DEBORAH GROBAN OLSON
ATTORNEY AT LAW

1021 Nottingham Road
Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan 48230
Phone (313) 331 7821
Fax (313) 331 2567
Email dgo@esoplaw.com

ATTORNEY DEBORAH GROBAN OLSON

Employee Ownership Projects and Publications

Since 1981 the law firm of Deborah Groban Olson has specialized in employee ownership matters, gainsharing and workplace participation, including buyouts of companies, as deal maker, plan counsel, in plan negotiations, and in litigation. As deal maker Olson finds and coordinates funds, management and other necessary professional assistance. She has developed a variety of flexible structures. She also reorganizes existing ESOP and gainsharing plans. Olson has worked on deals ranging in size from under $1 million to over $300 million in asset value.

Deborah Groban Olson has provided advice and assistance on employee ownership to over 140 companies, unions and community organizations, and has been an innovator in the field, inventing mechanisms such as the cooperative ESOP and the employee buyout association, and providing advice to federal and state governments on employee ownership legislation.

To accomplish client goals, Olson creates or works with a variety of organizational forms, including for-profit and non-profit corporations, cooperatives, partnerships, associations and employee benefit plans. Olson's tax and employee benefit plan experience has focused particularly on sales by owners to employees, and on representing employee benefit plans, non-profit corporations, community development corporations and their for-profit subsidiaries. Olson works closely with corporate counsel when developing a plan.

Representing corporations, cooperatives, community groups, labor organizations, trusts and individual employees, Olson represents parties before the IRS and litigates particularly in the areas of ERISA, labor and civil rights, having appeared in a number of courts across the country, including: federal district courts in Arkansas, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin; the Supreme Court of Arkansas; and the 7th Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals. Olson has worked on ERISA litigation in Michigan and New York.

Some of our one hundred-forty employee ownership projects include:

• Assisting owners to sell their companies to their employees at a mutually agreeable price, allowing the employer to retire on his own time schedule and to prepare new management. Carris Financial Corp. in Rutland, VT is an excellent example. With 710 employees in 15 plants in 8 states and annual sales of $83 million, this family owned business began its ESOP with 10% ownership in 1995. The company intends to transfer 100% ownership of the Company to the employees over a period of approximately 10 years, creating a smooth transition for all concerned.
• Developing and serving as counsel to the employees, the union, or the employee ownership plan in the following majority employee buyouts: National Forge Company, Irvine, PA; Rosauers Supermarkets, Inc., Spokane, WA; North Coast Brass & Copper Company, Cleveland, OH; Republic Container Company, Nitro, WV; and Franklin Forge, West Branch MI.
• Assisting Companies and employees to preserve jobs through partial employee ownership or attempts at partial ownership in Saginaw, MI; Lansing, MI; Hartford City, IN; Mt. Vernon, OH; Boston, MA; Wind Gap, PA; Kansas City, MO and in several large transportation related companies serving portions of the country.
• Assisting Companies to revise ESOPs to better meet their changing needs.
• Assisting community development corporations to create new businesses for unemployed workers in Detroit and Grand Rapids, MI.

Publications: "Union Experiences with Worker Ownership" 1982 Wis. LR 729; "Keeping Jobs and Capital at Home" 1984 Nova Law Journal 583; "Employee Ownership and Economic Development" 1987 NYU Review of Law & Social Change; "Unions and Employee Ownership" 1989, ESOP Handbook Probus 1989; "Unions and Fair Market Value: An Argument for a Safe Harbor for Negotiated ESOPs" 1992 Journal of Employee Ownership Law & Finance 135; "ESOPs for People, Not for Wall Street," 1993 Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance 5; "Development, Growth & Experience of ESOPs and Democratic Employee Buyouts," speech at International Conference on Democratic Employee Ownership, Dublin, Ireland, Oct. 1993; "Giving Employee Owners a Real Voice as Stockholders: Legislative Proposals to the Dunlop Commission", 1994 Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance; ESOP/FYI (law firm newsletter established 1996). "The Employee Buyout Feasibility Study", Leveraged ESOPs and Employee Buyouts, National Center for Employee Ownership 1997. Ownership for Everyone, Capital Ownership Group Virtual Think Tank Report on Industrial Homestead Discussion 9/30/00; “The Feasibility Study for an Employee Led Buyout” Winter 1998, Journal of Employee Ownership Law & Finance. Summary of “Capital Ownership Group Industrial Homestead Policy Proposals” Business Ethics September 2000 and Accountability, December 2000; Chap. 17 “Labor Unions”, ESOP Answer Book, Panel Publishers, July 2000.

Professional Education and Associations:

AV rating from Martindale Hubbell; Executive Director, Capital Ownership Group; Board Member and past Chair of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO); Director, European Federation of Employed Shareholders; Advisory Board, Joint Cities Development Corp.; Member, Leadership Detroit XVII, Detroit Chamber of Commerce; Adjunct Faculty: Wayne State University Law School, University of Michigan; Michigan Bar Tax, Labor and Corporation Sections. General Counsel MEOC 1985-1995; President and Executive Director, Michigan Employee Ownership Center (MEOC) 1983-1985; Attorney for NLRB and labor law practice, 1976-84; JD 1976 University of Wisconsin, Order of the Coif.

Bar Admissions:

Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas.

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