TMB shareholders Craig W. Trepanier and V. John Ella were featured in the June 2021 issue of Attorney at Law Magazine in a piece called “Speaking the Language of Executives” by H. K. Wilson. The article describes how both attorneys graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1994, went their separate ways, and then joined up again in 2016 to focus on “executive law.” Their executive law practice includes employment contracts, executive compensation, non-competes, trade secrets disputes, severance agreements, change-in-control provisions, and minority shareholder disputes.

The article quotes Craig W. Trepanier as describing a scenario in which he and V. John Ella are asked to provide counsel: “We enjoy getting referrals from big firms that are outside counsel to corporations being acquired. The buyer typically offers jobs to some of the executive team. The big firm cannot represent them because it represents the corporation in the transaction. They want to refer the executives to another firm, like TMB, that is competent and reliable. The corporation often pays the legal fees to hire us, and we work together to close the deal.”

The article also described how,”[o]ne of the advantages of hiring a small firm with sophisticated corporate practitioners is its agility in handling fast-paced injunction motions arising out of non-compete and trade secret disputes.”

The piece also noted that, “[l]awyers who cannot represent an executive due to ethical or philosophical conflicts within their own firm can refer them to TMB with confidence, knowing they are in qualified and discrete hands, and will receive the highest standard of legal representation. The full article can be viewed here.

Trepanier MacGillis Battina P.A. is a Minnesota business law firm located in Minneapolis.