Timber & Forest Products

The timber and forest products industries play a vital role in the U.S. and global economies. Our experienced timber and forest products lawyers have served as trusted counsel to the industry since our beginnings in 1907. Over the decades, we have developed one of the nation’s most knowledgeable and experienced legal practices serving clients in virtually every corner of the timber and forest products industries.

Experienced, Industry-Focused Counsel

We understand your business and legal needs like few others can, providing practical, solution-oriented representation relevant to all aspects of timber and forest products industries, including:

Timberland ownership, management, acquisition, and disposition transactions
Industry mergers and acquisitions
Finance and lending transactions
Environmental and natural resource matters and litigation
Timberland and renewable energy development
Corporate structuring and counsel
Labor, employment, and employee benefits
Fund formation and structuring
Real estate development and land use

We represent a wide array of industry participants, including:

Timberland owners and investors
Lumber, panel, and pulp and paper manufacturers
Integrated forest products operations
Industry trade associations
Timber Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Timberland Investment Management Organizations (TIMOs)
Wood products manufacturers and distributors
Log, lumber, and wood chip exporters
Lumber distributors
Forestland managers

Proven Results, Nationwide

We help our industry clients run successful businesses from coast to coast. Regularly ranked by Best Lawyers^® as one of the nation’s top timber law practices, our Timber & Forest Products Team is one of the most experienced in all of the United States.

Representative Transactions

Timberlands Transactions
We have vast experience representing clients in timberlands transactions nationwide. Our lawyers have represented clients in some of the largest timberlands transactions in the United States over the last several decades. Our representation includes the full spectrum of legal services arising in timberlands transactions.

Mergers and Acquisitions
We have extensive experience representing both sellers and purchasers of entire timberlands and forest products businesses; separate operating divisions, mills, and facilities; and discrete operating and assets.

Timberland and Mill Operations
We regularly advise clients regarding contracts and other legal matters relating to ownership and operation of their timberlands and manufacturing facilities including: easements, road use and right-of-way agreements, log and fiber supply agreements, logging and hauling contracts, leases, access permits and licenses, boundary issues and similar operational matters.

Finance & Lending
As finance counsel to many of our clients, we have experience with financing types common to the industry, including traditional term loans and operating credit lines, as well as New Markets Tax Credit loans, private note placements, and rated timberland securitizations.

Environmental and Natural Resource Matters
Our environmental and natural resources attorneys work with individual companies and industry trade and policy groups on state and federal regulatory matters, including compliance strategies, regulatory approvals, and assisting with the drafting of laws and regulations that most impact the industry.

Energy
Building on our firm’s substantial experience with both timberlands and renewable energy development, we assist with the negotiation and development of wind energy leases and facilitated biomass and biofuels project developments on behalf of our industry clients.

Litigation
Our extensive industry knowledge and extensive experience in Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and other environmental and natural resources litigation make us a top choice when industry practices are challenged. Our litigation team also represents clients in a wide variety of trial court and appellate matters in commercial litigation.

Intellectual Property
We represent industry clients in patent and trademark matters, including protection for product designs and marketing materials and providing specialized counsel on the treatment of intellectual property assets in both routine and extraordinary transactions.

Labor, Employment & Benefits
We provide counseling and dispute resolution services across the spectrum of labor and employment law and advise employers on employment disputes and on the design, implementation, and administration of all types of employee benefit plans and executive compensation arrangements.

Real Estate Development & Land Use
We support our clients’ real estate development activities as transactional, real estate, and land use counsel, including commercial leasing, boundary, subdivision and partition matters, and development projects seeking the “highest and best use” of client lands.

Corporate
We act as corporate counsel to numerous timber and forest products companies with operations in the West, Southeast, and Midwest, and regularly assist them in board and shareholder matters, ongoing corporate governance and record-keeping issues, entity formations, commercial contracting, executive compensation, and other corporate affairs.

Fund Structuring and Advisory Services
We have experience advising investment advisers and investment funds (both private and registered) on securities law, capital formation, acquisitions and dispositions of portfolio investments, SEC registration and compliance, negotiation of investor rights and other fund advisory services.

Environmental Cleanup
We have deep experience with cleanup matters for both legacy and operating wood products facilities, including sediment cleanup issues. Our contaminated sites attorneys assist clients at multiple cleanup sites associated with forest products facilities and understand the nature of contamination from those facilities, how those contaminants relate to releases from other parties, and activities that may be involved at the site.

Air Quality Regulation
We work with forest products companies subject to federal, state, and local air quality regulations. Our experience includes permitting, regulatory compliance counseling, and enforcement defense. Our attorneys are knowledgeable about the manufacturing processes and equipment operated throughout the industry. We work with in-house counsel, environmental professionals, and mill personnel to identify business objectives and navigate clients through the relevant environmental regulatory landscape.

Meet the Timber & Forest Products Team