Practice Areas

Porter Simon's attorneys are licensed in California and six are also licensed to practice in Nevada. We employ a team of trained legal assistants and administrative staff. We maintain a comprehensive law library utilizing the most technically advanced computerized online and CD ROM legal research services currently available.

Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”)
Our litigation department expertly represents clients involved, or about to be involved, in civil lawsuits filed in state or federal court. We represent people and entities, whether plaintiffs or defendants, involved in all types of lawsuits, including complex insurance, personal injury, wrongful death claims, product liability, real estate disputes of brokers, buyers and sellers, commercial landlord-tenant, easement and boundary line, construction, contract and business, eminent domain, claims against public entities, probate litigation, and professional malpractice cases involving lawyers, doctors and other professionals. We also represent people and entities in administrative agencies hearings.

Our litigation attorneys are equally skilled in resolving disputes with mediation, arbitration, settlement, and negotiation when appropriate to avoid expensive and potentially risky litigation.

Business Law and Business Tax Planning
Our business lawyers advise clients in a variety of corporate and securities-related transactions and guidance in forming appropriate business entities, including Corporations, Limited Liability Companies (“LLC”), and Partnerships. We also offer expertise in financings, stock offerings, mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, publicly traded companies, business tax planning, and other business transactions.

Employment
We offer experienced guidance to large and small employers in day-to-day personnel practices, including discrimination and harassment, mandatory training, union negotiations, personnel matters such as hirings and terminations, reasonable disability accommodations, workplace religious accommodations, developing and implementing employee policies, conducting internal investigations, counseling of employees, disciplinary actions, minimizing employer risk of liability, negotiating and drafting employment agreements, developing non-disclosure, non-solicitation, and non-compete agreements to protect valuable trade secrets.

Real Estate and Development
Our "dirt" lawyers have been active in all facets of regional real estate development over the last 30 years diligently representing developers, homeowner's associations, investors, lenders, buyers, sellers, public interest groups, and businesses of varying sizes. Their experience includes commercial and residential transactions, property acquisition, development, financing, complex deal structures, leasing, condominium and time-sharing or fractional forms of ownership, and estate syndication. Additionally, as the Truckee, Lake Tahoe and Northern California and Nevada communities continue to develop, our firm continues to provide experience and well-established, local governmental relationships to guide our clients through zoning, land use and environmental processes.

Public Agency
Our public agency lawyers have expertise on all aspects of law that govern or relate to the powers, procedures and operations of state and local governments, including special districts. Our public agency clients include municipal corporations, health care and public utility districts that are counseled in many areas, including formation, operational advice, strategic alliances, joint ventures, quality assurance, compliance, fraud and abuse, insurance, managed care and energy issues.

Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law
Our estate planning, trust and probate department guides our clients through this extremely complex legal area that requires expertise in taxation, business planning, real property, and a host of other, ever-changing legal issues. Our estate planning department has extensive experience in all these areas, providing a full range of wealth management services including trusts and wills, charitable gift planning, probate administration, elder law, conservatorship/guardianship, and Medi-Cal eligibility planning, with special expertise in managing high net worth estates and litigating complex trust matters. The department includes a California State Bar-certified specialist in Estate Planning, Trusts & Probate Law with more than 15 years' experience. Our estate planning department provides sophisticated yet personal service in both California and Nevada for your most sensitive and confidential estate needs.

Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions
Through our intellectual property and technology transactions practice, we provide a sophisticated, multi-disciplinary approach to assisting clients with patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property (IP) matters. We offer a long track record of success relating to business transactions involving IP, such as mergers, acquisitions, private equity investments and secured financing, and the related due diligence associated with such transactions. We prepare, negotiate and interpret documentation involving technology, such as sales, development and procurement contracts, licenses, franchises, joint ventures and more.