CLIENT CENTERED
At the Law Offices of J. Joseph Little our clients are always Number One! Our specialty practice ensures a lower overall volume of ongoing matters at any given time, so that we can devote more personal focus and attention to each whenever it is needed the most. We pride ourselves on being available and accessible to you when necessary, even outside of regular business hours.
We work together with you to meet your stated goals, always making sure you understand every nuance of your particular situation. In the process, we distill often-complicated legal and accounting jargon into an understandable whole to make your experience more relaxed and comfortable, no matter what may be involved.
To learn more about our team, click here.
PRACTICE AREAS
Jay has decades of experience handling the legal aspects of some of the most complex business transactions there are. These can range from the very initiation of a business - including naming, incorporation and trademarking - all the way to ensuring a business succession plan for closely-held entities, and with every imaginable permutation in between.
One of the many benefits Jay’s clients receive when retaining him is that of having a seasoned tax professional and corporate attorney all in one, removing the need for outside resources. Very often, business issues present both legal and accounting concerns, and it is convenient to have ready, in-house access to research and answers in these two areas.
Both Jay and Heather are competent attorneys in the area of real estate transactions, and bring their teamwork to bear on a multitude of issues presented by their clients. Not only are they helpful in the purchase, sale and leasing of commercial and residential properties, but Jay is also very familiar with the intricacies of tax planning where real estate ownership is concerned. This can be a very important factor in the case of individuals or entities with multiple, income-producing properties, where issues such as tax-free exchanges and depreciation are involved.
Clients who are interested in real property becoming a sizable part of their estate and/or retirement plan (beyond their primary residence) find Jay to be a valuable resource and team member in terms of creating short-, medium- and long-term strategy as to how to achieve such goals. He is always happy to share his out-of-the-box ideas with receptive clients, again always keeping potential tax consequences in the forefront of attorney-client discussions.
While accounting and tax may underscore much of Jay’s work with his year-round clients, he also maintains an active accounting and tax management practice, which rises to the frenzy level each spring. Tax clients appreciate his attention to detail and his very personalized service in an area that has sometimes become de-personalized and robotic, with the advent of the huge tax preparation franchises.
While Jay does prefer to work with organized and careful clients in the area of tax return preparation (no shoeboxes full of random receipts for an entire year, please!), still he has been known to accept new clients – especially those who are referred by existing clients - who are willing to streamline their record-keeping in future so as to benefit more from his tax knowledge and advice.
Many people think of estate planning in the most general terms of having a will. But it is so much more than that. For some clients, we actually become the catalyst for a productive family discussion about a future when they are no longer physically there or when they might become incapacitated in some way. Although it can seem daunting at first, most clients report being deeply comforted in knowing they have communicated their preferences to their loved ones and executed the necessary documents to ensure that outcome.
Some questions worth considering at the outset include: Who would you want to be your advocate if you could no longer advocate for yourself? At what point would the burden of continued medical treatment outweigh the benefits? Who do you want to provide for after you are gone? Once you have your estate and succession plan in place, it is important to revisit it for possible update whenever any of these five major life events occur: Decade, Divorce/Marriage, Decline, Diagnosis and Death. Each stage of life presents an opportunity to re-evaluate your advance directives to accurately represent your current situation.
We are undoubtedly a nation of great animal lovers. But many people are not aware that our laws, derived as they are from English common law, treat all animals as mere personal property, or chattels. This legal treatment of animals can have complicated consequences in cases such as the intended or unintended killing of another’s animal, the battle for custody and visitation of a divorcing couple’s companion animal, and the increasing demand for the creation of “pet trusts” or “pet protection agreements,” which are intended to facilitate owners in providing financially and otherwise for companion animals that might outlive them.
With her background and experience in animal rescue, Heather’s interest in the many aspects of animal law and welfare developed naturally over time. As a Board Member of and Legal Counsel to Playing Again Sams of Wisconsin, she has taken specialized courses in the subject, and continues to increase her knowledge through the varied situations presented in the course of representing animal rescue groups.
We have noticed over time that many of our clients have strong charitable interests, and for some of them this may culminate in the desire to create and manage a family foundation or other nonprofit entity reflecting their most cherished ideals and concerns for a better world. Through the years, Jay has been asked to form these entities for clients and has delighted in doing so, sometimes on a pro bono basis.
It should be noted that operating a not-for-profit organization, in most states, puts a burden on the founder in that, unlike for-profit enterprises, the establishment of a nonprofit entity is akin to a contract with the residents of the particular state in which it was created. This means that if certain obligations are not met in a timely manner, the state may involuntarily dissolve the organization. It follows then that navigating these kinds of entities is much easier with a trained professional by your side!