CoverLaw

On The Record with Jim Cover
By Shelley T. Hudson

CoverLaw PC, a boutique law firm founded by San Clemente resident Jim Cover, is poised to serve the legal needs of residents and businesses of South Orange County.

Jim’s perspective is more “businessman with a law degree” than “attorney who knows business.” According to Cover, his firm has increased the net worth of multiple businesses and clients by over $250 million through business development and transactions, mergers and acquisitions, personal injury awards and business litigation, debtor/creditor negotiations, dispute resolution, and restructuring and operating improvements. His reputation as an innovative corporate strategist attracts clients going through a paradigm shift or whose companies have lost viability in the marketplace or are seeking to restructure or take advantage of partnerships in unconventional ways. Cover’s brand of “creative innovation,” as he calls it, assists clients by integrating unique legal solutions into business plans, transactions and contracts that best position clients and client organizations for a three-to five-year time frame. “This longer term outlook will serve the client’s goals and purposes,” Jim says, “Clarity is key—I consider how everyone will benefit and provide mechanisms for flexibility and early win-win dispute resolution.” The philosophy translates equally well for large corporations, small start-ups, and businesses that have reached a growth phase and need management.

Jim developed his approach to helping businesses flourish through an unlikely route—by representing clients in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases. While discovering the circumstances under which businesses fail, Jim developed a sense for what creates a successful organization and what keeps it thriving. CoverLaw offers a range of tools for entrepreneurs including starting an enterprise, raising capital, managing growth, reorganizing, establishing strategic alliances, merging with or acquiring another business, and selling/exiting from a business; all targeted to increasing the client’s bottom line. In addition to its broad business and corporate practice, CoverLaw helps clients with personal injury, wrongful death, tax, debtor/creditor and bankruptcy (Chapters 7, 11 and 13) matters.

CoverLaw has extended its scope of business and corporate solutions by recently including immigration services. Silvina Tondini, an international attorney licensed in the United States and Argentina, has joined the firm to lead the expansion. “Jim has given me a great opportunity to work on corporate, business, and immigration law matters, and now we can offer legal representation to individual and corporate clients who wish to work, invest, do business and/or bring family members to the United States. We also offer full legal services to Spanish-speaking clients,” Tondini asserts. Her focus at CoverLaw will be business, employment, investor visas and family petitions, and she plans to provide seminars in these areas as a community service. Cover is enthusiastic about how the new additions will enhance his business practice and clients. “This area has a lot of synergy,” he says, “My clients will be able to take advantage of more human resources to invest into their projects.”

Cover relocated his practice and his family to San Clemente in 2009 and has since become personally and professionally involved within the community. One of Cover’s sons showed interest in studying Japanese at San Clemente High School, the other wanted to play baseball for Dana Point Pony, and while investigating these possibilities, it quickly became obvious that the area would become home. “I fell in love with San Clemente. It’s somewhat isolated, but wholesome. I like the Mid-West values. It just fits,” he enthuses. Cover praises the people, the climate, and pride that come along with living in San Clemente. “When you’re in this area, you feel the sense of involvement and caring,” he continues, “I love that the kids seem academic and civic-minded—my boys have great friends here. This is exactly where I want to live and work,” he says, “I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.”