Theodore L. Nicholas, J.D./M.B.A.

TED NICHOLAS during his thirty-year plus career has worked with a variety of local, regional and national companies and their owners.  Ted provides accessible,  responsive and practical advice on the wide range of business and personal matters encountered by business owners and their families.

TED obtained his MBA in tax/finance at the same time he obtained his JD in law. He has had the pleasure to serve many for-profit and non-profit businesses as well as business owners and their personal needs.  Ted provides a broad array of legal and business consulting service, including business formation, mergers, acquisitions, sales and spin-offs, contracts, real estate transactions, regulatory transactions including gaming and insurance matters, strategic alliances and planning, business restructurings, partnerships, joint ventures, and licensing agreements, business and civil litigation, and estate and succession planning, wills, probate and related elder law services.

TED began his career in 1987 with the firm Ricos & Price. Ted gained experience through his involvement with the development of hotel and diving businesses in the Cayman Islands; defending a national pump manufacturer, Burks Pumps, from claims involving complex engineering principles including appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; representing investors in multi-year litigation over the ownership and control of a manufacturing business and its product designs; working with  AHEPA National Housing Corporation and AHEPA Management Company on affordable housing development and management including landlord-tenant matters; and consulting with a many business owners, including doctors, dentists and other health care providers, real estate developers and owners, manufacturers and service providers.

TED was invited to join an insurance defense firm in 1997. During his tenure he was part of the firm management team and assumed a major role in a whole host of complex business, litigation and regulatory matters, including insurance and gaming regulatory compliance, re-domestication of foreign insurers to Indiana, agent licensing and insurance insolvency issues, and stock purchase and merger transactions involving private and publicly traded insurance companies seeking regulatory approval for proposed transactions, financial transaction reporting issues, licensing suitability issues and negotiation of fines and penalties. During this same period Ted and a partner successfully acquired, developed and sold a residential development project in Bonita Springs, Florida.

TED and his partner KEVIN HARRIS joined to start Harris Nicholas, PC in 2008 to serve the business and personal needs of their portfolio of clients.

TED has been actively involved throughout his career with the East Indy Sertoma Club and Camp Sertoma Foundation, Inc., a 30-acre multi-purpose camp and bingo operation located on the east side of Indianapolis. He has held the offices of Secretary, President and Director. Ted uses his regulatory and nonprofit experiences to consult and represent churches and other nonprofit entities on the myriad of growth and administration issues facing those entities, including formation, governance, real estate development, construction oversight and issues, and litigation.

TED graduated from Indiana University in 1981 with dual degrees in biology and chemistry. In 1986 he graduated from the Indiana University School of Business and Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis with MBA and JD degrees.

TED can be reached via phone at 317-590-8441 or e-mail at tnicholas@harrisnicholas.org.

Experiences

  • Represented Cayman Islands real estate investment, also including some of those investors in a Cayman Island charter boat operation investment that pursued a claim for a defective boat manufacture under warranty and UCC claims.
  • Multi-year litigation involving the dissolution of a business relationship that involved ownership shares, trade secrets and competing businesses among owners in Indiana and New York (EHOB v. Jacobs Machine & Tool Co., et al).
  • Prosecuted appeals before the Indiana Court of Appeals (see, for example, Houston v. Booher, 647 N.E.2d 16 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995) and Murdock Construction Management Inc. v. Eastern Star Missionary Baptist Church Inc., 766 N.E.2d 759 (Ind. Ct. App.), transfer denied, 783 N.E.2d 694 (Ind. 2002)) and the Indiana Supreme Court (including the complex trade secrets case, EHOB v. Jacobs Machine & Tool Co., et al). 
  • Worked with co-counsel defending a local prominent law firm in an action arising out of the estate plan for and 1997 untimely death of a local prominent attorney – Conseco executive Lawrence Inlow.
  • Defended the then principal owner of Belterra Casino – R.D. Hubbard – in a regulatory action before the Indiana Gaming Commission, including appeared alone as Mr. Hubbard’s counsel before the IGC in its final hearing to approve a settlement without a finding of unsuitability, implicating gaming licenses in multiple estates.
  • Spearheaded as primary counsel acquisition under option, then purchase, development and sale of real estate developments, including residential development in Bonita Springs, Florida, sold in 2003, that involved extensive legal work in respect to development approvals and financing, water rights and dock licensing, endangered species protection, environmental issues, and complex financial projections. 
  • Spearheaded as primary counsel, operator and partner development of farmland investment and rental operations in Hendricks and Parke Counties, Indiana. 
  • Spearheaded as primary counsel and part owner acquisition, development and operation of commercial and residential rental properties. 
  • Represented for over twenty years as outside general counsel one of the largest churches in Indiana, Eastern Star Missionary Baptist Church, including acted as legal counsel to effectuate development of several multi-million dollar church facilities and church plants, including spin-offs resulting in two independent churches, New Beginnings Fellowship Church and New Horizons Church, that represented post-spin-off.
  • Involved for over thirty years as a member and in various leadership positions of local and national nonprofit organizations, including Sertoma Club of East Indianapolis (Indy East), Camp Sertoma Foundation, Inc., and James Whitcomb Riley AHEPA Chapter 232, and over span of professional career as called upon to represent and counsel HUD elderly housing local and national developer and manager, AHEPA Housing Corporation and AHEPA Management Company, and various AHEPA apartment operations statewide, including AHEPA 232 Phases I, II and III, AHEPA 100, AHEPA 78, Phases I, III, VI and VI, Brentwood Apartments, Woods of Crooked Creek Apartments and Woods Senior Living Apartments.
  • Represented a large national pump company, Burks Pumps, in a lawsuit particularly suited to handle with double BA in science and through a lifetime of engineering experiences and training, in a dispute in Federal Court in Indiana that involved complex engineering concepts and ultimately led to an appeal of summary judgment in favor of Burks Pumps that successfully defended in 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
  • Represented large scrap metal trading company located in California in a contract dispute with an Indiana scrap dealer.
  • Represented Florida contractor in respect to an Indiana real estate development, as well as in respect to the contractor’s national fast food franchise that included location here in Indiana.
  • Represented Indiana-based Hotel Vanities International as stone importer and supplier to out-of-state hotels, motels and multi-family projects in respect to a host of issues that arose locally and out-of-state (sales tax, foreign business registration, mechanic’s liens, contract negotiations and disputes, employment and independent contractor issues, financing including letter of credit issues, customs issues including AD/CVD Petition for Relief, and many other matters including business growth, operation and sale strategies).
  • Represented out-of-state individuals who own real estate in Indiana with ownership issues, including real estate tax assessments and appeals, landlord/tenant issues, contractor issues, acquisition and sales, and many other real estate based matters.
  • Represented out-of-state beneficiaries in respect to deceased Indiana residents and their estates.

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Kevin D. Harris, J.D.

Kevin Harris was a founding member of Harris Nicholas, P.C. Prior to joining with TED to form the law firm, KEVIN had for twenty years provided legal counsel to businesses through “in-house” positions supplying a broad base of legal, business, senior management and accounting services. For fifteen years he was employed with the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds (NCIGF), a non-profit association serving as a national trade association for the state property and casualty insurance guaranty associations. Previous responsibilities also included other senior level management and corporate counsel positions with insurance industry organizations as well as “Big 4” public accounting experience, including serving as Corporate Counsel for Reliance Insurance Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Chief Administrative Officer, Liquidation Division of Illinois Department of Insurance, Chicago, Illinois, and as an auditor in public accounting at Ernst & Young’s Indianapolis, Indiana office.

 

KEVIN during his tenure with NCIGF had responsibility for the coordination of activities associated with major property and casualty insurer insolvencies and development and implementation of public policy and legislative solutions on critical insurance issues. He also in a government affairs capacity representing member guaranty associations before state insurance regulators and state and federal legislators, developing expertise in property and casualty insurance insolvency matters. In 2006 he was serving as Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

 

KEVIN and TED with their overlapping depth of experiences hit the ground running when they joined in 2008 to form Harris Nicholas, P.C. Their clients included individuals with whom they had developed trusted relationships as individual and family advisors, as well as business owners and their local, state and national businesses for whom KEVIN and TED served as outside general counsel as well as advisors and contacts for a whole host of local and state business and regulatory matters. Their many clients included Chem-Group, Inc., a principal owner of which Kevin had a long-standing personal relationship.

 

KEVIN in 2010 was invited to join Chem-Group, Inc. as a Vice President and General Counsel. It was an opportunity that TED fully supported KEVIN in his decision to join Chem-Group. Although KEVIN is no longer active in the law firm operation and practice, KEVIN and TED remain close friends and trusted advisors, and regularly consult and communicate with each other on various legal issues and matters.

 

KEVIN continues to serve as Vice President & General Counsel for ORG Chem Group, LLC, the successor organization to Chem-Group, Inc., www.chem-group.com. Chem-Group is located at 2406 Lynch Road, Evansville, Indiana 47711. Kevin may be contacted via e-mail or phone at kharris@chem-group.com or 812.550.2562.

 

    Experiences

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