, we seek to insure our clients’ ability to obtain the most favorable tax treatment possible to insurance that we maximize the value of the results we obtain.

Through our years of experience, White & Choate has developed the respect and trust necessary to insure that our clients concerns will be addressed by the government agency seeking to acquire private property. Whether you are faced with a simple road widening project or a government sponsored redevelopment project, we have the experience to assist you in fully protecting and preserving your valuable property rights.

Condemnation

Banking &

Finance

White & Choate represents a wide variety of commercial, community, savings and private banks in their corporate, lending and litigation needs. These finance law needs include traditional real estate and business loan transactional work, large-scale lending, securities representation, mergers and acquisitions, leasing, and a variety of other services.

Our firm handles all aspects of judicial and non-judicial foreclosures for all types of lenders. Our firm has successful experience in representing lenders in the Georgia Court of Appeals regarding foreclosure issues.

Our firm’s services are sophisticated – they match those offered by larger law firms – but remain cost-effective. The firm’s lawyers offer a wide variety of representation for banks and the financial industry:

Creditor’s rights
Lender liability
Loan negotiations
Financial agreement rights
Drafting, preparation, and review of documents
Judicial and Non-judicial Foreclosures
Confirmations of Deficiencies
Collections

122 Years of Accumulated Practice

How Can We Help?

Our vision is to provide our clients with a full range of services that are personalized to their needs. We desire to support them in any legal situation they may encounter with our many areas of specialization. Above all, we are committed to professionalism and dedicated to our clients justice.