AREAS OF
Practice
Corporate
Our founding partners have spent their careers in business: as a Certified Public Accountant, a corporate attorney with a large law firm, a partner and in-house counsel of a private equity firm with over $150 million in assets under management, a board member of many high-growth early stage and middle market companies, chief executive officer of a $1 billion community bank, United States Attorney and the only former United States Attorney to have also served as CEO of a financial institution. Whatever your business, we are ready to handle a specific matter for you or, better yet, gain a comprehensive understanding of your business so that we can partner with you to confront and conquer any and all issues that you or your business face.
Bringing deep experience as attorneys, board members, executives, and investors, we are equipped to work with you to handle the wide array of challenges you and your business face.
Our corporate and business lawyers in Northwest Arkansas bring particular expertise in the following areas:
As a former chief executive officer of a $1 billion financial institution, former counsel to several financial institutions, and attorneys who have been involved in numerous and varied banking matters, we bring a unique perspective to bank representation. We’re equipped to handle a variety of transactional, regulatory, and litigation matters involving banks.
We’ve been a part of leading the strategic growth and acquisition process for a $1 billion asset bank. If you are ready to sell your bank or grow your bank through a strategic acquisition, merger, or other growth strategy, we can help.
Having handled examinations by federal and state banking regulators as well as prosecuted cases on their behalf, we’re ready to work with you to positively represent your bank as it manages these issues.
Experienced in all aspects of the lending process from the perspective of both borrowers and lenders, we’re prepared to work with you on any aspect of a loan, from documentation and negotiation on the front end to payment disputes, litigation, or collection on the back end.
We also bring unique experience with the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws, and related issues. As national leaders in this area of intersection between banks, financial transactions, law enforcement, prosecution and regulation, we bring unmatched perspectives, experience and relationships to BSA, AML, and related matters.
Conner Eldridge is the only former Chief Executive Officer of a Bank to also have served as a United States Attorney. Throughout his career, Steve Brooks has represented banks, bank customers, and corporations with a variety of lending and capital needs and structures. Conner and Steve are ready to work with you on virtually any banking matter that you face.
Challenges and questions abound in the rapidly developing world of blockchain, digital currency, and related technology. We bring experience in these areas as well as payment systems, regulation of currencies, and offerings of tokens.
We bring a unique set of experiences and an effective, practical approach to serving as your attorney and partner as you manage matters involving corporate structure, disputes, and governance. Representing corporations, executives, owners, and shareholders requires not just a familiarity with applicable statutes and best practices. Exceptional representation in these matters also demands a complete understanding of the organizational and ownership dynamic, the underlying problems and their complexities, and the overarching goals of the business. It also takes a dedication to helping the company build value. We will work with you to consider all of these concerns and ensure that your company is running as it should. We have experience representing and working with companies, boards, board committees and individuals across a variety of industries as well as serving as board members, private equity investors, executives, and shareholders. Our goal is to help you and your business manage and mitigate risk, deal with issues efficiently and effectively, and maintain focus on building value. We’ve counseled clients or otherwise handled a wide variety of corporate and business issues and situations. We’re ready to help you and your company navigate these waters.
We’re well versed in healthcare matters stemming from our experience as counsel to doctors, doctor groups, and hospitals and as a banker assisting doctors and healthcare professionals with their lending, deposit, and other financial needs. We’ve structured, drafted and managed numerous merger or acquisition transactions in the healthcare space. We’ve also organized numerous corporations, partnerships and entities for healthcare groups and businesses. We’re ready to help you with almost any legal or business matter in the healthcare industry.
Our attorneys are also equipped to address any regulatory issues that overlap with your business, practice, or potential merger or acquisition. We’ve handled healthcare regulatory matters from the perspective of counsel to healthcare clients, a federal prosecutor of healthcare fraud, and investors in the healthcare industry. Whether you are a doctor, hospital executive, investor, or other stakeholder, we’re prepared to help you with nearly any healthcare regulatory issue that you face.
Our mergers and acquisitions lawyers represent companies of all sizes, executives, family offices, funds, boards of directors, special committees, investors, senior management, shareholders and owners as they consider ways to maximize shareholder value and, ultimately, close transactions that fulfill that basic mission. We work with our clients at all stages of a potential transaction: from initial consideration and evaluation of alternatives to letters of intent, due diligence, and definitive agreements and through closing. We’re experienced with a wide variety of types and structures of transactions, from the simple to the complex. As with all of our practices, we bring the highest level of ability and experience to our clients while also offering representation that integrates the holistic vantage point derived from our prior roles as attorneys, investors, executives and board members.
Real estate is a unique business that requires deep knowledge of market terms and conditions, an understanding of the process from contract to closing and speed to close. We have represented national real estate development firms and brokers as well as local developers and firms. We’ve also led efforts to develop, grow, and manage a several hundred million dollar loan portfolio, along with overseeing a substantial secondary marketing department, residential construction lending platform, and in-house residential lending operation. We have added expertise in student housing, commercial office, multifamily and residential development and the acquisition, financing, structuring, and sale of all real estate projects. We have worked with Fannie and Freddie on specialized financing products and general and limited partners on real estate funds. We also have experience with large transactions involving agricultural acreage or timberland. We’re here to help with any real estate needs you or your business may have.
We are ready to help you address federal and state securities laws as you evaluate and address capital concerns for your business. We represent clients in handling all types of private placements and securities offerings. We’ve been on many sides of securities transactions as counsel to companies of all sizes, as investors addressing complicated securities matters for funds and companies, as executives and board members developing and executing capital allocation strategies, and as a federal prosecutor of securities fraud and other financial crimes.
We prefer to help you and your business develop or refine your capital plan, look at all legal and practical implications of raising capital from various sources, handle required documents and filings, and address all concerns raised with these capital and securities matters.
We work with our clients to assess and manage the tax aspects of their business. Any full and fair evaluation of a business decision, from a strategy call on an existing area of the business to a sale, merger or acquisition, should include a comprehensive assessment of the tax consequences. At Eldridge Brooks, we bring our experience as attorneys, a CPA, investors, and executives to our assessment of the tax implications of various matters for you and your business.
If a matter arises involving civil or criminal enforcement with the Internal Revenue Service, we’re ready to help. Having worked closely with the IRS to prosecute tax and money laundering cases, we’re prepared to fully assess the validity of the tax issue, present your position to the IRS, and represent you or your business in dealing with them.
If you have been contacted by a federal or state investigative agency, are concerned about exposure to a governmental investigation involving financial, regulatory or white collar crimes or face any stage of a criminal case, we have the perspective and experience to provide the highest level of representation.
Funds & Investments
We have deep expertise in venture capital, private equity, and debt funds, including fund formation, fundraising, compliance, and portfolio transactions.
As a partner at a mid-size, early stage growth-equity firm, Steve Brooks led investments in the areas of e-commerce, retail, software, healthcare, energy infrastructure, and marketing services, among others. He has worked with co-investors, funds, and co-general partners across the country and has structured funds and fund investments in a wide variety of complex situations. He is an experienced securities lawyer and understands the complex regulatory framework facing funds and issuances of securities. Our finance and investment attorneys intimately understand the early stage private capital marketplace and what it takes to make your fund successful.
- Independent Sponsors
- Private Equity/Venture Capital Funds
- Parallel Funds and Funds of Funds
- Portfolio Company Investments
- Registered Investment Advisors
- Securities
- SEC Registration and Compliance
Family Law
Our firm understands that many of the issues impacting families can be stressful and emotional. If the issue touching your family is divorce or related to divorce, such as division of marital property, child custody and support, or alimony, our experienced attorneys are here to defend your rights and assets. The team at Eldridge Brooks Partners can help you maneuver through this difficult area of law.Investigations
Led by former United States Attorney Conner Eldridge, we excel at helping clients deal with a governmental inquiry, internal investigation, regulatory matter or other concern.
If you need an internal investigation to get to the bottom of a serious situation, we will bring the team, resources, and abilities necessary to find answers for you. If you need help dealing with an investigation by an arm of federal or state government or a highly sensitive corporate matter, you’ve come to the right place.
We know how to conduct the detailed and precise investigation you and your business should demand in serious situations. We will deliver exceptional counsel in deciding what action to take in a particular situation, considering all applicable policies, statutes, regulations, and concerns.
We are adept at helping you or your business deal with an inquiry from virtually any agency or department of federal or state government. If federal or state authorities are investigating you or your business, we are well positioned to help you navigate those rough waters. If you face regulatory scrutiny for an actual or alleged violation, we’re prepared to help you deal with that situation. If you have had a fraud or other crime impact your business, we will help you manage all aspects of it. We will thoroughly investigate the issues you are facing, get to the bottom of what happened, and represent you. We’re prepared for this work across a variety of industries and for companies large and small.
We can address, investigate, manage and work with you to resolve nearly any corporate, internal, regulatory or governmental matter of concern, including:
- Anti-Money Laundering Compliance
- Bank Fraud
- Bank Secrecy Act
- Bank Investigations
- Embezzlement
- False Claims Act
- Financial Fraud
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
- Healthcare Fraud
- Internal Misconduct/Policy Matters
- Internal Investigations of All Types
- Public Corruption
- Securities Matters/SEC Enforcement
- Sexual Misconduct Investigations
- Tax Matters
- Whistleblower actions
When you face an internal matter of utmost importance to your company, we will conduct a thorough investigation to give you the answers you need. We will also evaluate and address company policies while surveying the regulatory and statutory landscape for any overlapping concerns. This often does and should result in policy changes that will help to protect your company in the future. We’ll revise or write those policies. We’re also very mindful of the need to address these sorts of situations with an appropriate combination of discretion, control, management and sensitivity.
We have deep experience working with U.S. Attorney’s offices in many jurisdictions, the United States Department of Justice, state prosecutors, many law enforcement agencies (including the FBI, IRS, Homeland Security Department, state authorities and many others), and numerous departments of federal and state government. We will put that experience to work to resolve the matter you face.
With one of our founders being the only former United States Attorney to have also served as Chief Executive Officer of a Bank and the other founder having deep experience in finance as well as being a Certified Public Accountant, we bring particular expertise to financial investigations, fraud matters, and issues at the intersection of banking, finance, and criminal and civil enforcement.
Litigation
We represent clients in civil and criminal litigation in all Arkansas Courts. Our litigation attorneys bring significant experience in federal court in the Western and Eastern Districts of Arkansas.
As United States Attorney, one of our founders has tried five federal jury trials over the past eight years. He also happens to be the only former United States Attorney in private practice in the Western District of Arkansas and one of the few in private practice in Arkansas. Our litigation and courtroom experience extends across the state, with experience trying cases and representing clients in state and federal court, working in the federal court system in the Eastern District of Arkansas, and leading all civil and criminal litigation in Western Arkansas on behalf of the federal government as United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. We’re ready to represent you or your business if and when you face litigation.
Regulation
We operate in a heavily and increasingly regulated environment. We’re ready, willing, and able to help you navigate the complex regulatory framework and myriad of government agencies that you may face, across a wide variety of industries.
Our capabilities extend to most areas of federal and state government. We bring deep knowledge of government gained from extensive work in all three branches, experience both running regulated businesses and overseeing governmental investigations, and a unique and effective approach that can only be gained with the diverse experience we bring to the table. If you face a regulatory matter in federal or state government, we can help you assess the regulation, work with you to craft a compliance policy or approach, and, most importantly, represent you in working with the particular governmental agency to resolve the issue.
Having handled examinations by federal and state banking regulators as well as prosecuted cases on their behalf, we’re ready to work with you to positively represent your bank as it manages these issues. If you face serious issues in conjunction with a regulatory examination by the FDIC, OCC, Federal Reserve Bank, State Bank Department, or other regulator, we will represent you and assist you in negotiating a resolution, bringing your bank into compliance and working to satisfy the regulators. If you are dealing with an actual or alleged violation of a specific regulation or many regulations, we can help get the bottom of that issue and counsel you in dealing with it.
We also bring unique experience with the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering laws, and related issues. As national leaders in this area of intersection between banks, financial transactions, law enforcement, prosecution and regulation, we bring unmatched perspective, experience and relationships to BSA, AML, and related matters.
Criminal
When you face criminal charges, You need strong lawyers who will fight for you. If you or someone close to you has been arrested, charged with a crime, or involved in criminal or law enforcement matters of any kind, it is imperative that you have aggressive lawyers by your side. At Eldridge Brooks, we bring the tenacity and fighting spirit you need. Led by former chief federal prosecutor Conner Eldridge, we will deliver the legal representation you must have to reach the best outcome in your case.
We handle all types of criminal cases, including:
- DWI
- State Criminal Cases
- Federal Criminal Cases
- Drug Charges
- White Collar Crimes
- Misdemeanors