Practice Area

AG Industry Practice Group

The Central Coast’s agricultural heritage is a reflection of the families and businesses that have made the region their home. The Central Coast also has been Kirk & Simas’ home for over 60 years and in that time the Firm has played a central role in the development and prosperity of the local agricultural economy.

The Firm represents the full range of family and corporate owned local, domestic and international agricultural businesses. The Firm’s dedicated Ag Industry Practice Group attorneys employ a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating the Firm’s practices in general business law, real estate transactions, land use, entity formation and operations, management side employment law, and wealth preservation to provide ag industry clients with specialized legal counsel and effective solutions.

In particular, Kirk & Simas’ attorneys provide comprehensive and creative counsel to clients on a range of industry-specific issues, including:

AG Land Matters

Kirk & Simas attorneys are involved every day in some of the largest and most sophisticated agricultural land transactions in the region including raw land acquisition, development and financing, short and long term agricultural leases, cooler and storage facility development, contracts and leases, land use permitting, zoning compliance, and conservation easements, real property, landlord-tenant, eminent domain, and easement disputes, environmental matters, including endangered species, water quality and contamination.

Management Side Employment Matters

The Firm is a recognized local leader in providing advice and litigation services to employers in connection with general and agriculture specific employment practices and wage and hours matters.

Succession Planning

Agriculture related businesses are often multi-generational. The Firm’s team of trusts and estates attorneys have decades of experience helping Central Coast families plan both exit strategies from their businesses and long term succession plans to pass the family’s agricultural assets and heritage to the next generation or trusted, next generation managers.

Agribusiness Transactions

The Firm has decades of experience across the full range of daily operational issues for agricultural enterprises including entity and co-op formation and governance, national and international production, marketing, distribution and brokerage contracts for both raw produce and value added products, food safety and auditing, plant patent licensing, crop financing and insurance.

Litigation

Because of long relations of working together farm families often are able to work out disputes without litigation. When litigation is necessary, the Firm has years of experience and a successful track record of representing local families in connection with all manner of industry related disputes such as lease, easement and boundary line matters, entity governance and break up matters, general collection matters as well as crop, producer, and warehouseman lien enforcement, PACA claims and Ag Marketing Service enforcement matters, and regulatory enforcement actions.

Contact: Ag@KirkSimas.com

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