Texas Business Law Attorneys – Farm and Ranch Business Planning
There’s business planning and then there’s business planning for a farm or ranch company. Farm and ranch businesses have all the needs and share all the complexities of every other type of business in Texas. And then some.
There is another, deeper, more complex layer of business law when applied to the ranch and farm industry.
Just a few of the legal considerations unique to the farm and ranch industry:
Water rights - Understanding water rights laws and regulations, obtaining permits, and negotiating surface water contracts.
Land use - Compliance with zoning and land use regulations, subdivision requirements, and conservation easements.
Property tax laws - Valuation protests, ag exemptions, wildlife management exemptions, appraisal review boards.
Business entity selection - Forming the appropriate business entity such as a family limited partnership or LLC.
Estate planning - Planning for orderly transfer to successors, minimizing estate taxes, and gifting mineral rights.
Employment issues - Labor laws of agricultural workers including migrant workers.
Regulatory matters - Complying with environmental regulations, CAFO rules, USDA, and FDA regulations.
Contracts - Leasing pastureland, livestock care agreements, production contracts, mineral rights leases.
Liability issues - Limiting liability for activities like hunting, livestock injuries, and trespassers.
Water district disputes - Challenging irrigation districts over groundwater regulations.
Property disputes - Boundary disputes, trespass issues, mineral rights disputes with neighbors.
Hopkins Centrich has long experience working with farm and ranch businesses throughout Texas. We are a smart, nimble law firm that is always only a text or phone call away from our clients. We will respond to your every need. Hopkins Centrich, The Woodlands premier business law firm, has been the law business law firm for medium-sized companies and closely held businesses for decades.
Over the years we have been the law firm for a variety of privately-owned companies from tech to software developers, healthcare providers, architectural firms, real estate developers, retailers, restaurants, breweries, CPA firms, farms and ranches, and others. Hopkins Centrich has been the “go-to” legal advisor to start-up ventures and more mature closely held and family-owned businesses, and national enterprises for over two decades.
Business Law and Farms and Ranches
Here are just a few of the ways we work with our farm and ranching clients:
Understanding the client's operations - we do everything we can to become fully familiar with the client's crops, livestock, properties, water rights, production practices, etc. Site visits are useful.
Reviewing relevant regulations - we research applicable USDA, EPA, OSHA, FDA rules. Master rules on subsidies, imports, livestock care, confined animal feeding operations, etc.
Analyzing business structure - we consider pros and cons of Corporations, LLCs, partnerships and recommend optimal Texas entity choice.
Handling land use issues - we guide clients on property, zoning, conservation easements and related land use regulations.
Drafting key contracts - we prepare livestock care agreements, leases, surface water contracts, mineral rights contracts, hunting leases, etc.
Overseeing employment law compliance - we help insure wage, migrant worker, discrimination, and safety rules are followed.
Advising on estate planning - we work hard to facilitate orderly, tax-efficient transfer of ranch assets to successors.
Handling disputes - we represent our clients in boundary disputes, water rights litigation, USDA appeals, and other contested matters.
Monitoring legislative changes - we keep clients updated on new Texas statutes and regulations impacting ag operations.
Providing general counsel services - we serve as knowledgeable advisors across the spectrum of legal issues faced by ranching and farming enterprises.
Hopkins Centrich, Your Business Attorneys
Hopkins Centrich is a full-service business law firm that handles all business-related law issues (as well as the occasional compliance issue) for a variety of privately owned companies, tech firms, healthcare providers, architectural firms, among many others . . . as well as advisor to start-up ventures.
About Hopkins Centrich
Hopkins Centrich PLLC provides cutting-edge, high-quality, creative legal solutions for business and business owners in Texas.
Our attorneys and staff have decades of experience in virtually every aspect of business law in The Woodlands and Texas. We have designed and incorporated businesses, managed their every legal concern, engaged in litigation on their behalf, aided with mergers and acquisitions, managed mergers, acquisitions, and sales.
Hopkins Centrich knows Texas business law. We are uniquely positioned to help business owners from startup to merger or sale or transfer to family members.
When we work with a client, our sole focus is on them. We take advantage of everything technology has to offer to optimize how we work. That gives us more time to spend with you, more time to understand the issues, and more time to negotiate and prepare for trial.
We get that no one wants to contact a law firm unless they feel they absolutely have to. When they do, it almost always means that ‘things have reached a head.’
The attorneys and staff of Hopkins Centrich understand business. We understand business owners. We will make any legal process understandable; you will know what is happening with your case every step of the way, and you will never have to track us down for answers.
How We Work
Hopkins Centrich is a team with a deep bench. All our attorneys have extensive litigation experience which they fully use when called for.
Hopkins Centrich’s attorneys all have ‘big firm’ backgrounds. They formed our firm with the goal of keeping the best of those firms while employing far more personal experience for our clients.
We do this by using technology to its fullest. We will make use of every cutting edge legal and business technology and methodologies to ensure that we will continue to deliver the highest quality legal services to our clients while allowing us to respond promptly and efficiently to client needs, exceed project requirements, operate effortlessly with narrow timeframes, and develop innovative and flexible legal solutions at competitive fees.
We are creative. We are agile. We quickly adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, including changes in the law.
Our vision statement may sum it up best. We will deliver highly skilled, ethical, and aggressive legal representation to every client by:
Responding promptly to our clients’ needs;
Anticipating business and legal trends that may affect our clients;
Managing our clients’ matters in an efficient, caring, and proactive manner;
Communicating regularly and clearly with our clients