BTLG | Business & Technology Law Group

Focus and practice areas

BTLG works with entrepreneurs and with small to medium-sized companies in Columbia, Maryland. The firm calls itself a full-service business law firm. Its client base includes companies that develop and sell technology services or products.

The firm handles both transactional work and litigation. That combination matters for a business client, because the same contract dispute can start as a negotiation and finish in a courtroom. BTLG's attorneys also act as outside general counsel on business and corporate matters.

The named practice areas cover general business law, litigation, technology law and government contracting, employment law, intellectual property, corporate, LLC and partnership law, bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, and collections. The firm also handles arbitration, mediation, adversary proceedings, and administrative complaints and citations.

How the team is built

Two attorneys appear on the site by name: Christopher S. Young and Angela Currie. Both carry the Esq. designation. The site describes the firm's attorneys as Maryland trial lawyers who appear in the state and federal courts of Maryland.

A two-attorney roster shapes how a client experiences the engagement. Files go to the same people who took the first call. In my opinion, that structure suits the small and medium-sized companies BTLG names as its clients, since those businesses often want a lawyer who already knows the shareholder agreement before the dispute arrives.

The firm says its clients have included small businesses, and it has worked as local litigation counsel for public companies. Local counsel work is a specific role. A company litigating in Maryland while its main lawyers sit elsewhere needs a Maryland-admitted firm to file, appear, and manage local procedure.

Technology law and government contracting

Companies that build and sell software carry a distinct set of legal questions. Ownership of code written by contractors, license terms, data handling obligations, and warranty limits all sit in the contracts a technology company signs. BTLG names this as a practice area alongside government contracting.

What government contracting work involves

Selling to a federal or state agency runs on rules that differ from commercial sales. Federal procurement uses the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which sets clause language, flow-down terms for subcontractors, and standards for cost accounting. A contractor that misses a required clause can find itself bound by terms it never negotiated.

Disputes in this area often move through agency processes before reaching a court. Bid protests go to the agency, the Government Accountability Office, or the Court of Federal Claims, and each route runs on a short clock. Claims against an agency generally start with a contracting officer's final decision, which then opens an appeal path to a board of contract appeals.

Maryland's proximity to Washington puts a large number of federal contractors and subcontractors within reach of a Columbia office. That geography fits the practice area the firm names.

Business formation and ownership structure

BTLG's corporate, LLC and partnership practice covers the documents that govern who owns what. Formation looks simple at the filing stage. The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation processes articles of organization for an LLC in short order, and the fee is modest.

The harder work sits in the operating agreement or the shareholder agreement. Those documents answer questions the statute leaves open: how profits get split, what happens when one owner wants out, who can block a sale, and how a deadlock breaks. Founders who skip them rely on statutory defaults that rarely match what they intended.

As a reviewer, the pairing of formation work with litigation experience reads as useful. A lawyer who has argued over a buy-sell clause tends to draft the next one with more care.

Deal work and disputes

Buying and selling a business

BTLG handles mergers and acquisitions for the size of company it represents. A sale of a privately held business typically runs through a letter of intent, a diligence period, a purchase agreement, and a closing. Diligence looks at contracts, employment matters, intellectual property ownership, tax filings, and pending litigation.

The purchase agreement carries most of the risk allocation. Representations and warranties, indemnity caps, escrow amounts, and non-compete terms decide what happens if a problem surfaces after closing. For a technology company, the seller's ability to prove it owns its own code becomes a central diligence item.

Protecting what a company creates

Intellectual property questions run through much of BTLG's stated client base. A software company's assets are largely trade secrets, copyrights in code, trademarks in its brand, and sometimes patents. Each carries different registration rules and different remedies.

Trademark registration goes through the United States Patent and Trademark Office, with an examination period and a window for opposition. Copyright in software attaches at creation, though registration with the Copyright Office is a prerequisite for filing an infringement suit in federal court. Trade secret protection depends on the steps a company actually takes to keep the information confidential, which puts weight on employment agreements and internal controls.

When matters go to a hearing

The firm handles arbitration and mediation as well as court litigation. Many commercial contracts require arbitration, so the forum gets decided long before any argument starts. Arbitration runs under rules set by the chosen provider, with limited discovery and narrow grounds to challenge the award afterward.

Mediation works differently. A neutral third party helps the sides reach terms, and nobody rules on the merits. Businesses often prefer it because it keeps the dispute private and costs less than a full trial.

BTLG also lists adversary proceedings, which arise inside bankruptcy cases. When a creditor challenges the dischargeability of a debt, or a trustee sues to recover a payment made before the filing, that becomes a separate lawsuit within the bankruptcy court. The firm's bankruptcy and collections work connects to the same set of questions.

What the listing shows

BTLG publishes a clear description of its client type and a full list of practice areas. Two attorneys are named. The site gives a Columbia office and a separate Baltimore phone line, and the firm maintains a LinkedIn company page.

Some details a directory reader might want are absent. The site does not state a founding year, and it does not carry individual attorney biographies with law schools or admission dates. There is no formal entity name published, and the site takes inquiries through a contact form.

In my opinion, the strongest signal here is the match between what BTLG says it does and who it says it does it for. Business law for entrepreneurs and mid-market companies, with a technology and government contracting slant, describes a coherent practice for a firm sitting between Baltimore and Washington. The attorneys appear in Maryland state and federal courts, and the practice list spans the contract, ownership, employment, and dispute questions those clients bring.