Cooperative Law Industries Practices Dorsey

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 1, 2025, 6:52 PM

cooperative law industries practices dorsey

Cooperatives face complex legal issues and they need a legal team that understands their industry and organizational structure to help find creative and cutting-edge solutions. Our Cooperative Law group is a recognized national leader in the field of cooperative law. Our lawyers are committed to working as a team with clients in order to achieve the strategic objectives of each unique business. We have more than 45 years of experience working with local and regional agricultural cooperatives, rural electric cooperatives, purchasing cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, worker cooperatives and start-up organizations across the nation. We serve industries such as agriculture, energy and utilities, purchasing, consumer, housing, professional services and healthcare. We also represent other agriculture-related organizations such as commodity promotion groups, cooperative banks and cooperative trade associations.

Our experience spans project development and finance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, labor, employment and employee benefits, environmental, land use and permits, securities, international and trade regulations, construction contracts, intellectual property and licensing, FERC... We also know the areas unique to cooperatives, including formation and organization, voting rights and governance, antitrust/Capper Volstead Act and tax issues. OUR APPROACH IS ALIGNED WITH YOUR GOALS - SOLVING PROBLEMS, CAPITALIZING ON OPPORTUNITIES AND FINDING NEW WAYS TO GROW. To find a Food, Beverage & Agribusiness lawyer that can assist you with your legal matter, please click on the button below. Dorsey lawyers are ready to serve. Whether we are resolving disputes, completing transactions, or taking on the operational challenges of daily business, we know you look to be ahead of schedule, trends and the competition.

Always ahead means we’re prepared to help you achieve the goals most important to making your business a success. View our Food, Beverage & Agribusiness Videos here. Domestic and international companies of all sizes turn to Dorsey for advice on strategic expansion opportunities and challenges. Our clients include franchisors in many industries, such as hotels, restaurants, services, automotive, retail, health, fitness, technology, children's services, and others. We also represent franchisee associations, suppliers and multi-unit and master franchisees. We represent clients in franchise disputes, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation.

Dorsey’s national and international Franchise and Distribution Law practice provides franchise-specific knowledge for virtually any legal or business challenge worldwide, including: MIKE STRIVES TO UNDERSTAND HIS CLIENTS’ BUSINESS OPERATIONS AND GOALS, AND TUNE HIS LEGAL REPRESENTATION TO THOSE OBJECTIVES. Mike started his career as a client, not a lawyer. He represented the same company where he worked in management, thus “walking both sides of the street.” As a lawyer, Mike had devoted his practice to practical, results-oriented advice and litigation representation in situations... Mike’s practice is devoted to advising cooperatives, food, and agriculture businesses. He is firm-wide co-chair of the 200-lawyer Food, Beverages & Agriculture industry group.

He acts as outside general counsel in that industry, handles corporate governance, and manages complicated domestic and international transactions. On the business side, Mike developed Dorsey’s LegalMine Document Review Solution from concept to operation. He has also held leadership roles as Office Head for Seattle (where he negotiated a large office move, and the office was named one of Washington’s Best Workplaces) and as co-head of the Labor... Santa Clara University School of Law (J.D., 1992), summa cum laudeEditor-In-Chief, Santa Clara Law Review Across the United States and around the globe, participants in the construction industry count on our Construction and Design practice group to build the legal framework that supports their projects. Combining a solid understanding of the “big picture” with in-the-trenches construction and design project management experience, our lawyers provide proactive solutions to a diverse client base in virtually any aspect of the construction industry.

Our Construction and Design lawyers are involved in some of the most innovative, sophisticated and technologically complex construction projects in the world. When disputes arise between the many parties involved in any given project, our Construction Litigation group helps clients successfully resolve them as quickly as possible. We also have international reach, allowing us to provide service around the country and throughout the world. With multiple offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and China, we can address your legal requirements wherever they might arise. Dorsey represents clients in major compliance, litigation, administrative, enforcement, insurance and legislative matters relating to environmental, land use and resources laws. We also counsel clients on environmental and regulatory issues arising in corporate, real estate and infrastructure development matters.

Our clients include manufacturers, contractors and developers, airlines, railroads and light rail, agricultural and food processors, energy generators (coal, gas, nuclear and renewable), mining companies, refineries and petroleum distributors. We can help you resolve your most difficult environmental challenges by creating a team with the right legal knowledge, industry understanding, business acumen and experience to meet your needs. We help clients address environmental matters in a wide range of areas, including: For the first time in years, Washington’s cooperative statutes have been given a facelift. Effective January 1, 2016 (except certain provisions affecting Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)), Washington state has created a set of uniform common provisions governing business organizations and other entities in the state. The law, commonly known as the “Hub Bill,” still divides the most common entities by type.

These types include corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships, general cooperative associations, and non-profit corporations. Before the new law, entity-specific laws contained all the legal requirements pertaining to each entity type in its own provisions. The new act creates a “hub-and-spoke” model, consolidating the legal requirements common to all entities into a single, new chapter in RCW 23.95, while individual entity acts remain as spokes containing all entity-specific requirements. The full law can be found on the Web here. Broadly, common provisions affected include, among others: In addition to specific changes in rules and procedures, the Act also amends entity-specific sections, as necessary, to remove redundant provisions which have been moved to the new common provisions in RCW 23.95.

In light of these changes, executives, lawyers, paralegals, and other persons who set up and help maintain the affected types of entities (including cooperatives) should become familiar with this new statute. This alert focuses on changes to the existing cooperative statute RCW 23.86.

Cooperative Law Industries Practices Dorsey

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