Shanahan Law Group

View the profile as it appeared in North Carolina Rising Stars 2009 (PDF)

View the profile as it appeared in North Carolina Super Lawyers 2009 (PDF)

Shanahan Law Group is an aggressive, proven business law firm that combines major-league experience with the personal touch of a smaller firm in matters ranging from litigation to corporate mergers and acquisitions, employment law and trusts and estate planning.

When the Office of the State Treasurer was recently sued by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, it turned to Raleigh-based Shanahan Law Group for help. The lawsuit accused the state treasurer of failing to comply fully with records requests for information about the state pension fund. Shanahan Law Group vigorously defended the matter, and a Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety.

The State Treasurer’s case is just one of many high-profile clients and cases the firm routinely handles. When North Carolina’s tobacco farmers were in danger of losing millions of dollars owed to them by the tobacco industry, their association called on Shanahan Law Group. In a case that went to the state Supreme Court and attracted national attention, the firm intervened and secured more than $400 million in payments for the farmers.

Being smaller allows Shanahan Law Group to be more nimble and client-focused while averting the client conflicts that big firms routinely face.

“We’ve proven that a big firm with a lot of lawyers is not required to handle a complex case,” says former Raleigh City Councilman Kieran J. Shanahan, the firm’s founder and principal. “In today’s business environment, clients want a firm that has tenacity, experience and credibility.”

Shanahan Law Group often goes up against much larger firms representing, in some cases, powerful Fortune 500 companies. Whether handling a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit, a corporate merger or transaction, an employment dispute, or a trusts and estates matter, Shanahan Law Group combines the experience of a large law firm with the personalized attention that only a boutique-style firm can offer.

A number of companies keep Shanahan Law Group on retainer to assist with general corporate matters, and particularly to have on hand should the threat of litigation arise.

“Whenever possible, we look for alternatives to litigation. Court is the last place you want to be,” says Shanahan. “However, if you have to go, we have the experience to do courtroom battle for our clients.”