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Chambers Global Practice Guides 2026 contributor

Featured in Chambers · New York

Your Business Partner's Divorce Isn't Your Problem — Until It Is.

When a co-owner splits with a spouse, hits a deadlock, or simply wants out, the wrong operating agreement can hand your company to a judge. IX Legal's 2026 Chambers chapter breaks down the one clause most New York businesses are missing.

Read the full chapter on Chambers

Picture a family real estate group — three generations, one operating agreement, decades of trust.

Then a senior partner's divorce turns ugly, and suddenly a soon-to-be ex-spouse has a potential claim on a slice of the business. Nobody did anything wrong. But without the right provision in place, that private family matter can become a public court fight over who owns what.

This is the scenario IX Legal's Michael Iakovou, Konstantine Paschalidis, and Socrates Xanthopoulos open with in their 2026 Chambers chapter — and it's more common than most owners think. The good news: it's also one of the most preventable disputes in business law.

— What's inside the chapter

The agreement should say what happens when someone wants out.

Most partnership disputes don't blow up because someone broke the law. They blow up because the agreement never supplied the ending. This chapter is a plain-English guide to fixing that before it costs you.

  1. 01

    The legal fallback most owners don't want.

    New York law (BCL §1104-a) lets a shareholder with 20% or more force a buyout by proving oppressive conduct — and §1118 gives the other owners 90 days to buy them out at fair value set by a court. If your agreement is silent, a judge writes the ending.

  2. 02

    Why LLCs are exposed.

    Unlike corporations, LLCs have no equivalent statutory buyout mechanism. Courts sometimes step in to avoid dissolution — but sometimes is not a strategy.

  3. 03

    What makes a buyout clause actually hold up.

    Clear valuations. Real deadlines. Courts enforce well-drafted provisions and throw out sloppy ones: a $1 buyback clause will not survive, and neither will a clause with no valuation method.

  4. 04

    The arbitration move that keeps it private.

    A clear, unequivocal arbitration clause keeps the dispute out of public court records. Wait too long — roughly four months of litigating first — and you can waive that right entirely.

  5. 05

    Two real endings.

    One deal used a creative Texas Shootout: name your price, and your partner either buys you out or sells to you at it. The other — a 50/50 deadlock with no buyout clause — could only be untangled through expensive dissolution litigation.

— Why this matters

Plan for the bad days while everyone is still reasonable.

If you own a company with anyone else — a co-founder, a family member, a silent investor — your operating agreement is a plan for the good times. This chapter is about the bad ones: the divorce, the falling-out, the partner who checks out but won't sell.

You can decide the terms now, while everyone's still reasonable. Or a court can decide them later, when nobody is. IX Legal wrote this chapter so New York business owners can choose the first option.

— Doing Business in 2026

Read How to Protect What You've Built

The full IX Legal chapter is published in Chambers' Doing Business in 2026 guide — the reference global companies use to understand doing business in New York. It's a straightforward read, written for owners, not just lawyers.

Read the full chapter Talk to IX Legal

Authored by Michael Iakovou, Konstantine Paschalidis, and Socrates Xanthopoulos of IX Legal — a full-stack Wall Street firm covering business transactions, IP, M&A, tax, litigation, and employment law.