Dray, Dyekman, Reed & Healey, P.C. has long been recognized for its breadth and depth of experience and capabilities, which allow it to serve a very broad clientele, both locally and nationally. The firm’s commitment to client service and timely quality legal work have made it one of Wyoming’s most successful business law firms with highly rated attorneys in a number of practice areas. Its reputation is further enhanced by its commitment to the betterment of Wyoming through public service.
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Administrative Law
The firm has represented clients in matters involving all levels of administrative agencies, including federal, state and local agencies. Some of the matters involved include land use and development, taxation, tariffs, environmental matters, professional licensing, insurance, trust company regulation, consumer credit regulation and banking. The scope of the work can include working with administrative agencies for planning and coordination, rulemaking, and contested case hearings before administrative agencies and boards. The administrative agencies and boards that the firm has worked with or before are as varied as the work performed.
Banking & Financial Regulation
The firm advises banks and other financial institutions in Wyoming and elsewhere on all aspects of lending and retail transactions and assists lenders with Wyoming law compliance and operational matters relating to consumer and commercial lending, retail operations, employee dishonesty, trust department matters including litigation, regulatory matters and general business matters.
Bankruptcy – Creditor’s Rights
The firm represents creditors of all sorts in connection with business and consumer bankruptcy case, loan collections and foreclosures.
Corporate Law & Business Organizations
The firm works with corporations and other business entities of all kinds and sizes, including non-profit organizations, in some cases as general counsel and in others as transactional counsel. The firm advises clients on governance issues as well as compliance and transactional matters. Wyoming features a form of the Revised Model Business Corporation Act which is very management friendly and easy to use for large and small companies alike.
The firm’s general counsel duties include a very broad array of legal subject areas. Business litigation is also conducted in all courts and administrative bodies in Wyoming. The firm has experience with Transfers and Continuances of Canadian entities to and from Wyoming.
The firm has assisted a wide range of business and individual clients in the area of taxation. The firm has handled cases ranging from the taxation of minerals and sales and use taxes in which millions of dollars were at stake, to cases involving rezoning of land involving more modest increases in property taxes. Wyoming has no state income tax. The firm has the resources to handle cases in which large amounts of money are at stake, but provides the same attention to detail when the client’s taxation controversy is more limited.
Our firm has advised clients with respect to federal and state regulatory requirements for private securities offerings. We have advised clients with respect to the pros and cons of proceeding with securities offerings under different Regulation D rules, as well as state registration exemptions.
The firm has participated in mergers involving existing and newly formed entities, including transactions involving the transfer of entities to Canada using special authority granted by the Wyoming statutes. In addition, the firm has participated in numerous small business acquisitions and as local counsel in larger acquisitions involving national and international parties. The firm was primary counsel to Memorial Hospital of Laramie County in its merger with DePaul Hospital, resulting in the combined entity of United Medical Center, in 1992-1993. The firm and its members are recognized as among Wyoming’s best corporate and merger and acquisition firms by Chambers USA, “America’s Leading Business Lawyers, 2004″.
The firm has assisted in the formation of numerous non-profit organizations, including entity formation and assistance with tax exemption filings with the state and federal government. In addition, members of the firm consult with non-profit organizations with respect to governance issues, planned giving programs and other fund-raising efforts, and other miscellaneous business-related legal matters.
Employment Law
The firm represents a wide variety of corporations with employees numbering from a handful to hundreds. To address our clients’ needs, Dray, Dyekman, Reed & Healey, P.C. has developed a broad base of knowledge in employment law. The firm assists its clients at all stages of the employment process from pre-employment issues, such as employment contracts, employee handbooks and policies and at will employment statements, to conditions of employment, including compensation, benefits, worker’s compensation and workplace safety; and post-employment issues which can include claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, sexual harrassment and breach of employment contracts. The firm has practiced before a variety of employment-related administrative agencies dealing with unemployment, workers’ compensation, OSHA, claims of discrimination, fair labor standards, as well as all courts in Wyoming.
Energy & Regulated Industries
The firm has represented a wide variety of energy and regulated industries including, railroads, trucking companies, pipelines, and wholesale and retail power providers. The work for these entities includes appearing in a wide variety of matters before the Wyoming Public Service Commission, coordination with federal regulatory counsel and legislative lobbying.
The firm’s experience in oil and gas law streches from the wellhead flow to the revenue stream. The firm can assist with matters occurring before a well is even drilled, such as drilling and spacing applications, leases and surface disturbance agreements, to contractual matters involving a well, to employment and environmental issues that may arise during the life of the well, and even to taxation of the minerals produced from the well. Members of the firm have practiced before a variety of state agencies involved with oil and gas, including the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the Environmental Quality Council, the Board of Equalization, the Department of Environmental Quality and as lobbyists before the Wyoming Legislature. The firm has represented owners of natural gas plants worth hundreds of millions of dollars as well as smaller producers of oil and gas and surface owners.
The firm has represented a variety of public utilities including oil pipelines, gas pipelines, wholesale producers of electricty, retail suppliers of electricity and gas, railroads and motor carriers. The matters involved have included tariffs, terms and conditions of service, contested hearings before the Wyoming Public Service Commission, lobbying, as well as those everyday issues that face today’s corporations, like contract disputes and liability issues.
Health Care & Hospital Law
Dray, Dyekman, Reed & Healey, P.C. has a long history of providing legal advice to the health care industry to both hospitals and physicians in Wyoming. Hospital and health care law comprise a large part of the firm’s practice. We have participated in ventures running the gamut from advising on the merger of two community hospitals and setting up a 96 hour Critical Access Hospital to developing policies dealing with medical records retention.
Hospital and health care law is a fast-changing field, and we spend a great deal of time and energy staying abreast of current developments in health care law to better serve our clients. We have significant experience advising hospitals and physician practices on the impact of the numerous laws that affect their business, including the Stark law, the Anti-Kickback law, the False Claims Act, EMTALA, HIPAA, Medicare regulations and the IRS’ tax-exemption regulations.
In addition, we understand that “hospital law” encompasses a broad range of legal issues, and that hospitals operate as community institutions and businesses at the same time. The work our lawyers do in other fields, such as real estate, employment law, corporate financing and litigation, complements the expertise we can provide in health care law. We strive to provide a complete range of legal services for hospitals and related entities, so as to provide competent and timely advice when needed.
Intellectual Property
The firm has experience in dealing with matters involving copyright establishment, protection and infringement, trademark and tradename registration and litigation, as well as matters involving general protection of confidential materials and trade secrets. Intellectual property issues can also arise in a variety of circumstances, all of which we are familiar, such as employment issues, publications of materials, and business practices.
Litigation (State and Federal) and Appellate Practice
The firm serves as lead or local counsel in state and federal courts throughout Wyoming for a broad range of commercial litigation and defense of personal injury and property injury matters. Representations are undertaken at the request of insurance companies as well as self-insured entities and individuals.
The firm also features an active appellate practice, including appeals of cases tried by members of the firm, those tried by other attorneys and consultations with other counsel with respect to appellate matters.
The firm handles appeals to the Wyoming Supreme Court, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and appeals of all types of state administrative bodies. Its members are known for their appellate work, including handling appeals of cases tried by other lawyers.
The firm has represented parties in various forms of alternate dispute resolution, both in the context of active litigation and in efforts to avoid litigation. Formats with which the firm has experience include arbitration under formal rules of arbitration organizations, informal mediation and settlement conferences. In addition, Mr. Dyekman has served at the request of litigants as an arbitrator and mediator.
Real Estate & Land Development
The firm maintains a broad real estate practice, including representation of lenders, developers, municipalities, realtors, buyers and sellers of both urban and rural properties. Recent transactions have involved ranches, commercial property, undeveloped land, condominium projects, annexation litigation and appeals, mineral rights and interests, water rights and residential real estate.
Through its environmental law practice, the firm has worked on issues as varied and numerous as the Wyoming outdoors itself. The firm has represented industries, landowners, and other interested persons in issues involving permitting requirements for new facilities, notices of violation issued by Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, and insurance disputes.
The firm has experience dealing in a wide variety of construction law matters. We have assisted clients with contract questions and disputes, filing, defending the filing and the foreclosure of construction liens, as well as state and federal bonding and Miller Act issues. The firm can also assist clients with litigation arising out of construction, including personal injuries, property damage, product liability, mortgages, liens, land use planning, zoning, arbitration and all issues which may arise between project planning and post-completion complaints.
State & Mineral Taxation
The firm has an active trial and appellate practice in state taxation matters, including mineral taxation, sales and use taxation, and property tax issues. The firm also has represented businesses in connection with state tax audits and negotiations and settlements with taxing authorities.
Trusts, Estates and Estate Planning
The firm assists individuals with business continuation, sophisticated estate planning, charitable gift planning and pre-death disability planning, frequently working as apart of a team with other estate planning professionals and client advisors.
The firm also has an active probate and trust administration practice throughout Wyoming, which also includes representation of non-residents in connection with the administration of estates in Wyoming.
Governmental Affairs and Lobbying
The firm boasts one of the most active governmental relations and lobbying practices in Wyoming, representing corporations, individuals, non-profit organizations, and trade associations before the Wyoming Legislature, administrative agencies and federal agencies.