Family Office Counsel — John H. Snyder PLLC
For principals who need one senior legal relationship in New York across disputes, transactions, and sensitive matters.

One trusted counsel with visibility across the full picture — and the ability to act on it directly.

Snyder provides continuous legal presence across adversarial situations, transactions, personal matters, and capital situations simultaneously — screening, triaging, and intervening directly without routing through separate specialists.

Structure
Standing Retainer
Ongoing. Select roster.
Coverage
Full Picture
Disputes, transactions, personal, capital.

Family offices concentrate risk in a small number of relationships and decisions.

Traditional law-firm structures handle discrete assignments, not continuous visibility. Advice becomes siloed. Time is lost in the gaps between specialists. Fragmentation arrives at exactly the moment coherence matters most.

What is needed is one relationship that sees the full picture — and can act on it directly, without routing through separate specialists.

Continuity under pressure is the advantage. The person who knows the family's affairs is the same person who walks into court.

One relationship. Snyder screens, triages, and intervenes directly.

Direct relationship with the principal or designated family office leadership. Single point of contact for all New York legal matters. Careful triage — what Snyder handles directly, what is referred to specialists, and what requires no action at all.

When a matter requires full litigation engagement, Snyder steps into first-chair or quarterback roles directly. No ramp-up period. Context is already in place.

Adversarial
Disputes & Pressure
Threatened & active litigation
Pre-dispute positioning
Settlement design & execution
Regulatory inquiry response
Counterparty disputes
Transactional
Deals & Structures
Acquisitions & dispositions
Financings & restructurings
Joint ventures & partnerships
Governance & equity matters
Distressed asset situations
Personal
Sensitive Matters
Confidentiality & privacy
Family disputes & succession
Reputational exposure
Cross-border personal matters
Quiet resolution strategy
Capital
Special Situations
Litigation finance evaluation
Distressed debt & workouts
Capital structure disputes
Opportunistic acquisitions
Complex claim monetization

Six recurring situations where continuity and coordinated judgment change the result.

Adversarial Situations
Conflict · Leverage · Resolution
Pre-dispute positioning, litigation management, settlement design and direct intervention when pressure is building.
Complex Problems
Coordination · Judgment · Control
Problems with too many moving parts for ordinary legal handling. Multiple advisors, contested facts, cross-domain pressures — unified under one coherent strategy.
Personal & Family
Private · Sensitive · Local
Direct counsel for highly sensitive matters affecting principals or family members — requiring discretion, speed, and careful handling.
Real Estate & Finance
Deals · Debt · Distress
Support on acquisitions, financings, restructurings, and distressed situations where asset value, debt pressure, and execution risk converge.
Business & Transactions
Structuring · Negotiation · Governance
Counsel on transactions, structures, and governance matters where legal judgment must stay connected to business reality.
Capital & Special Situations
Timing · Opportunity · Execution
Matters involving financial dislocation, capital pressure, and opportunistic transactions where coordinated judgment creates value.

One relationship with depth. Coordinated when escalation requires it.

John H. Snyder
Founding Principal · Trial Lawyer · Strategic Advisor
John H. Snyder
Harvard Law School
Brown University · Phi Beta Kappa
Federal Clerkship · Proskauer Rose
Founder, Agnes Intelligence

Snyder is the senior coordinating legal mind for principals and family offices when the situation exceeds ordinary legal silos. Engaged when the client needs one relationship with visibility across transactions, disputes, and pressure situations — without being handed off.

Founder and CEO of Agnes Intelligence, which placed 4th of more than 1,000 entries in the 2018 IBM Watson Build competition.

Corporate & Structural Counsel
Thomas C. Sima
Duke Law (J.D. & LL.M., cum laude) · Shearman & Sterling, NY & HK · NY · FL · SDNY · EDNY
20+ years advising high-net-worth individuals and family offices from the former Soviet Union, East Asia, and beyond on cross-border fund formation, offshore asset protection structures, and international capital deployment. Fluent in Russian; working proficiency in Mandarin, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Formerly with Shearman & Sterling in New York and Hong Kong.

The roster is limited by design. Initial conversations are private.

Snyder personally stewards each relationship — bringing over two decades of federal courtroom experience and a practice that integrates litigation, capital, and institutional design.

Initial conversations are conducted privately and on a confidential basis.

An Early Conversation
Costs Nothing.

The roster is limited by design. We engage family offices that need one senior legal relationship in New York with visibility across disputes, transactions, and sensitive matters simultaneously. Initial conversations are private and confidential.

Email inquiry@jhs.nyc
We Are a Fit When
The family needs one relationship that sees the full picture — and can act on it directly, without routing through separate specialists.
We Are Not a Fit When
The need is for a single discrete matter or a specialist in one area. The roster is limited and the relationship is ongoing.
The Engagement
$25,000 per month, flat. Standing retainer. Select roster.