1927 — Henry Ford helps establish Bodman LLP when Clifford B. Longley and Wallace R. Middleton left the Ford Motor Company Legal Department and partnered with Henry E. Bodman to form our firm.
Our ties with the business world and the automotive industry have been strong ever since, and have expanded to reflect the global economy.
Law represents the underpinnings of the business world. Our Business Law Practice Group attorneys serve corporate clients large and small, private and public, in all the legal aspects of their businesses. We are dedicated to giving our business clients prompt, efficient, imaginative and accurate advice in pursuit of their business goals.
We specialize in general corporate organization, as well as the formation of partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies, professional corporations, banking entities and various forms of joint ventures.
Our experience reflects, in part, our historic legal relationship with the automotive industry. This relationship continues today with automakers, as well as many automotive parts manufacturers and suppliers. We are also well versed in the unique needs of clients in other significant industries including communications and media, computer software and hardware, cement, biotechnology, banking, insurance, securities, general merchandising and general manufacturing operations.
Our Business Law Practice Group typically advises and assists clients in the following areas:
We represented numerous Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 automotive suppliers, including a Fortune 150 automotive supplier, in various acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures. We counseled our clients in the areas of tax, real estate, environmental, employment, labor, general corporate, banking, and intellectual property law.
In the area of corporate governance, we represented the chairman of a Fortune 50 company.
We handled the purchase of a leading aviation services company and continue to counsel the purchaser on all aspects of aircraft management, aircraft sales and acquisition, aircraft maintenance, avionics installation and repair, FBO services, and aircraft charters.
A major technology outsourcing firm with operations in 22 states and overseas relied on our counsel beginning with its founding in 1985. In 1995, its original owners sold control of the company to a private equity firm, which did an initial public offering in 1996. We subsequently represented the company in various secondary securities offerings and in its acquisition of more than 70 private companies in a three-year period.
Our notable success stories include structuring public-private partnerships to enable the completion of important urban revitalization projects. Examples include the $500 million Stadiums Project in downtown Detroit and a $230 million racetrack in Kansas City, Missouri.
We handled many angel and venture capital investments into private companies on behalf of both the investors and the company receiving the funding.
Domestic automotive suppliers have come to us to help form joint ventures with foreign automotive suppliers.