Practice Areas

We plan to be with you from the ground floor up. When it comes to our construction clients, we work with them as they work to build the city. These principles guide us whether and whenever we draft or review a construction contract, an AIA contract, or a design contract; evaluate and counsel on claims such as mechanics’ liens, warranties, and delay and other claims; or counsel on project requirements relating to bonding, LEED, and insurance. We leverage our collective experience, insight, ingenuity, knowledge to provide integrated and comprehensive advice to our clients from small family to Fortune 500 businesses. 

Goetz Platzer is more than just a law firm—we are hands-on strategic advisors to our clients that do a “deep dive” into the intricacies of our clients’ business. That bedrock knowledge informs everything we do, from dispute resolution (including arbitration and mediation) to presentation and defense of claims against city and state agencies to bid protests and injunctions.

Sometimes business deals go awry. Things change, people changes, the economy changes. We help our clients navigate the maze of resolving disputes, from pre-litigation efforts to resolve disputes although through commencing and defending actions, discovery, and trial. Our experience in commercial litigation covers a wide spectrum. Our litigation skills shine whether it is a fee dispute between real estate brokers, business divorces where partners differ on strategies, breach of contract involving real estate, goods or services, and more. Each case entails sophisticated litigation involving monetary claims based on a business or commercial transaction. Our seasoned attorneys have depth and expertise in administrative hearings before various agencies, along with pre-claim evaluation and assessment, and arbitration. We apply our knowledge of what can go wrong to help our clients properly plan to avoid disputes in the first place, a welcome skill in providing advisory services to closely-held companies and startups.

Before you build on the property, you need to close on the property. Complications or delays often come with the territory in real estate. No matter the transaction, you can turn to Goetz Platzer for the expertise and resources to structure, negotiate and close your deal whether commercial leasing or purchase and sale transactions ranging from $1 million to $100 million and beyond. Our firm is all about the details, seamlessly working with clients ranging from individuals and small businesses to commercial and institutional tenants to landlords. In addition to representing purchasers to secure financing, we handle real estate brokerage issues and litigation, easements and rights of way, tax-deferred property exchanges (1031 exchanges), among other critical, time-sensitive services.

Corporate transactions are definitely not a one-size-fits-all proposition—they demand a multi-faceted and practical approach. For established or growing business of all sizes, Goetz Platzer’s attorneys expertly balance the many aspects of complex corporate organization and management in forming corporate entities, preparing partnership, corporate and LLC operating agreements, shareholder and employment agreements, stock and asset sale and purchases, and business operation financing. We serve as counsel in mergers, acquisitions and other transactional activities, from employee relations and E-Commerce, to representation of professional services firms and federal and state compliance. We also help our business clients develop and protect their brand through registration of intellectual property such as trademark and copyrights.

In our bankruptcy practice, we check all the boxes. We help debtors overcome setbacks to maintain their solvency, which typically means restructuring distressed loans and negotiating favorable terms with the lender, usually a nationally recognized bank or some other private lender. This could involve adjusting the term of the loan, payback amount, charging a lesser interest rate, or avoiding default interest being charged. If that falls through, we advise on bankruptcy proceedings and specialize in Chapter 11 corporate restructuring. Whatever the outcome, our mission remains the same: we get our clients; businesses back on track.

Preserving your assets and leaving a legacy is what drives our trust and estates practice. We stand ready to safeguard clients’ personal wealth and transfer it in a way that achieves their personal objectives, while minimizing applicable taxes and other expenses—like potential litigation. Our clients are as diverse as our planning. Our clients range from new parents just starting a family, to family business owners, to high net-worth individuals, and family foundations. Regardless of an estate’s value, we provide consistent guidance to structure our clients’ estates in a way that minimizes stress on their families in a crisis situation and avoids potential disputes. Our services include preparing wills, trusts and advance directives such as health care proxies and powers of attorney, pursuing and defending guardianships where necessary, business continuity planning, and other key practice areas.

As a matter of federal, state, and local law, employers in New York and New Jersey must comply with labor standards. Guided by our attorneys’ top-to-bottom grasp of employment terms and conditions, we work tirelessly to resolve disputes prior to pursuing litigation. When that’s no longer a viable option (even as arbitration becomes the norm), we act as experienced consultants with one overarching goal in mind: to see every claim through to a successful conclusion, whether it involves wage disputes on the state or federal level; claims against employers involving labor union benefit plans; or workplace health and safety.

A business is only as good as its brand. You want yours to symbolize your company’s core values, culture, and good will. You give your business your all; you need to protect your business name, logo, and trade name so that your competitors and would-be competitors are deterred from siphoning the goodwill built by your sweat equity.

Our Commercial & Real Estate Finance team represents lenders and borrowers throughout the life cycle of a credit facility.

We partner with our clients from origination to closing on commercial and industrial (C&I) and commercial real estate (CRE) loans.

We provide maximum value by joining the conversation at the structuring stage of a credit facility where we can apply our in-depth experience to assist clients to optimally meet their goals.

The broad scope of our due diligence process, our wide experience in recognizing and overcoming title challenges, and our negotiating skills all combine to minimize risk and achieve the most favorable legal terms for our clients.

When loans do not perform as planned, our team is here to identify and implement effective solutions for our clients to address changed circumstances.

A cornerstone of our firm’s success rests in its traditional practice of commercial litigation, including institutional and business debt collection, defaulted loan enforcement, commercial and residential mortgage foreclosure and general business disputes. We have represented clients at all levels of state and federal courts throughout New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We actively litigate complex and multi-party disputes and have shown a demonstrated ability and determination to enforce judgments, thereby enabling our clients to realize a return on their litigation investment. We take great pride in our ability to effectively manage our cases. Through the judicious use of partners and associates with varying levels of experience and expertise in discrete situations, the firm works hard to achieve optimum efficiency without risk to the quality of results. In the course of litigation, we frequently apply to the Court for injunctive relief, seeking the appointment of receivers and other equitable remedies thereby maintaining the status quo and This doing of something about disputes, this doing of it reasonably, is the business of law.” Karl N. Llewellyn “preventing the dissipation of assets. Our understanding of fraudulent conveyances and corporate or family “shell games” often enables us to successfully pierce the corporate veil and assert claims against principals or other alter ego persons or entities. We also represent insurance companies on subrogation, claim defense, and defaulted premium collection. As we do with other aspects of our civil litigation practice, we prosecute and defend these actions aggressively and with a view toward achieving superior results. Working closely with retained local counsel we represent and oversee our clients’ litigation matters across the United States and in foreign countries. The client is an integral part of the litigation process and is kept informed at every stage of our progress to ensure their full participation in the proceedings.

Our attorneys have substantial experience in all aspects of commercial finance. The firm represents major financial institutions in the structuring, restructuring, negotiation and documentation of all types of commercial finance transactions, including asset-based lending, cash-flow lending, factoring, floor plan financing, equipment leasing, trade finance and letter of credit financing. We have also acted as counsel in financing transactions involving many types of collateral, including aircraft, fine art, intellectual property and rolling stock. As a direct result of handling sophisticated corporate bankruptcy matters over the past fifty years, the firm is held in high regard by financial institutions and borrowers in workouts and the restructuring of commercial finance matters. The banking community relies upon our expertise in this critical cross-over practice area, in particular when negotiating and drafting underlying transactional documentation and protecting the underlying collateral.

The firm maintains a more substantial bankruptcy group than many of the larger, multi-department firms in the region. At the same time, the firm is small enough to encourage a collegial atmosphere where attorneys from all departments work with each other sharing strategies on the complex legal and business issues that are frequently encountered in bankruptcy and distress situations. We believe this cooperative style has helped the firm develop an eminently practical and thorough approach to bankruptcy proceedings and related matters. As a result of the firm’s depth of experience in sophisticated insolvency issues, we have worked with clients in a broad array of industries. We also represent clients which may view the insolvency process of a competitor or other company as an opportunity to further grow or expand their own businesses through the acquisition of real estate or other business assets available from entities that are downsizing or liquidating. Our practice includes representing Chapter 11 debtors-in-possession, creditors’ committees, secured lenders, equipment lessors, finance companies, venture capital funds, asset purchasers, insurance companies, individual unsecured creditors, trustees and landlords, whether in filed cases or in out-of-court liquidations. Our experience has taught us to explore all avenues of potential relief and recovery on behalf of our clients, including out-of-court common law compromises, which often serves to reduce expenses and expedites resolution of claims and maximizes the distribution of available assets. Philosophically, we view the declaration of bankruptcy as a last resort. 

Our extensive background in complex financial transactions, secured lending, factoring and commercial leasing arises not only from our bankruptcy practice but through our familiarity with and ongoing practice in varied areas of the law and business. This experience allows us to successfully represent the interests of a diverse group of clients, including banking and other financial institutions, large equipment leasing companies and various trade associations.

The services we render to these clients are as diverse as the clients themselves. Our financial institution representation includes negotiating debtor-in-possession financing and the use of cash collateral. We also negotiate and implement original secured and unsecured non-debtor financing, and conduct work-out of defaulted loans in both bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy contexts.

Similarly, in bankruptcy venue, we represent the interests of large commercial equipment lesser in protecting our clients’ leased equipment determining and preserving the value in such equipment and, where necessary, foreclosing upon and obtaining the best possible price for the equipment. By virtue of our ongoing experience obtained in our bankruptcy and other representations, as well as our active involvement in trade associations, such as the Equipment Leasing Association, we are able to negotiate and draft original leases and restructure and modify existing ones.

We represent the interests of commercial equipment lessors in protecting their leased equipment, determining and preserving the value of such equipment and, where necessary, foreclosing upon and obtaining the best possible price for the equipment. By virtue of our ongoing experience in this area of practice, we also negotiate and draft original leases and restructure existing ones.

The firm maintains a robust civil appeals practice. We have appeared before every level of appellate court in the State of New York, including the New York Court of Appeals. Likewise, we have represented both appellants and appellees in varied and complex federal court appeals, including matters before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Such advocacy requires an ability to quickly and cost-effectively analyze significant legal issues and present them cogently, succinctly, and persuasively. We take pride in the considerable success we have enjoyed before these appellate tribunals which we attribute, in part, to our ability to discern and focus upon critical issues and logically present them to the appellate court.

The firm believes that its growth is dependent upon the growth of its clients. To supplement the services provided by our attorneys, the firm leverages its many long-standing relationships in the banking and lending industry to assist our clients in securing financing. Through the firm’s real estate, foreclosure and insolvency practice areas, the firm is often able to identify opportunities for our clients to acquire complementary real estate and business assets and to make the appropriate introductions in order to realize on these opportunities.