Abby Pettit
Attorney At Law
apettit@avisenlegal.com
612-584-3409
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Areas of Practice
“I value the opportunity to help my clients reach their goals, whether that means growing a successful business, planning for the transition from ownership into retirement, or providing for families and loved ones with the right estate plan. As an advisor to family business owners, I love forming long-term relationships with my clients and helping them achieve the future they dream about.”
Bar Admissions
- Minnesota, 2011
I am passionate about my role as a counselor and educator and believe that the first and most important step in a successful attorney-client relationship is understanding what is most important to my clients. I take the time to get to know my clients and learn about their lives and businesses, so that we can work together to plan a future that achieves their goals. My clients are families, closely held businesses and their owners, family farms, independent community banks, credit unions, and trust companies.
I am incredibly passionate, both personally and professionally, about supporting and developing female entrepreneurs. Whenever possible, I look for ways to use my time and professional experience to foster female-owned small business and help them grow. It’s important to me to create a safe space in the local business environment and community that empowers women to build and establish successful organizations, and I work closely with my clients and with local non-profits to help them develop and achieve these goals.
I advise financial institutions on lending transactions, risk mitigation, and consumer products and services. I provide outside general counsel services for institutions which may not need a full-time in house general counsel. I understand the business side of banking, and love working with my clients on long-term legal strategy, unique one-time issues, and everything in between.
I also advise families with multi-generational wealth on how to achieve their estate planning goals. I have extensive experience in entity law, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, finance, and estates and trusts, and I love finding creative solutions to meet my clients’ needs. I also represent personal representatives and trustees during the probate and trust administration process.
In my free time, I sing in Calliope Women’s Chorus in St. Paul. My husband and I love to hike and explore Minnesota state parks, along with our German shepherd and two kids.
Business and Commercial Law
Client’s Issue: Client wanted to optimally organize ownership of agricultural land and farming operations for succession planning purposes.
My Approach: We identified the participating and non-participating family members, their roles in operations, and discussed the client’s desires for decision-making and goals for eventual retirement.
Result: We formed separate companies to hold real estate and to operate the farming operation, and drafted operating agreements for each that focused on achieving the client’s business goals while maximizing family harmony (another important client goal!).
Type of Client: Shareholder in closely-held corporation
Client’s Issue: Management dispute with other shareholders
My Approach: After learning about the history of the company and the client’s ultimate goals, we negotiated with counsel for the opposing shareholders.
Result: We avoided shareholder litigation and resolved the dispute in favor of our client’s desired course of action.
Type of Client: Corporation
Client’s Issue: My client needed subsidiary’s shareholders to approve contributing the subsidiary’s assets into a joint venture with other wholly-owned subsidiaries of the client.
My Approach: We coordinated the process of approval and recommendation by board of directors and the shareholder vote on the contribution.
Result: The shareholders approved the action and the parent corporation was able to enter into the joint venture as planned.
Corporate Finance
Client’s Issue: Extending financing for commercial real estate and line of credit (total financing sought $3 million)
My Approach: We identified all general and specific collateral and obtained a mortgage, security agreement, and guarantee in order to move forward on the financing package.
Result: The financing was extended and adequately secured.
Type of Client: Single member LLC
Client’s Issue: Partially seller-financed sale of the interests of the company (Seller financing ~$400,000).
My Approach: Client wanted to sell his company to an employee-successor, and both buyer and seller needed reasonable cash flow to make the deal work. We worked out terms which allowed my client to receive meaningful cash payments from a seller note, secured by the membership interests in the company, while not stripping the buyer of the working capital necessary to keep the business going as it transitioned under new ownership. Keeping the terms more collaborative and even-handed allowed us to successfully close the deal.
Result: We closed the deal.
Type of Client: Non-profit corporation
Client’s Issue: Client needed new bond financing and wanted to refinance existing bond financing for projects around the state of Minnesota (total package ~$6.5 million).
My Approach: We worked with the client’s bank and the cities of the existing and new projects to obtain a complete financing package on favorable terms.
Result: The client’s existing bond financing was refinanced and the new project was fully funded.
Estate and Succession Planning
Client’s Issue: Our clients were named personal representatives to a taxable estate including stocks, bank accounts, residential and agricultural real estate, with charitable and numerous family heirs.
My Approach: We worked with the client to identify professionals to gather all of the property, and liquidate the personal property and real estate for the highest and best value to the estate and heirs.
Result: The estate was successfully administered over approximately 18 months.
Type of Client: Business owner
Client’s Issue: Client was looking to retire within the next ten to fifteen years and will be selling the business to a child upon retirement. The client wanted to ensure there would be sufficient cash to care for his family if something happened to him before retirement, as well as money available for his child to complete the purchase of the business.
My Approach: We reviewed all of the succession planning currently in place, as well as the client’s life insurance plans, and discussed the valuation of the business interests and the support the client wanted to ensure was in place for immediate family.
Result: A new succession plan was implemented using LLC agreements and life insurance trusts which would provide funds for the purchase of the membership interests from the estate, as well as provide support to immediate family members to replace potential lost income.
Type of Client: Business owner and spouse
Client’s Issue: Clients wanted to engage in philanthropy with their children.
My Approach: We discussed the clients’ goals, specifically surrounding how they wanted their children to engage with their charitable goals.
Result: We formed a private family foundation and obtained a 501(c)(3) charitable exemption.
- William Mitchell School of Law, Juris Doctor, magna cum laude
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Calliope Women’s Chorus, Board Member, January 2020 – present.
- Women Venture, Small Business Essentials Mentor, September 2020 – present
- Girls on the Run Twin Cities, Associate Board Member, August 2019 – 2021.
- Financial Planning Association
- Minnesota State Bar Association Member
- Minnesota Women Lawyers Member
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