Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Helped Clients Recover Over $25 Billion. Since 1979.
Veterinary practices, pet aftercare providers, and other animal care businesses face the same legal questions as any company, along with a few of their own. The Schenk Law Firm helps owners structure their practices, protect their brands, collect what they’re owed, and prepare for a sale.
Practice Ownership
We document co-ownership of a veterinary professional corporation, including share purchases, shareholder consents, and the company’s state filings.
Selling a Practice or Pet Business
We review broker listing agreements and value opinions, assemble the records a buyer needs for diligence, and handle the sale through our mergers, acquisitions, and sales practice.
Collections and Demand Letters
When a client’s payment bounces or an account goes unpaid, we send a formal demand that sets out the debt and a deadline.
Vendor and Provider Disputes
We review disputes with suppliers and service providers and give you a practical view of whether a claim is worth pursuing.
Trademarks
We register clinic, service, and brand names with the USPTO and keep those registrations in force with their maintenance filings.
Leases and Contracts
We review leases, service agreements, and vendor contracts. Our medical and healthcare real estate page covers clinic space.
Two veterinarians want to own the practice together.
A veterinary professional corporation has ownership rules of its own. We document each owner’s shares and the rules between the owners, including what happens if one leaves.
We’re thinking about selling.
Read the broker’s listing agreement carefully before you sign it, since it sets the commission, the length of the listing, and what happens if you sell to someone the broker didn’t find. We can review it and help you get your records ready for a buyer.
A client’s payment bounced.
Keep the records of the service, the invoice, and your attempts to collect. A demand letter from counsel often resolves the balance without a lawsuit.
Should we register our clinic name?
A federal registration gives you nationwide rights and makes it easier to stop a copycat. If you plan to add locations or services, register before you expand.
We have a dispute with a supplier.
Before you spend money on a claim, it’s worth an honest look at the records and the cost. Sometimes a records request or a direct conversation resolves it.
Experience
David Lizerbram has practiced business and trademark law for more than two decades. Benjamin Schenk founded and runs a commercial real estate investment and asset management firm.
Business and Brand Together
We handle the practice’s ownership, contracts, and trademarks.
Practical Advice
We tell owners when a dispute isn’t worth the cost and help them move on to a better option.
Case Study
Two veterinarians agreed to share ownership of a professional veterinary corporation, and each had her own lawyer. We drafted the ownership documents, worked out the terms with the other side’s counsel, and delivered the signed set to the practice’s accountant. We have since kept the annual shareholder consents and state filings current as the board changed.
Case Study
A founder built a cat-welfare education business around a podcast, a clinic, and an information service. We handled the application for the newest brand, filed the Statement of Use once the service launched, and saw the mark through to registration. In the same year we filed the maintenance declaration that kept the podcast registration in force.
Case Study
A pet aftercare business received an offer from a larger aftercare company. We had already kept the company’s brand registration in force with its maintenance filings, and once the letter of intent was signed, we assembled the entity records the buyer needed for diligence. The sale has since closed.
Client names and identifying details are withheld. Results depend on the facts of each matter, and past results don’t guarantee a similar outcome.
The Schenk Law Firm is based in North Park, San Diego. We advise veterinary practices and pet care companies throughout California, and our trademark work covers owners nationwide.
Buying, selling, or merging a business, from the first offer through closing.
Business Disputes & Demand Letters
Demand letters, collections, and resolving disputes before court.
Shareholder, Member & Partnership Agreements
The written rules between co-owners.
Trademark searches, applications, and protection for brand names and logos.
Keeping a registration alive with its maintenance filings.
Medical & Healthcare Real Estate
Leases and purchases for clinic space.
Whether you’re bringing in a co-owner, protecting your name, or getting ready to sell, we can help you plan the next step.
Contact us today to discuss your veterinary or pet care business.
Request a ConsultationCalifornia restricts ownership of a veterinary professional corporation to licensed veterinarians, with limited exceptions. Other business structures are possible, and the right one depends on how the practice is run.
Buyers usually ask for formation documents, ownership records, tax identification, leases, key contracts, and proof of ownership of the brand. Having them organized can speed up the sale.
It can. In an asset sale, the trademark is assigned to the buyer along with the goodwill of the business, and the assignment is recorded with the USPTO.
Often, yes. A clear demand letter resolves many small balances, and California also allows added damages for some bad checks after a written demand.