The flashpoints named
Where the separation is most likely to become a fight.
Advisory on the dispute exposure in a partner, shareholder, or executive separation, and how to position before it becomes contested.
A separation between people who built something together is the most predictable dispute there is, and the most predictably mishandled. Before a partner, a shareholder, or a senior executive departs, the firm reads the situation for where it is exposed to a dispute and how to position for it. This is advisory and disputes work; the firm does not structure the deal or draft the exit.
The firm treats the separation as a dispute that has not happened yet, and reads it the way it would read the case: where the value is contested, where the record is thin, where the other side has leverage. It advises on how to position - what to document, what to demand, in what order - before the separation hardens into a claim. It stops at advice and dispute exposure; the structuring of the exit itself is not the firm's work.
Where the separation is most likely to become a fight.
What to document, demand, and sequence before a dispute crystallises.
If it does become a claim, the read already maps the case.
A shareholder anticipating a contested exit asks for the dispute exposure to be read before acting. The firm identifies valuation and information as the likely flashpoints, advises on the record and the sequence to build leverage, and positions the client so that, if the separation becomes a claim, the case is already mapped.
Described in abbreviated, anonymised form to preserve client confidentiality.
By reading the situation for its flashpoints, valuation, control, information, and entitlement, and positioning the record and the demands before the separation hardens, rather than reacting once it has.
On valuation and on information: the price of the stake and the access to the numbers behind it are the two issues that most often turn an exit into a dispute.
Notice, bonus, equity, and post-termination obligations are the usual flashpoints, and the exposure turns on the record, which is why the position is read before the departure becomes contested.