Trial Counsel
for Disputes That Threaten Enterprise Value.
When agreements fracture, relationships break down, or business value is at risk, Pacini Law represents companies, founders, executives, and investors in litigation, arbitration, and trial. We set direction early, align the case with the business objective, and prepare with trial in view because credible trial posture shapes leverage long before the courtroom. Small by design, Pacini Law pairs large-firm training with a lean trial model built to move fast, resist process-driven pressure, and take significant matters through hearing, trial, or appeal.
Business Disputes Are Not Managed. They are Positioned.
Trial & Arbitration Counsel
Pacini Law is engaged when a dispute requires strategy, leverage, and a willingness to carry the matter through the pressure points that determine outcomes: targeted discovery, dispositive motions, evidentiary hearings, arbitration, and trial. We build advocacy around the facts, the contract, the transaction history, and the value at stake so the client can pursue the legal work needed to change the position, not merely respond to the next move.
Expedited litigation and emergency relief
Injunctions, status-quo disputes, and urgent business conflicts
Transaction, governance, investor, and contract disputes
AAA, JAMS, and private arbitration under compressed timelines
Cost, timing, discovery, and procedural strategy
We work directly with clients, in-house teams, and existing counsel to move quickly, develop the record, preserve leverage, and keep litigation strategy aligned with the business objective.
Core Dispute Areas
Transaction, Governance & Investor Disputes Entity formation and operating architecture
Financings, acquisitions, earn-outs, indemnification, Delaware-governed entities, investor rights, board conflicts, and investment structures. These disputes often turn on the deal architecture: representations, covenants, approval rights, indemnity mechanics, and dispute-resolution provisions.
Employment, Executive & Workforce Litigation Equity, debt, and bridge financings
Executive separations, restrictive covenants, trade secrets, mobility disputes, founder and leadership conflicts, discrimination and retaliation claims, whistleblower issues, agency proceedings, and other employment disputes where business continuity, reputation, and leverage matter.
Commercial Contract Conflicts
Disputes over the agreements that run the business, including technology, licensing, distribution, services, supply, platform, payment, and partnership contracts, handled with attention to operational leverage, revenue exposure, customer relationships, and reputational impact.
Government, Regulatory & Statutory Enforcement Matters
Attorney general investigations, statutory enforcement, consumer protection claims, unfair or deceptive practice litigation, and agency-driven disputes, handled with early scope control, disciplined positioning, and attention to collateral business consequences.
Insurance, Indemnity & Risk Transfer
Coverage, indemnity, defense obligations, tenders, reservations of rights, and loss-allocation issues integrated into dispute strategy from the outset to protect the balance sheet and preserve available recovery.
Copycat & Pattern Litigation
Coordinated or sequential claims designed to create cost, distraction, and procedural pressure, including ADA/accessibility, auto-renewal, TCPA, disclosure, and opportunistic IP campaigns, approached as a leverage and cost-control problem, not a series of disconnected cases.
Built to Counter Asymmetrical Lawfare.
In modern commercial litigation, the merits are only one battlefield. Sophisticated adversaries can use cost, delay, discovery, and procedural escalation to turn litigation itself into leverage. Pacini Law is built for that terrain: direct lawyer ownership, early positioning, disciplined escalation, and fee structures aligned with the client’s objective, so cost, delay, and unnecessary complexity do not become the other side’s decisive advantage.
Position the matter early, before the other side defines the terrain
Identify the leverage points that matter, not every issue the other side wants to fight about
Control cost, timing, discovery, and escalation without surrendering pressure
Force the dispute back to proof, credibility, contract language, and consequences
Prepare for trial or arbitration as a real destination, not a distant possibility
If the other side intends to make process the weapon, retain counsel built to make strategy the answer.
Dispute Strategy Grounded in Business Reality.
Effective dispute resolution starts with the business objective, not the next procedural step. A growth company may need to preserve runway, protect a financing, remove uncertainty from a transaction, recover capital, safeguard a relationship, or reach a decision before the process becomes the punishment. Steven J. Pacini and Samuel Barrows bring the transactional, contractual, insurance, indemnity, and litigation experience needed to understand the business realities on both sides, identify the real leverage points, and design a strategy that changes the client’s position rather than merely responding to the opponent’s moves.
Former Latham & Watkins Counsel whose litigation practice was embedded with private equity and emerging-company teams, representing growth-stage companies in high-stakes litigation and arbitration under budget, timing, leverage, and business-pressure constraints.
Steven J. Pacini, Founder
Former Latham & Watkins associate with experience in insurance recovery, indemnity, complex commercial agreements, and business disputes, helping clients connect contract language, risk allocation, coverage, and enforcement strategy when disputes arise.
Samuel Barrows
Start With the Objective.
If a dispute threatens value, leverage, reputation, or runway, the first conversation should define the business objective, the battlefield, and the move that improves your position.