Neal A. Jacobs, Managing Attorney, Firm Founder
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Neal Jacobs has been the Managing Attorney of the Jacobs Law Group since its founding in 1999. Mr. Jacobs' practice is focused on complex corporate, business and litigation matters. He devotes particular attention to privately held companies and their shareholder and member relations. Mr. Jacobs focuses on complex corporate matters involving the interplay of the rights and obligations of managment and the various classes of equity holders and lenders and others. These include claims of shareholder oppression, squeeze outs, and freeze outs of various types.

Mr. Jacobs has built a reputation in the area of Business Divorce involving the legal maneuvering and claims that are asserted when relations among privately held business owners degrade and become overcontentious. Mr. Jacobs is a frequent lecturer on the topic.

Mr. Jacobs has been frequently called on to solve deadlocks between ownership groups and to craft business oriented solutions to joint ownership matters. Mr. Jacobs' corporate practice includes documenting these arrangements as well as negotiating, structuring, and documenting mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures private equity and venture capital matters as well as general commercial contracts, and creditor and debtor matters.

Mr. Jacobs provides counsel and representation to privately held companies, founders, entrepreneurs, majority shareholders, minority shareholders, and private equity funds and venture capital companies. Mr. Jacobs routinely represents:

* manufacturing companies

* high-technology firms

* venture capital and private equity firms

* gaming companies

* telecommunications companies

* software and networking companies

* real estate companies

* professional firms: legal, medical, dental, architectural, accounting, engineering, etc.

* financial service and investment banking companies

* financial companies

* health care companies

In litigation matters Mr. Jacobs has won multimillion dollar awards for his clients and has represented clients with claims from under $1.0 Million to in excess of $100 Million. Mr. Jacobs has assisted clients in recovering tens of millions of dollars invested in or owing from others.

Mr. Jacobs has successfully litigated, arbitrated and/or negotiated shareholder claims; buyout claims; derivative actions; freeze outs and squeeze outs, earn-out cases; contract claims; computer fraud cases; restrictive covenant cases; ponzi schemes; common law fraud cases; and commercial fraud cases on all levels.

Prior to starting his own firm Mr. Jacobs was an attorney with Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley and prior thereto he was with the law firm of Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzberg, Ellers, & Weir.

Mr. Jacobs is a graduate of Cook College, Rutgers University where he earned his B.S. in Economics (1980) and the Rutgers University School of Law, Camden, where he received his J.D. with Honors (1984). He is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Member: Philadelphia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Bar Associations; Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. He has been admitted pro hac vice or appeared as out of state counsel in many other jurisdictions from Florida to Massachusetts and out West.

Mr. Jacobs has held the coveted "AV" rating from Martindale & Hubbell for over ten years (Highest rating available for skill and integrity). Philadelphia Magazine has recognized Mr. Jacobs as a Super Lawyer in Commercial Litigation for over five years. Mr. Jacobs is listed in the Registry of Preeminent Attorneys and has been listed in Strathmere's "Who's Who" of Distinguisted Attorneys. Early in his career he was named "One of the 100 People to Watch" by Philadelphia Business Magazine and has received multiple other awards and recognitions. Mr. Jacobs is a Fellow of the Academy of Trial Advocacy (now associated with the Temple University School of Law).

Mr. Jacobs has advised and/or worked with international clients and companies including from or in: Australia, British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, France, Germany, Honduras, Iceland, India, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

REPRESENTATIVE LECTURES AND PUBLICATIONS (1998-2012):

Course Planner, Chairperson and Presenter, Business Divorce -- Shareholder, Partner and Member Relations, Pennsylvania Bar Institute Lecture and Seminar Series, March 2011 - Mechanicsburg, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia.

Course Planner, Chairperson and Presenter, Business Divorce -- Shareholder, Partner and Member Relations, From Mom and Pop to Joint Venture Partners and Venture Capital Backed Businesses, Pennsylvania Bar Institute Lecture and Seminar Series, December 2008 -- Mechanicsburg, Pittsburg and Philadelphia.

Author, Protecting Your Legacy, The Family Name and the Sale of the Business, Family Business Magazine, Winter, 2007-8.

Lecturer at Seminar presented to members of the Pennsylvania medical staff of Roxborough Memorial Hospital on the topic of Shareholders rights and enforceability of written contracts. January 2006.

Course Planner, Chairperson and Lecturer, Business Divorce "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", When Shareholders Go To War, Pennsylvania Bar Institue Lecture and Seminar Series, 2006 -- Mechanicsburg, Pittsburg and Philadelphia.

Course Planner and Chairperson of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Continuing Legal Education seminar "Getting Out of Contracts Legally" Is it worth the paper it's printed on, presented November - December 2005, Harrisburg, Pittsburg and Philadelphia.

Lecturer at Seminar presented to members of the Pennsylvania AICPA (sponsored by Corporate Financial Services) entitled the "Seven Deadly Sins of Shareholder/Succession Agreements". The seminar qualified for four continuing professional education credits for licensed public accountants. Philadelphia, November 2005.

Course Planner, Chairperson and Lecturer, Business Divorce "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do", Corporate Issues, Disputes and Dispute Resolution and Litigation Issues, Pennsylvania Bar Institute Lecture and Seminar Series, Mechanicsburg April 2004; Pittsburg April 2004; and Philadelphia April 2004.

Lecturer, Advanced Judgment Enforcement, Work-Outs and Lender Liability Issues, June 2004, Philadelphia.

Chairperson and Presenter, The Evolution of the Consultant to CEO, "What You Need To Know Before You Take The Job", Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group, Union League, October 2003.

Lecture: June 2003, 'The Legal Implications of Your Security Plan in a Post 9-11 World' - Eastern Technology Council and Inflow Seminar Averting Disaster: Protecting Your Mission Critical Data.

Lecture: 2003, 'Physician Heal Thyself, Avoiding Practice Breakups: How Healthy Is Your Legal Agreement?' - Roxborough Memorial Hospital.

Lecturer, "The Impact of Business Divorce on Credit Extension and Credit Collection" to Cummins Power Systems Corporation National Credit Managers.

Lecturer, "Partnership , Shareholder and Business Relationships", West Chester, PA.

Course Planner, Chairperson and Lecturer, Business Divorce "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", Pennsylvania Bar Institute Lecture and Seminar Series, Mechanicsburg August 1, 2001; Pittsburg October 3, 2001; Philadelphia November 6, 2001; and Williamsport December 4, 2001.

Lecturer, Business Divorce, Feasterville Rotary Club, June 26, 2001.

Choose Your Weapon Wisely: Beware the LBO's Double Edged Blade If Insolvency Looms, Philadelphia Bar Association, Business Law Report, Summer 2001.

Taking Sides in a Business Divorce -- Avoid Becoming A Casualty of Clients-At-War, Pennsylvania CPA Journal, Spring 2001, Co-author with Kelly Bossard, CPA; reprinted Philadephia Bar Association, Business Law Report, Summer 2001.

Author and Lecturer, Are Lenders Out of the Woods? Lender Liability in the New Millenium, Lorman Education Services, Philadelphia, June 21, 2001.

Taking Sides in a Business Divorce -- Avoid Becoming a Casuality of Clients-At-War, Pennsylvania CPA Journal, Spring 2001, Co-author with Kelly Bossard, CPA.

Guest Lecturer at the Rutgers Camden School of Law: Seminar on "Business Formation, Business Owner Relations and Business Owner Divorce". November 15, 2000.

Guest Lecturer at the Philadelphia Bar Association Small Business Committee: Seminar on "Representing Your Clients In Business Divorces". November 9, 2000.

What Are Your Rights In A Business Divorce Between Business Partners? The American Bar Association Business Law Today, July/August 1998.

Growing Your Business Without Worry; While Protecting Your Wealth and Your Future. The Legal Relationships Between Co-Owners In the Context Of A Growing Business, The Tensions That Arise and The Business Divorce Scenario Resulting. Lecture given on Tuesday, June 9, 1998 to Selected Invitees, Conshohocken Marriot West, West Conshohocken, PA.

What Are Your Rights In A Business Divorce Between Business Partners, The Pennsylvania Law Weekly, March 2, 1998.

Trade Names and Dental Advertising; What Can You Do , What Should You Avoid, Lehigh Valley Dental Society, February 18, 1998.

The Meaning of Lee vs. Weismann; What rights do you have to your religious beliefs under the United States Constitution; given to Congregation Or Ami, 1992.

Lender Liability, Given to the Delaware Valley Credit Management Association, 1991.

What To Do When Things Go Wrong In A Lending Relationship, Given to the Delaware Valley Credit Management Association, 1990.

OTHER RELEVANT BUSINESS ACTIVITIES:

CEO and Chairman of the Board, Automated Currency Instruments, Inc., 2005 - present; (High technology company in the gaming business).

Member of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC), 2008-2012.

Member of the Board of the Small Business Advisory Board of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, 2007-2010.

Matthew Cole

Samuel First

Joshua Gelman

Heather A. Herrington

Gene Linkmeyer

Alan Rosen

Christopher Wagner

Neal A. Jacobs

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