Our lawyers have extensive experience across a number of practice areas relevant to serving the complex needs of families and their businesses, as well as the family offices serving client families in the management of both their businesses and personal wealth.
Trust & Estates
Our trust & estates attorneys design and assist with the implementation of complex estates for our clients and their families, including with respect to the ownership of family businesses.
We prepare wills, trusts, family partnerships, limited liability companies, grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, sales to intentionally defective trusts, charitable trusts, private foundations, life insurance trusts, qualified terminable interest trusts, qualified domestic trusts, private annuities and other planning strategies.
We guide our clients and their families through the estate planning process with careful consideration of the impact of estate, gift and generation skipping taxes on the surviving family members, as well as help individual and corporate executors and trustees probate and administer estates and trusts efficiently and cost-effectively.
Trust & Estate Litigation
We have an established group of trial lawyers who have served clients (both plaintiffs and defendants) across a variety of litigation matters including in jury trials, bench trials, injunction proceedings, alternative dispute resolution and appellate matters. We also have a growing team of lawyers dedicated exclusively to assisting trustees, executors and beneficiaries resolve a broad range of estate and trust disputes, many of which involve sophisticated and complex issues.
Taxation
Our tax lawyers work closely with clients and their accountants to plan business activities and significant transactions that minimize federal, state and local taxes. We monitor the ever-changing and complex tax environment in order to provide timely tax advice and alert clients to new planning opportunities and compliance requirements. We represent clients in federal and state tax examinations and audits, protests to the IRS Office of Appeals, and in equivalent state and local appeals functions. We also litigate tax cases before federal, state and local tax authorities and courts.
Family Law
Gray Reed's family law attorneys routinely negotiate and prepare premarital agreements for clients wanting to protect inherited or gifted business interests or concerned with the division of their assets at the death of the first spouse or in the event of divorce. We negotiate child support payments in high-income cases and also handle divorce cases with assets ranging from very modest holdings to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the related tax implications.
Corporate & Securities
Our corporate lawyers assist clients in almost every aspect of their family business from formation through dissolution, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, private equity investments and other transactions. We also regularly structure or restructure ownership and management rights in closely-held family businesses, and all forms of financings ranging from seed and first round venture financings to later stage investments.
Real Estate, Banking & Finance
Our real estate lawyers represent family members and family offices with respect to the acquisition, development, leasing and disposition of commercial and residential real estate. Our finance lawyers advise on lending and borrowing transactions including commercial credit facilities, private lending, leasing transactions and other related transactions.
Energy, Oil & Gas
As a Texas law firm, our oil and gas lawyers advise families and family businesses on numerous oil and gas issues ranging from domestic and international joint operating agreements, private equity transactions, litigation and title examination.
We Feel At Home Working With Family Businesses & Family Offices
Our attorneys have the knowledge and experience to handle nearly any issue that a family business or family office may face and our abilities have been recognized by a number of legal rankings and publications.
- Most of our practices were recognized with a Best Lawyers, 2024 “Best Law Firms” ranking.
- In the Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2023, our Trusts & Estates department was ranked as a leading private wealth law practice in Texas and three partners were recognized.
- We have nine attorneys Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
- Five of our family law attorneys are Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
- In our tax law section, two attorneys are Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and four are Certified Public Accountants.