Merrick & Vane LLP — Attorneys at Law, Est. 1987

Counsel that stays with the matter, not the moment.

A full-service law firm advising businesses and individuals in litigation, corporate and M&A, real estate, intellectual property, employment, and trusts and estates — with the same senior lawyer from the first call to the last.

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What We Do

Six practice groups, one standard of attention.

All practice areas

01 Litigation & Dispute Resolution Commercial and business disputes, from demand letter through trial and appeal.

02 Corporate & M&A Mergers, acquisitions, financings, and standing outside general counsel.

03 Real Estate Acquisition, development, finance, and leasing across commercial real estate.

04 Intellectual Property Building, protecting, and enforcing patent, trademark, and trade secret portfolios.

05 Employment & Labor Workplace compliance, policy, and litigation defense across the employee lifecycle.

06 Trusts & Estates Estate planning and business succession for individuals and family-owned companies.

39+ Years in Practice

6 Practice Groups

8 Attorneys

14 State Bar Admissions

Track Record

Notable matters, anonymized.

Bar advertising rules limit what we can say about specific clients — so here's what we can say about the work.

All matters

Real Estate 2024

Headquarters Lease Negotiation for a Growing Technology Company

Negotiated a 12-year headquarters lease and expansion option for a fast-growing technology company relocating to a larger footprint.

Litigation & Dispute Resolution 2023

Shareholder Dispute Resolution for a Family-Owned Distribution Company

Resolved a multi-year shareholder dispute among the principals of a family-owned distribution company through mediated buyout, avoiding a trial that risked the company's operations.

Corporate & M&A 2022

Joint Venture Formation for a Regional Healthcare Network

Structured a joint venture between a regional healthcare network and an outpatient services provider, including a $60 million capital commitment.

$60M

Who You Work With

Founded by two lawyers who still take the calls.

Eleanor R. Vane

Founding Partner & Chair, Corporate & M&A

Co-founder of the firm and chair of the corporate practice, advising closely held and middle-market companies through four decades of transactions.

Charles A. Merrick Jr.

Founding Partner, Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Co-founder and lead trial partner, with four decades of first-chair experience in commercial litigation and arbitration.

Julian Ferris Cole

Associate, Corporate & M&A

Corporate & M&A · Real Estate

Margaret Ives Chen

Associate, Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Employment & Labor · Litigation & Dispute Resolution

Thomas Bierce

Of Counsel, Trusts & Estates

Trusts & Estates

Sarah Okonkwo

Partner, Employment & Labor

Employment & Labor

Meet the full team

How We Help

Find your industry. See our experience.

A preview of our Practice Area x Industry matrix — cross-reference any of our six practice groups against the industries we serve most.

Technology

Healthcare

Financial Services

Family-Owned Business

Litigation

Corporate & M&A

Select an intersection

How a practice area applies to an industry

Hover, click, or tab to any cell above to see how that practice group's work actually applies to that industry.

Hover, click, or use arrow keys to move between cells.

Full Practice Area by Industry Reference

Litigation & Dispute Resolution × Technology: Defends and pursues technology companies in trade-secret, licensing, and platform-liability disputes, from pre-suit negotiation through trial and appeal.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution × Healthcare: Represents hospital systems and physician groups in payer disputes, credentialing challenges, and regulatory enforcement actions.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution × Financial Services: Defends banks, lenders, and asset managers in regulatory examinations, consumer-finance class actions, and lender-liability claims.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution × Family-Owned Business: Resolves shareholder and partnership disputes, buy-sell disagreements, and succession conflicts before they fracture a family enterprise.
Corporate & M&A × Technology: Structures and closes acquisitions, venture financings, and strategic partnerships for software, hardware, and platform businesses.
Corporate & M&A × Healthcare: Guides physician-group consolidations, facility acquisitions, and joint ventures through Stark Law and regulatory considerations.
Corporate & M&A × Financial Services: Counsels banks and specialty lenders on regulatory-capital-sensitive acquisitions, branch purchases, and fintech partnerships.
Corporate & M&A × Family-Owned Business: Leads generational ownership transitions, recapitalizations, and third-party sales for closely held companies.
Intellectual Property × Technology: Builds and defends patent, trade-secret, and open-source licensing portfolios for software and hardware innovators.
Intellectual Property × Healthcare: Protects medical-device and diagnostics patents and negotiates licensing agreements across the product lifecycle.
Intellectual Property × Financial Services: Advises on fintech patent strategy, software licensing, and trademark protection for financial products and platforms.
Intellectual Property × Family-Owned Business: Protects founder-built brand names, recipes, and proprietary processes as closely held companies scale.

Open the Full Matrix

Recognition

Judged by peers, not by press releases.

AV Preeminent Rated

Multiple Merrick & Vane partners hold an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the peer-review designation reserved for attorneys who meet the highest standards of legal ability and ethics as judged by other lawyers in their community.

Recognized Across Six Practice Groups

As recognized in independent legal industry rankings, the firm's litigation, corporate, and real estate groups are each cited for depth of bench and responsiveness on complex, multi-year matters.

Four Decades of Practice

Founded in 1987, Merrick & Vane has advised closely held businesses, public companies, and individuals through generational transitions in the law and in ownership alike.

Client Continuity, Not Case Turnover

As recognized in independent legal industry rankings, several client relationships have spanned more than fifteen years under the same lead partner — a continuity the firm treats as a metric in its own right.

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