Info

Brooks & Hess is a small law firm in San Jose, California specializing in business and real estate litigation and transactions, as well as creditor representation in bankruptcy matters. Brooks & Hess consists of two attorneys, William T. Brooks and Virginia Turner Hess. Mr. Brooks received both his undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford University in 1962 and 1965 respectively. Ms. Hess graduated from the University of Santa Clara's joint JD-MBA program in 1980. Ms. Hess received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at San Diego in 1976. Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess have worked together since 1980, when Ms. Hess joined the firm of Campbell, Warburton, Britton, Fitzsimmons & Smith, a San Jose law firm which was founded in 1927. Mr. Brooks had been a partner at that firm since the mid 1970s, and Ms. Hess became a partner there in 1987. Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess left the Campbell, Warburton firm in 1993 to form Brooks & Hess. During their many years working together, Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess have handled a variety of different and challenging transaction and litigation matters. For example, they were primary counsel for Marriott Corporation in connection with the 100 million dollar sale of Marriott's Great America Theme park. They also represented Marriott Corporation in a 1031 exchange involving nine parties and eight parcels of land, located in three states, totaling approximately $47 million dollars. Mr. Brooks also served as Marriott's local counsel in the mid '70s when it acquired the 640 acres in Santa Clara which it developed into Silicon Valley's premier high tech industrial area, the Great America Theme Park, and a major Marriott Convention Hotel. Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess have a substantial amount of land use experience which resulted in their being chosen to advise FMC regarding the future development of its 167 acres beside San Jose Airport, with the emphasis on the City of Santa Clara portion, which included heavy involvement with the environmental review process, traffic studies, the drafting for the City of Santa Clara of a new Development Agreement Ordinance and untangling years of title related problems. Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess have represented clients in connection with obtaining financing from banks, governments and private corporate lenders. They have had a number of significant business purchases and sales, such as the leveraged buy-out of Diana Fruit Preserving Co. from Tyson Foods, and the purchase of Comptech, Inc. by Alcatel, the French telecommunications conglomerate. They have also represented owners of convalescent facilities both in regard to their day-to-day operations and also in litigation matters relating to land partition and partnership Buy-Sell Agreement disputes. Since the formation of Brooks & Hess, Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess have handled such significant transactions as the purchase of several related cable and connector companies located in Toronto, New York and Arkansas, the acquisition and subsequent merger of one surface mount tape and reel company by another tape, reel, and test company involving both U.S. and foreign ownership, a "pooling of interests" merger transaction in which a NYSE listed company with a foreign subsidiary as purchaser acquired two California companies which had nine Caribbean affiliates in seven different countries. The litigation practice of the firm encompasses commercial disputes, breach of contract, copyright and trademark infringement, theft of trade secrets, officer, director and employee liability for breach of fiduciary duty, partnership disputes, estate contests, real property disputes, landlord-tenant disputes, and eminent domain (condemnation). In addition to litigation and major transactions, a significant portion of Brooks & Hess' practice also involves counseling business clients in connection with the formation of business entities. The firm provides counsel to clients in regard to their day to day legal needs, whatever they may be, including obtaining financing, leasing or purchasing facilities, basic contract forms, employee personnel manuals, sales representatives and distributorship agreements, employer liability, corporate housekeeping, and the like. When Mr. Brooks and Ms. Hess split off from the Campbell, Warburton firm in April of 1993, they made a commitment to keeping themselves small and to providing a prompt, personalized, and efficient service. The firm is committed to keeping it's office up-to-date with the latest technology. This allows the attorneys to work more efficiently and also makes available a wealth of information at each attorney's fingertips. Because the firm's operation is so streamlined, the firm employs a single office assistant, which keeps the firm's overhead very manageable. This has allowed the attorneys to maintain an hourly rate significantly below that typically charged by attorneys with similar, or even substantially less, experience. We hope this rather informal resume gives you a feel for our firm, what we like to do, and how we do it.