Attorneys form boutique business law firm; Bank of America takes over ownership of Shops of Grand Avenue; Northwestern Mutual to pay out $4.9 billion in dividends; Marcus Corp. rang closing bell at NYSE Monday
Attorneys form boutique business law firm
Mayer Galligan Law, a new boutique law firm based in Milwaukee at 788 N. Jefferson St., was launched this week.
The law firm offers services to businesses, business owners and individuals. The services include business succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, estate and tax planning, business contract negotiations, charitable planning, family business transactions and probate and trust administration.
The firm was founded by Daniel Galligan and Steven Mayer. Galligan was a shareholder with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C. He also worked at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C.
Mayer also worked with Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren. He has been in private practice since 2002, operating the firm Lifetime Legal Services S.C.
Mayer Galligan was founded to offer privately held businesses legal services without some of the high cost overhead associated with large firms, Galligan said.
“After the fall of Lehman (Brothers), our clients hit a point where paying $350 to $400 an hour for legal services just doesn’t work,” he said. “By cutting the overhead, we can cut rates and pass that through to our clients. It allows us to get closer to our clients. And frankly, (starting our firm) comes from a drive to make decisions ourselves and be an entrepreneur.”
For more, visit www.mgbusinesslaw.com.
Bank of America takes over ownership of Shops of Grand Avenue
Bank of America Corp. has acquired the Shops of Grand Avenue in downtown Milwaukee from New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. by acquiring a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
The bank was Ashkenazy’s primary source of financing for the mall.
The 425,000-square-foot mall has struggled for years with a high vacancy rate and is currently approximately half empty.
The bank is expected to hire a real estate management company to operate the mall and a broker to sell the property at a significant discount in an attempt to minimize its losses on the property, the source said.
Milwaukee Department of City Development spokesman Jeff Fleming said the city has not been notified about the bank’s takeover of the ownership of the mall. DCD staff plan to meet with mall management next week about the property’s future, he said.
The city has invested more than $40 million to subsidize the mall’s operations and is unable to provide any additional assistance for the mall’s operations, said DCD commissioner Richard “Rocky” Marcoux. He said the city is committed to assisting other development near the mall that could help attract more potential customers for the mall to the neighborhood.
“We can invest in other real estate up and down Wisconsin Avenue that helps bring traffic to the (mall) buildings,” Marcoux said.
City officials hope the mall will be recast with a greater emphasis on street level retail and non-retail uses for upper floors and spaces off the street, Marcoux said.
Northwestern Mutual to pay out $4.9 billion in dividends
The board of trustees for Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Inc. has approved a dividend payout of nearly $4.9 billion for participating policyowners for 2011, an increase of more than $150 million over its expected 2010 payout, the company announced today.
“Our 2011 dividend is great for our policyowners,” said John Schlifske, chairman and chief executive officer of Northwestern Mutual. “In absolute terms, it’s a terrific payout — the second-highest we’ve ever paid. We are particularly proud of how we perform compared to the industry. We pay more in dividends than companies that are larger than us, and we do that while also being among the financially strongest companies in the world.”
Northwestern Mutual credits its dividend payout to careful underwriting, rigorous expense management, diversified investing and strong performance in other operating fundamentals.
With the announcement, the company says it will have paid dividends to policyowners for 140 consecutive years.
“We are also very proud of our consistent performance,” Schlifske said. “We’ve been able to deliver value consistently over the long term in good economic times and in bad.” About 90 percent of the $4.9 billion will be paid to participating permanent life insurance policyowners. Nearly $123 million in policyowner dividends is expected to be paid to term life insurance policyowners in 2011.
Marcus Corp. rang closing bell at NYSE Monday
Chairman Stephen H. Marcus and president and CEO Gregory S. Marcus lead The Marcus Corp. team in ringing the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange Monday, commemorating the company’s 75th anniversary.
