Archives: Focus Areas

You’ve worked hard to assure a quality standard of living for you and your family. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, an unforeseen long-term illness or disability could jeopardize the financial stability you’ve built. Assets can be structured in a way that affords you and your family an optimal quality of life now, while ensuring eligibility for Medicaid benefits when necessary, without having to deplete all your resources. Our attorneys will review your financial situation and help you develop a long-term asset-preservation strategy should a crisis occur.

Guardianships may be necessary when a loved one needs help making financial or medical decisions due to a physical disability or lack of mental capacity. A condition may be diagnosed at birth or during childhood, and a guardian would be appointed usually through an Article 17-A proceeding. In the case of an adult who becomes incapacitated suddenly through a catastrophic event or as part of the aging process, an Article 81 proceeding is commenced.

The process of establishing a guardianship is complicated, requiring a court petition and hearing before a judge, who will appoint the guardian. The appointed guardian must then qualify and attend a course. The duration of guardianship will depend on the incapacitated person’s continuing needs. Guardians must file annual reports and have a required number of visits with the incapacitated person.

Sometimes, guardianships are challenged due to conflicts within the family or disagreements over the kind and amount of care the disabled family member requires.

Our compassionate attorneys will be with you every step of the way to ensure the result that is in the best interests of the incapacitated person and vigorously defend our client in the event of a challenge.

Medicaid is a jointly funded federal/state program that provides comprehensive health care coverage to millions of New Yorkers. It pays for a wide range of services, depending on your age, financial circumstances, family situation or living arrangements. With help from our elder law attorneys, clients can achieve eligibility for home and community-based services through Community Medicaid or Nursing Home (Chronic Care) Medicaid.

Clients often think of Medicaid as a program limited to the needy. However, due to the extraordinary costs of long-term care, the programs are accessible to many of our clients with proper planning.

Once you’ve achieved financial eligibility for Medicaid, the application process can begin. Our elder law attorneys will help you navigate through confusing and complicated social services documents by preparing the application. We will help you achieve eligibility even when your income exceeds Medicaid limits with the use of pooled trusts, which must be submitted and approved along with the application.

We will provide the guidance and advocacy necessary to be admitted to the most appropriate facility or, when home-based services are sought, choose the home health care agency as required by Medicaid and advocate for and obtain the hours of care our clients need. We stay with you until your loved one is receiving the care that is required.

The day-to-day demands of caring for a child with special needs can be overwhelming. Often lost is the need to plan for when you can’t be there. Depending on your child’s particular needs, it can be quite costly to provide for his or her long-term care.

A special needs practitioner assists parents with long-term health care planning for special needs children along with the estate planning necessary to care of the child after a parent’s death. Often, a guardianship may be necessary to ensure the continued well-being of the child into adulthood.

Our attorneys have substantial experience in preparing and presenting petitions seeking to establish a guardianship and in defending individuals who do not believe a guardianship is necessary.

Our attorneys handle all aspects of special needs planning including the creation of Special Needs Trusts and Letters of Intent. We deal with governmental or other alternative programs to maximize the quality of care and services that are available to children and others who face special challenges.

We can also help with selecting the appropriate benefits – Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare and more – and help determine which services your child will need throughout his or her lifetime.

There are several planning tools available:

• Special Needs Trusts
• Supplemental Needs Trusts
• Special Needs Guardianships (Article 17-A)
• Article 81 Guardianships
• Medicaid Planning

We recommend meeting with us before your child turns 18, at which point you may no longer be able to gain access to your child’s medical, educational, legal and financial records.

The firm’s environmental practice includes representing parties in actions brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Clean Water Act.  It also includes advice regarding environmental land use issues, and compliance with New York State environmental regulations. Our environmental attorneys represent clients in enforcement actions by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and in Article 78 proceedings involving issues under the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

Our real estate practice group brings their experience, creativity and business-minded approach to deliver results. We represent sponsors, owners, developers, operators, and investors in complex transactions, working with our clients to solve the myriad issues they face with every deal. In addition, with our firmwide resources we help you work through corporate and tax challenges as they arise and develop solutions to address them.

We excel in all types and sizes of transactions in New York, New Jersey and all over the country. In addition, our tax department is particularly skilled in all aspects of real estate taxation, 1031 exchanges, partnership taxation and in finding creative solutions to minimize the impact of taxes on a transaction. Our clients frequently note their appreciation for our expertise in addressing these issues and how we manage their deals.

With a robust real estate department and multiple offices in the tri-state area, our team can assist you with virtually any issue you may face – from contract, tax, environmental, landlord/tenant, finance, partnership, leasing, and title to many others.

Rivkin Radler’s attorneys have extensive experience in sophisticated and complex transactions, including:

• Multi-family building acquisitions, sales, leasing and financing
• Redevelopment projects, urban renewal entity formation and PILOT negotiations
• Retail, warehouse and commercial leasing, development, sales, acquisition, and financing
• Real estate joint ventures and equity syndications
• Community associations, including formation and registration of condominiums and association management

We help clients navigate the ever-changing legal landscape in the cannabis space, given the divergent status of the industry at the state and federal levels. We have experience managing those treacherous waters, and we counsel our clients on how to comply with the laws, not just obey them.

The breadth of experience afforded by the firm’s other practice areas bolsters our ability to counsel clients in the CBD, hemp and medical/recreational marijuana industries across a full spectrum of legal issues.

Compliance
We advise cosmetics companies, food and dietary supplement manufacturers on the legal use of CBD as an ingredient. Our representation includes counseling businesses on how to comply with FDA and FTC regulations, as well as state laws.

Corporate
We develop operating agreements and exit strategies as well as corporate formation. We advise clients on how to maintain corporate compliance, including requirements for corporate structures and drafting resolutions.

Insurance Fraud
We have experience in how the Compassionate Care Act relates to New York’s No Fault Law, and in that capacity, we draft denial language for improper insurance claims for medical marijuana and CBD.

Intellectual Property and Related Litigation
We help our clients establish and protect their intellectual property rights. After all, patents, copyrights and trademarks are valuable business assets.

Licensure
Our clients rely on us for help with obtaining medical marijuana licenses.

Private Equity
We help marijuana businesses to secure funding.

Real Estate
We draft leases for landlords and tenants for hemp farms and distribution facilities.

Our attorneys are licensed to practice in the following jurisdictions:

• California
• Illinois
• New Jersey
• New York
• Washington State

Our attorneys have a deep understanding of the issues dentists face throughout their careers. We advise, assist and protect dentists regarding the legal and practical details involved in running a dental practice:

• Collections
• Corporate and LLC formation
• Employee issues and disputes
• Employment and independent contractor agreements
• Leases and subleases
• Management Services Agreements and DSO transitions
• Medicaid and OMIG issues
• Office of Professional Discipline issues
• Patient dismissal and behavioral issues
• Partnership and shareholder agreements
• Partnership disputes and dissolution
• Payor issues
• Purchases, buy-ins and practice sales
• Real estate
• Regulatory and statutory compliance

While all businesses start out with the best intentions and with the founders’ interests aligned, sometimes the owners simply can no longer work together. Perhaps the owners have divergent interests on the direction of the business or one or more of them wishes simply to pursue a new venture. When owners decide it is time for a business breakup, our firm counsels them on the dissolution and winding down of their corporation, limited liability company (LLC) or partnership.

This can mean interpreting shareholder agreements, corporate by-laws, LLC operating agreements and partnership agreements to advise the owners on their respective rights. And in instances when the business can no longer operate effectively due to internal dissension and deadlock among corporate officers or board members, we initiate forced business dissolution proceedings.

We also counsel and advise minority shareholders on matters in which their interests are being compromised by fraudulent, illegal or oppressive actions by the directors of the company or where the assets of the corporation are being looted, wasted or diverted by those in control of the company.

The best way to avoid the difficult process of dissolving a business, however, is to have a well- planned and thoughtfully structured agreement when the business is founded. Rivkin Radler regularly drafts for business owners the proper corporate documents to protect their rights and to account for viable options to protect their interests, whether the business is a corporation, LLC or partnership.