You own 30% of a profitable Long Island City events company you helped build over eight years. On a Tuesday afternoon in July, you open an email from your managing member titled "Urgent Capital Call." It demands you wire $475,000 in 30 days for "working capital and expansion." If you don't, your operating agreement says your interest gets diluted — from 30% down to roughly 6%. You don't have $475,000 sitting in a checking account, and you suspect the business doesn't actually

You and two friends opened a Hell's Kitchen restaurant group in 2019. You put in $300,000, signed the lease in your own name, and ran the front of house for three years. Last week your partners sent you a letter declaring that the operating agreement gives them the right to remove you "for cause" — and that your buyout will be calculated at book value, which they've conveniently pegged at $42,000. You stop breathing for a minute. Can they actually do this? Probably not the wa