PRACTICE AREA
The best commercial transactions are not defined by the documents. They are defined by whether the parties achieve the business outcome they intended – and whether the agreement continues to work years after it is signed.
Dorwart advises businesses, financial institutions, energy companies, manufacturers, construction firms, and entrepreneurs in the structuring, negotiation, documentation, and implementation of complex commercial transactions.
Many transactional lawyers focus exclusively on getting the deal signed. We think about what happens five, ten, or twenty years later when market conditions change, disputes arise, or business relationships evolve. That perspective often determines whether a transaction creates value – or creates future litigation.
We are often involved before an agreement is signed. We are just as often called after an agreement has become the source of a dispute. In both situations, the objective is the same: Protect the client’s business interests while creating practical solutions that allow business to move forward.
Not every commercial transaction proceeds as planned. When disputes arise, Dorwart advises clients regarding contract interpretation, enforcement, available remedies, and dispute resolution strategies.
We seek commercially reasonable resolutions whenever possible. When litigation becomes necessary, we work closely with our litigation team to pursue or defend claims arising from commercial relationships.
Because we help negotiate and structure complex transactions, we understand how the agreements were intended to function and where disputes are most likely to arise.
Many sophisticated transactions are assumed to require a large national law firm. Our experience proves otherwise.
Dorwart routinely handles transactions involving hundreds of millions – and sometimes billions – of dollars in value while providing direct partner involvement, practical business advice, and a level of efficiency that larger firms often cannot match.
Our lawyers regularly sit across the table from lawyers at major national firms and investment-bank counsel in transactions involving significant business, financial, and operational risk.
Clients come to us because we understand the law. They stay because we understand their business. When the transaction matters, both are essential.
Dorwart represented an oil and gas producer in negotiating a 30-year gathering, transportation, and processing agreement with a Fortune 100 midstream company. The agreement would govern critical infrastructure services and directly affect the client’s operational flexibility, transportation costs, and economics for decades.
The greatest risk was not whether the transaction would close – it was whether the client would unknowingly surrender rights that would become increasingly valuable over the life of the agreement. Several provisions proposed by the counterparty would have materially limited the client’s flexibility and shifted significant long-term economic value.
Rather than negotiating every provision with equal intensity, Dorwart identified the issues that would have the greatest long-term business impact and focused our negotiating leverage on protecting those rights. When necessary, we refused to compromise on provisions that fundamentally affected the client’s future competitive position, despite negotiating against a Fortune 100 company.
The result was an agreement that protected the client’s operational flexibility and economic interests throughout a commercial relationship expected to last for approximately 30 years.
Experience and Insight for your most complex legal matters
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