Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell, PLC

Business work with a local base

Three attorneys formed Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell, PLC in March 2010. The firm is based in Grand Rapids and serves clients across West Michigan. Its work centers on businesses and the people who own them.

The website identifies auto dealerships and dental practices among the companies the firm has represented. Those examples show experience with businesses that hold valuable assets, employ staff, sign vendor agreements, and face industry rules. They also give readers a useful sense of the firm's client base without relying on broad marketing claims.

Corporate advice and contracts

The firm handles business and corporate law, contract creation, and contract review. Corporate work may involve entity structure, ownership terms, governance records, and agreements among owners. Contract work can cover the duties, payment terms, deadlines, remedies, and exit rights that shape a business relationship.

Contract review often starts with the commercial goal behind the document. Counsel may then examine definitions, performance standards, liability terms, renewal provisions, and dispute procedures. The useful question is whether the written terms match the deal that the parties believe they have reached.

Start-ups and investors

Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell also represents start-ups and investors. New companies commonly need formation documents, ownership records, financing terms, and contracts with workers or vendors. Investors may focus on voting rights, access to information, ownership dilution, and conditions tied to funding.

These matters often require clear records at an early stage. Founders and investors make decisions that can affect later financing, control, and the transfer of an ownership stake. The firm's published mix of corporate and contract work fits those legal tasks.

Transactions, franchises, and succession

Owners considering a purchase or sale can turn to the firm for mergers and acquisitions work. A business transaction usually begins with the structure of the proposed deal and a review of company records. Buyers, sellers, lenders, and advisers may each have defined roles.

Due diligence can include contracts, ownership documents, financial records, property interests, employment matters, and pending disputes. The parties then address price terms, closing conditions, representations, indemnity rights, and post-closing duties. Purchase agreements record those choices and allocate identified risks.

Franchise relationships

Franchise law is one of the firm's stated areas of work. Franchise matters often involve disclosure documents, operating standards, territory provisions, royalties, renewal rights, and transfer rules. The governing documents shape the relationship between a franchisor and a franchisee.

A prospective franchisee may need to compare the disclosure material with the franchise agreement and related leases or financing papers. An established franchise business may face questions about compliance, expansion, sale, or renewal. The firm's contract and business law work provides relevant context for those matters.

Planning for ownership changes

The firm also lists business succession among its services. Succession planning addresses who will own or manage a company after retirement, disability, death, or a planned sale. Owners may need buy-sell terms, valuation methods, transfer restrictions, and a timetable for changes in control.

Business succession can connect corporate documents with estate planning and family concerns. Tax advisers, accountants, lenders, and family members may take part in the process. Clear legal documents help record the owner's decisions and define the steps that others must follow.

Property, disputes, and personal planning

The published service list reaches beyond corporate transactions. Schnelker, Rassi & McConnell handles real estate, Lake Michigan waterfront property matters, litigation, family law, estate planning, and family office representation. In my opinion, that mix is useful for business owners whose company, property, and family plans affect one another.

Real estate and waterfront property

Real estate matters often require review of purchase agreements, title records, surveys, financing documents, easements, leases, and land-use rules. Waterfront property can add questions about boundaries, access, shared facilities, and rights connected to the shore. The website specifically identifies Lake Michigan property as part of the firm's work.

Parties in a property matter may include buyers, sellers, lenders, tenants, neighbors, associations, and public bodies. Each document can assign duties or limit how someone uses the property. Early review gives counsel a chance to identify those terms before a closing or dispute.

Litigation and family matters

The firm includes litigation in its practice list. A civil dispute commonly involves pleadings, written discovery, document exchange, witness testimony, motions, settlement talks, and possibly trial. Courts set deadlines and decide contested legal issues, while the parties control many choices about evidence and settlement.

Family law and estate planning appear alongside that litigation work. Family cases may concern property, support, parenting arrangements, or enforcement of an existing order. Estate planning may involve wills, trusts, powers of attorney, beneficiary choices, and plans for business interests.

Family office representation is another stated service. A family office may coordinate legal, financial, property, and governance concerns for a family with shared assets or enterprises. The firm's listed work in business law, real estate, succession, and estate planning covers several subjects that can arise in that setting.

The attorneys and stated experience

The website names Jason S. Schnelker, Andrew L. Rassi, and D. Wade McConnell as attorneys. These names also form the firm's legal name, which appears in the site footer. The public presentation keeps attention on a three-attorney team.

The firm reports over 60 years of combined experience in the Greater Grand Rapids area. That is a collective figure, so readers should treat it as a statement about the team as a whole. The site also says Super Lawyers magazine has featured each of the firm's attorneys.

As a reviewer, the clearest point is the continuity between the named attorneys and the work described across the site. Business owners can see corporate law, transactions, contracts, succession, property, disputes, and personal planning in the same service list. The firm also maintains the SRMLaw account on X and a company page on LinkedIn.

Jason Schnelker's finance and property work

Jason S. Schnelker brings a transactional focus to the firm's business practice. His work covers general corporate matters and commercial finance, with additional experience in banking law and small business law. He represents businesses in real estate and inventory financing, two forms of credit that can require attention to collateral documents, loan terms, and the assets covered by a lender's security interest.

His real estate practice includes acquisition, development, and sale transactions. He has also acted as borrower's counsel in workouts and restructuring matters involving financial institutions. That background gives readers more detail about the firm's ability to address financing problems as well as planned transactions.

Schnelker earned his journalism degree with distinction from Indiana University in 1994. He received his law degree from Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington in 1997.

Andrew Rassi's planning and securities practice

Andrew L. Rassi works across business and corporate matters, probate, commercial real estate, employment law, contracts, and securities offerings. The securities work is a distinct part of his profile because it relates directly to companies seeking capital and to the legal terms offered to investors.

His estate planning and probate experience also adds depth to matters involving privately held companies or family assets. Rassi is a member of the West Michigan Estate Planning Council, a professional connection that fits this part of his practice.

He received a Bachelor of Arts from Hope College in 1994 and a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1997.

Wade McConnell's litigation experience

D. Wade McConnell handles business and commercial litigation, employment disputes, construction cases, collections, real estate claims, and family law. His published background identifies partnership and contract disputes as part of that work. It also includes non-compete claims and unfair competition cases, which can affect ownership relationships, employee departures, and business operations.

McConnell has experience with business collections and commercial lease disputes. His property litigation extends to boundary questions and riparian rights, a useful detail for clients involved with waterfront land or neighboring parcels.

He earned degrees in history and political science from Aquinas College in 1998. He received his law degree cum laude from Wayne State University in 2001.