THOITS LAW - Key Persons
Experienced, accessible, analytical, thoughtful, savvy, seasoned and responsive. These are just a few of the words used by our clients to describe the attorneys who provide business counseling services at our firm.
Whether the client is the founder of a start-up company, the owner or manager of a profitable, well-established business, an entrepreneur leading an emerging growth company, or an investor in an enterprise looking for liquidity, we can help achieve his or her goals. Our Business Group's attorneys use their expertise and experience to counsel our clients, and design and assist in implementing effective solutions for their legal matters.
We provide legal assistance to businesses, decision makers, investors and other stakeholders confronted with the legal challenges they must address as owners and managers of a business enterprise. Our focus and goal is to help clients find the right balance between legal compliance and business efficacy in the wide variety of decisions they face. We regularly advise clients on the formation of business entities, equity and debt financings, operational and administration matters, intellectual property protection, technology licensing and Internet law, employment matters, compensation and employee benefits, taxation, and mergers, acquisitions and sales of businesses.
As a shareholder in the Employment Law and Business and Employment Groups of Thoits Law, Anne focuses on business and corporate matters, with an emphasis on income tax and employee benefits.
She started her legal career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP working on corporate and international tax structuring and planning issues. Anne works with business clients during all stages of their lives - from formation and operation to acquisition or liquidation. At formation, she assists for-profit and non-profit business owners select the proper form, including choices between corporations and limited liability companies (LLC's) and negotiation of buy-sell agreements among owners.
She works with business clients on a wide variety of equity and incentive compensation issues, including adoption of stock option plans for corporations and alternative plans for LLCs. As a business matures, Anne negotiates equity and debt financing agreements, along with employment, distribution and other contracts. She has represented her clients as they have been acquired, and as they have acquired other businesses and provides valuable insight and knowledge on structuring transactions.
With her tax background, Anne is also involved in many real estate estate-related transactions, from formation of entities to invest in and develop real estate to negotiation of relevant joint venture agreements and Section 1031 exchange transactions. Anne speaks frequently on legal and tax issues facing businesses.
Brittany Nobles is an Associate attorney in the firm's Litigation Group, where she focuses on intellectual property and business litigation.
Prior to joining Thoits, Brittany spent nearly seven years with a premier boutique intellectual property firm in Irvine, California, where she worked heavily on intellectual property, business, and commercial litigation and arbitration, including matters covering trade secret, defamation, contract, and business tort issues.
In addition to her work on federal and state court matters, Brittany has lent her investigative, legal research, and drafting skills to intellectual property enforcement matters and matters before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Brittany has also handled copyright and trademark prosecution, as well as licensing and transactional matters covering a wide range of arts and technologies.
During law school, Brittany achieved Honors in Advanced Negotiation and Contracts Drafting in the Sports Industry and earned awards for excellence in Legal Writing for Practice. Brittany also served as a Research Assistant to two professors, interned with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and completed coursework in International Law and Art Business through Sotheby's Institute of Art.
Brittany earned her B.A. from UC Santa Cruz as a double major in History of Art and Visual Culture with a Concentration in Religion and Visual Culture, and Politics. While at UCSC, Brittany also earned a Minor in Sociology, studied Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, French, and Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs, and played a forward position on the school's women's rugby team.
Outside the practice of law, Brittany volunteers as an Assistant Coach to the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School moot court team in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and is a Founding Board Member of Filipino Lawyers of Orange County. As a member of the VI Bar, Brittany has delivered CLE presentations on copyright issues and Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.
MEMBERSHIPS
Filipino Lawyers of Orange County, Founding Board Member
Virgin Islands Bar Association, Annual Moot Court Competition Assistant Coach
Girl Scouts of America, Lifetime Girl Scout and Silver Award Recipient
Over the years, Dan has represented a diverse set of clients in Silicon Valley, including high-tech entrepreneurs, executives, closely-held business owners, and their families. Dan has extensive experience assisting clients with their wealth transfer planning, using irrevocable trusts and entities, such as GRATs, IDGTs, LLCs, ILITs, and CRTs, in minimizing estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes, and implementing their other nontax objectives. Dan also assists clients with their foundational estate planning, using revocable trusts, wills, powers of attorney, health care directives, etc., in planning for incapacity and death. Additionally, Dan has experience representing fiduciaries in the administration of trusts and estates, including counseling them in the context of disputes, if and when they arise.
During law school, Dan was Associate Editor of the Law Review and Co-Author of published Note "The Limits of Deference: The Ninth Circuit Rejects EEOC Guidelines On English-Only Rules in the Workplace - Garcia v. Spun Steak", as well as receiving the Taxation Award. After graduating from law school, Dan was employed for three years as a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where he worked closely with the judges on that prestigious bench in the disposition of cases being heard before it.
Dan also worked in a private bank for five years, where he and his business partners had the privilege of serving a handful of the bank's most highly-valued families. As a result of their success, the bank adopted many aspects of their client service model when it built its family wealth group and then rolled it out nationally.
Dan is a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club and the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo.
David serves as an Associate in the Litigation Department representing clients in complex and high stakes civil litigation.
His extensive litigation experience includes a broad range of matters, from mass torts and partnership disputes, to securities fraud and insider trading claims. In his criminal practice, Mr. Sarfati has represented major financial institutions in government investigations and has successfully persuaded federal and state investigators to not pursue litigation or criminal charges against his clients.
Mr. Sarfati has trial and arbitration experience, including successfully defending a pharmaceutical company from a $50 Billion false advertising and public nuisance lawsuit.
Prior to joining Thoits, Mr. Sarfati was a litigation associate at the law firms of Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo and Hueston Hennigan in California. Mr. Sarfati was also an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.
Jeremy Hanika serves as Of Counsel in the Litigation Department representing clients in complex and high stakes civil litigation.
Prior to joining Thoits, Jeremy spent more than ten years providing litigation support services as a Project Manager and Senior Consultant in the Bay Area for several Am Law 100 firms, including Morrison & Foerster LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP. During that time, Jeremy developed a proficiency in legal technology working closely with various eDiscovery vendors to integrate technological solutions into litigation so his clients could benefit from the industry's best practices.
On behalf of several Fortune 500 companies and public entities, Jeremy has provided litigation oversight in a number of high-tech cases involving trade secret theft, patent infringement, securities fraud, and breach of contract including cases involving medical device, large and small molecule pharmaceuticals, lithography, and nuclear energy, as well as cases involving electrical, mechanical, and genetic technologies.
As a patent attorney, Jeremy participated in the coveted Externship Program at the United States Patent and Trademark Office examining patents and has since continued to provide patent, trademark, and copyright services at a high-level to his clients.
Prior to his career in patent law and civil litigation, Jeremy worked on behalf of numerous public entities including the Regents for the University of California, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, California Department of Justice, California and Massachusetts Attorney General Offices, Los Angeles Department of Public Schools, and New Mexico State Legislature.
After graduating from law school, Jeremy started his career as a volunteer with the San Diego Public Defender and served as Assistant District Attorney for the New Mexico First District Attorney's Office.
Jeremy earned his B.A. from Western Washington University in Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics, with a minor in English; B.S. from the University of New Mexico in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry; and his J.D. from New England Law in Boston, Massachusetts.
Jeremy is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Oruro, Bolivia, helping with microenterprise development and continues to provide pro-bono legal aid to international nonprofit organizations in underdeveloped countries.
Juan counsels and advises individuals and families in achieving their wealth transfer, estate planning, tax planning, business planning, and charitable objectives.
He advises on a broad range of issues related to wealth creation and preservation, and tax management, including tax planning, tax compliance, and tax controversy at the federal, state, and local levels. Juan's work on tax matters ranges from income tax controversies involving individuals and businesses to preparing, reviewing, and filing income, gift, estate, fiduciary, partnership and corporate tax returns. He regularly works with entrepreneurs and start-up companies, on qualified small business stock (QSBS) and related section 1202 and section 1045 issues.
Juan has extensive experience assisting clients with their wealth transfer planning, using irrevocable trusts and entities, such as grantor retained annuity trusts, charitable trusts, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations. He also assists clients with their foundational estate planning, using revocable trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care directives. He provides estate planning advice for clients with beneficiaries and/or assets that are located in multiple countries, as well as for individuals planning to enter or leave the United States. He also advises clients on reporting requirements in connection with foreign trusts, bank accounts, and other foreign assets.
Juan served as a judicial extern and as a court clerk in San Francisco Superior Court's Probate Department.
MEMBERSHIPS
State Bar of California - Taxation Section
Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley
Job Titles:
- Member of the EDUCATION Committee
Margo focuses her practice on trusts and estate planning and administration. In addition to planning and drafting customized estate planning documents, Margo assists her clients with lifetime gifting and estate tax planning, charitable giving, business succession planning, and simple to complex post-death administrations.
Prior to joining Thoits Law, Margo had her own trusts and estate practice in Sunnyvale, California and Palo Alto, California and worked at Ramsbacher Prokey LLP in San Jose, California. Prior to her trusts and estates practice, Margo's background included corporate law, intellectual property and contract negotiation with Konami America, Inc. and Amoco Corporation in Chicago, Illinois.
Margo is a current member of the State Bar of California Taxation and Trusts/Estates Sections.
Melinda Barker - Chief Legal Officer, Shareholder
As a certified legal specialist in trusts and estates in the State of California, Melinda assists high-net-worth clients with multi-generational wealth transfers using a combination of strategies, such as grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), other irrevocable grantor trusts, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, charitable trusts and private foundations.
Melinda serves as the primary legal counsel for individuals, couples, and blended families concerning their wealth-transfer strategies as well as their related intra-family relationships, tax, control, asset protection, and beneficiary-inheritance issues.
Mike believes that his role is to skillfully assist his clients in making informed decisions which meet their goals and desires and to assure that those decisions are properly documented and implemented.
Mike has lectured for various organizations and professional groups on estate planning and estate administration matters and has been active in several non-profit organizations. He is a golfer, enjoys staying fit and healthy and is an avid home cook which he incorporates into life with his family.
Richard Ehrman - Chief Legal Officer, Shareholder
Richard is a shareholder in the firm's Trusts and Estates Group and focuses his practice on estate and trust planning, implementation, administration, and litigation, as well as estate and gift tax counseling.
He is certified as a specialist in his field by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization and is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Trusts and Estates Section of the State Bar of California.
Richard serves as the primary legal counsel for hundreds of individuals, couples, and blended families concerning their wealth-transfer strategies as well as their related intra-family relationships, tax, control, asset protection, and beneficiary-inheritance issues.
Stewart is a shareholder in the Trusts and Estates Group. His practice focuses on estate planning and trust law, trust and probate administration, and estate and trust litigation. He provides counseling and designs plans based on the personal priorities, family situations, and financial positions of each of his clients.
Thom is special counsel in the firm's Real Estate Group. His practice focuses on helping clients in Silicon Valley and throughout California in the acquisition, sale, leasing, financing and development of real property.