Krogh & Decker, LLP

Focus and practice areas

Business owners are the client base here. Krogh & Decker works with established companies, startups, and entrepreneurs, and it takes on both their disputes and their everyday legal paperwork. The firm offers counsel in California and across the United States. It operates as a limited liability partnership, the LLP form that many law firms use.

The work splits into two tracks. One is courtroom litigation between businesses and the people who run them. The second is the transactional and advisory work that keeps a company operating. In my opinion that pairing is the firm's defining feature, because a single client can hand it a contract to draft one year and a lawsuit to defend the next.

The litigation practice

Breach of contract claims make up much of the firm's litigation docket. The lawyers also take on civil disputes between businesses and their owners, professional liability matters, employment lawsuits, and cases that grow out of construction projects. That covers a wide slice of what can go wrong inside a company or between two companies that once did business together.

Business litigation tends to move through set stages. A party files a complaint, both sides exchange records and take depositions in discovery, and a judge rules on pretrial motions before any trial date arrives. Many matters settle once the facts come out, so a case can close well before a courtroom fight. Employment claims often run through a state or federal agency first, and construction disputes can involve mechanics liens, payment claims, and questions about who bears responsibility for defects. Professional liability matters ask whether a licensed professional met the standard of care their field expects, and they often turn on testimony from another professional in the same line of work.

Transactional and advisory work

Company formation is often the first thing a new client needs, and the firm sets up those entities. It drafts and reviews contracts, handles mergers and acquisitions, files trademark applications, prepares employee agreements, and maps out business succession plans. Owners who want a lawyer on call for routine questions can get that here as well.

Business formation usually starts with a choice of structure. An LLC, a corporation, and a partnership each carry different tax and liability consequences, and the right pick depends on how the owners plan to raise money and share control. Getting that decision right early can save a company from costly fixes later.

Mergers and acquisitions carry their own rhythm. The parties sign a letter of intent, the buyer runs due diligence on the target's finances and contracts, and the lawyers paper the purchase agreement and closing documents. Trademark filings go through the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where an examining attorney reviews each application before it registers. Contract drafting and employee agreements are steadier work, the kind a growing company needs on a regular basis. Clear terms in those documents can head off the very disputes the litigation side later handles.

Other areas the firm covers

Beyond those two tracks, the firm lists several more fields of law. These include intellectual property, trade secrets, shareholder and partner rights, corporate and partnership governance, estate planning, and real property. Most connect back to the same business clients. A company that files a trademark may also want to guard its trade secrets, settle the rights among its partners, or clean up how its board makes decisions.

Shareholder and partner rights disputes often come down to what the founding documents say. An operating agreement or a shareholder agreement sets out voting power, profit splits, and exit terms, and courts lean on those terms when owners fall out. Estate planning and real property widen the reach a little. An owner whose wealth is tied up in a business often needs a plan for passing it on, and real property questions surface whenever a company buys, leases, or develops space. This longer list reads like the firm following its clients into the neighboring problems that a business tends to create.

How the team is built

Shawn M. Krogh and Derek C. Decker founded the firm in 2014, and both work across business litigation and transactional matters. Those are the same two tracks the firm still runs today.

The roster has grown past the two founders. Alexandria M. Chacon, Ved Dashputre, Marlen Gaytan-Leon, Christopher Perez-Pruitt, and Trevor White carry the attorney title. Ryan Fillmore holds the senior counsel role, a title that usually marks an experienced lawyer working outside the partnership track. Paralegals, law clerks, and administrative staff support the attorneys on daily case and client work.

A reviewer's read

As a reviewer, I see a firm with a clear center of gravity: the legal needs of businesses and the people who own them. The two founders built it around litigation and transactions at once, and the practice areas listed today still cluster around that idea. Krogh & Decker has run under the same two names since it opened in 2014.