Balch & Bingham LLP is a corporate law firm with more than 230 attorneys across offices in Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Gulfport and Jackson, Mississippi; Houston, Texas and Washington, D.C. We are recognized for our deep experience serving clients in regulated industries, including energy, financial services and healthcare, and our established practices in business, environmental, government relations, labor and employment and litigation.
Our firm's professional, collegial culture is inspired by nationally- ranked attorneys who combine business intelligence and industry leadership with high-quality legal counsel to anticipate and respond to corporate challenges both creatively and proactively. We manage our client partnerships with efficient processes and transparencies that result in an uncommon, value-driven client experience. Balch & Bingham was founded in 1922.
Balch & Bingham's Estate Planning & Trusts Practice attorneys counsel clients and provide representation on tax and non-tax aspects of estates, trusts and financial planning. We advise clients about estate planning opportunities as they apply within the context of each client's situation. The drafting projects are typically sophisticated when the family's estate situation is complex, and may include preparation of wills, establishment of various trusts, formation of family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, execution of powers of attorney, and anticipation of long-term health decisions using advance health care directives.
The estates and trusts practice includes the following general areas:
CHARITABLE AND EXEMPT ORGANIZATION REPRESENTATION
We represent private foundations and other charitable organizations of regional and national importance. In addition, our attorneys assist clients with the establishment of private family foundations and also advise clients on structuring various types of lifetime and testamentary charitable giving.
TAX CONTROVERSY MATTERS
Our trusts and estates practice frequently represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service and, if necessary, in various state and federal courts, in connection with estate and gift tax audits, and other tax controversies. Our attorneys work on these matters in conjunction with the Balch's litigation practice.
WILL CONTESTS AND OTHER COURT PROCEEDINGS
We handle will contests and litigation seeking the proper construction of wills and trusts. Attorneys in the estate practice appear before courts and call upon the support of lawyers from the litigation practice in the case of contested matters.
As an employment law firm Balch & Bingham, we focus on developing long-term relationships with clients based on trust, service, and helping clients achieve their business goals. We recognize that understanding your business is essential to representing your interests and providing effective, practical and creative solutions to your problems. Providing the highest quality services in a prompt, attentive, and thoughtful manner is not a goal but a commitment to our clients.
Balch & Bingham’s Data Privacy & Security Practice designs comprehensive prevention and reporting methods and policies to help businesses protect against, prevent and combat technology-related breaches.
We provide trusted counsel in policy development, insurance coverage, data security audits, certification, government affairs and third-party contract negotiation to best shield clients should a breach occur. Our rapid response team has proven experience managing a variety of data breach crises, understanding what the breach was intended to accomplish, addressing the impact a breach could have on internal and external audiences and developing necessary notifications. Additionally, we establish procedures for a defensible investigation and connect clients with complementary providers to help navigate breaches.
Our cross-functional team of attorneys combines their expertise in labor and employment, product liability, healthcare, financial services and energy to deliver comprehensive counsel in each engagement.
Our services include:
Clients want more from their attorneys than someone who can simply tell them what their legal options are and then leave the client to make the “business decision.” Instead, clients want attorneys who know their industry, who understand the business pressures they face, and who can partner with them to make the tough decisions. Clients want attorneys who will fight tirelessly when necessary, but also who will seek a practical business solution even when one is not readily apparent. The attorneys in Balch’s Creditors Rights and Bankruptcy Practice do just that.
For decades, Balch has represented financial institutions, utilities, and other creditors faced with troubled credits. Such representation encompasses many facets. It could mean our involvement in structuring a transaction to minimize the impact of future financial trouble. It could mean facilitating an out of court resolution before the first pleading is ever filed. In many situations, it means foreclosing collateral and using state or federal courts to protect a client’s rights. In others, it means using federal bankruptcy law either to enforce claims against a bankrupt obligor or using those same laws to defend efforts to claw back payments made by those obligors.
Balch & Bingham provides full services to banks, trust companies, insurance carriers, investment firms, broker-dealers and other financial institutions. This work includes advice and assistance relating to regulatory and commercial issues at the state, regional and national level.
Balch & Bingham is actively engaged in the formation of business entities and in advising clients in a wide variety of corporate transactions, mergers & acquisitions, corporate financings, and securities law compliance matters. The firm also regularly advises public and private companies with respect to state law fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders, directors’ and officers’ liability, inquiries from analysts and the financial press, mergers and acquisitions, corporate borrowings and banking relationships, securities law compliance, tax matters, executive compensation matters, and other corporate governance and general corporate matters.
Balch has a wealth of experience in a wide variety of Intellectual Property and Trademark work. We have experience in the traditional varieties of Intellectual Property, trade secret trademarks, copyrights and patents, but we also have experience in the developing contexts in which such Intellectual Property issues become relevant, i.e., the Internet, computer hardware and software, employment contracts and regulatory compliance with regard to privacy concerns.
In a litigated context, Intellectual Property disputes often require expedited litigation either on the claimant or on the defendant's side. In a corporate context, it is often useful to have a track record relative to business negotiations. Balch's Intellectual Property Practice combines the talents of many attorneys in a variety of practice areas. The attorneys who have knowledge, background and/or experience that would be useful to a particular matter will vary with the case or matter.
Balch & Bingham’s Litigation Practice handles a wide variety of disputes. We pride ourselves as not just book lawyers but trial attorneys, appearing in state and federal courthouses throughout the country and before arbitration panels throughout the country and throughout a series of industries. Our experience covers almost every area of the law and ranges from complex commercial litigation to personal injury and products liability.
