Dennis W. Hollman

For over forty-five years, Dennis has advised business owners in all areas of contract and corporate law. He focuses primarily on assisting his clients with business succession planning, estate planning, contract and corporate law—with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, and shareholder/partner disputes. One of the founding members of the firm in 1973, Dennis has assisted hundreds of business owners and their companies in structuring successful business succession plans. These comprehensive plans have included assisting business owners in their estate planning, providing the owners—if necessary—with retirement income as part of the plan, and determining who would control the business in the future and when and how changes would occur.

Dennis Assists Clients With

• Business Succession Planning
• Estate Planning
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Shareholder/Partner Disputes
• Business Financing
• Complex Contractual Matters and Negotiations
• Financial Workouts

  Experience/Representative Client Work

• When assisting clients with the transition of the family businesses to the next generation, Dennis structures succession plans which allow the business to remain strong, generate retirement income—if needed—for the transitioning owners, minimize taxes, treat the children equitably to preserve family harmony, and transfer control of the business to children who are best able to continue the successful growth and operation of the business.
• Successfully planning over a thirty-five year period for four generations of family members in a company that grew from a very small contractor to the fourth largest of its type in Wisconsin.
• Facilitated successful management buy-outs of businesses by key employees from existing owners.
• Assisted many family business owners with their retirement planning by structuring purchases of the family business by next generation family members in a setting that provides the owner with retirement income in a secure transaction that does not adversely affect the continued operation of the business.
• Assisted numerous business owners in structuring buy-sell agreements among the owners to create a market for their closely-held stock in the event of their death, disability, retirement or termination of employment at a fair value, while assuring continuity of management and continued operation of the business.
• Structured agreements between sole owners of businesses (who had no heirs interested or involved in the business) and their key employees to allow the owner’s interest in the business to be purchased by the employees at fair market value in the event of the owner’s premature death, while still allowing the owner the right to sell the business at any time during his or her lifetime.
• Successfully negotiated and closed numerous purchase and sale transactions for client’s businesses, including both tax-free and taxable exchanges.
• Facilitated settlements in numerous stockholder disputes without the need for litigation. In a recent case, Dennis’ clients obtained more than eight times their initial settlement offer.
• Provides sophisticated estate planning for affluent clients, by assisting them in transferring, by gift or tax-free sale, large portions of their estates to spousal lifetime access trusts or descendants’ trusts–which are outside of their taxable estates and can substantially reduce estate tax exposure.

  Awards/Distinctions

• Selected for inclusion in Wisconsin Super Lawyers, Law & Politics and Milwaukee Magazine.
• Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating™–AV, reflecting an attorney who has reached the height of professional excellence and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity.
• Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®–Corporate Law and Trusts & Estates 2011–2024.

  Articles/Presentations

• Frequent speaker for business and professional groups on business succession planning and estate planning, including “Transferring the Family Business to the Next Generation,” State Bar of Wisconsin, July 1994.
• Authored numerous articles and an educational handbook on business succession planning and estate planning.

  Community Involvement

• Director of the Hebron House of Hospitality Foundation
• Past President and a Director of the Society of Financial Service Professionals–Milwaukee Chapter
• Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee–MATCH Campaign
• Legal Advisor, Tyme Out Youth Center

  Education

• University of Wisconsin Law School (J.D.)
• University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (B.S., Accounting)