Why is Peter Angelos doing the things he’s doing?

[spiritof66]

In a lengthy August 9 post in the “Astros GM is going to have a long 2 months” thread, I tried to explain the burden that federal and state taxes will impose on Peter Angelos’s estate, and I opined that estate taxes will deplete the estate’s assets to the point where MLB owners probably would not approve a transfer of control of the Orioles to his son or sons. My analysis of estate taxes came out of my musings about a question that’s been bothering me: Why is Peter Angelos doing the things he’s doing to the Orioles?

I’ve been critical of Angelos almost since he took over the Orioles. I believe his character flaws – including egomania, delusions of baseball expertise, unwillingness to take responsibility for (or even acknowledge) his decisions, political grandstanding, slow decision-making, and strong preference if not insistence on team executives’ sycophancy – have hurt the team badly. Nonetheless, I have to believe Angelos is a reasonably intelligent guy who, despite his advanced age, continues to be rational.

How, then, to explain the Orioles’ spurning of international signings, relative disinterest in the farm system, the Davis, O’Day and Trumbo contracts, trades of prospects for rental veterans, and the decision last month not to sell any valuable assets, including “going dark” at the eleventh hour? I can’t understand how someone of even modest intelligence who is trying to build a winning ballclub would make these decisions. Peter Angelos can’t be that dumb (though I recall New York columnists asking about George Steinbrenner, “If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?”). It’s my nature, when something I’m observing closely seems inexplicable, to try to find a rationale for it that makes sense. The only way in which I can make sense of Peter Angelos’ decisions is to conclude that he plans to sell, or have his estate sell, the team within a few years.

I’m certain of a few facts. One is that, more than anything, Angelos wants to see his team win, or least reach, the World Series. I’d like to see that, too. But I know, and Angelos has to know, that for an 88-year-old the chances of seeing that happen are pretty slim.

Some more facts. This team is likely to be in rough shape a few years down the road, both financially and on the field. Forgoing the Latin American talent pool has moved from dubious to untenable; someone has to spend the millions needed to build an international infrastructure and sign young Latin players, and that process will take a while. The Nats, especially if they do well in their surprisingly weak division, will continue to erode the fan base. The financial benefit to the Orioles of the MASN deal will diminish, maybe very quickly, through potentially rigged arbitrations. The Yankees and Red Sox are stocked with good young players, whom they can afford to retain if they want to, as well as strong farm systems. Machado, Schoop, Britton and Jones may not be Orioles much longer. I don’t think they’ll be traded, but if they are the return will be much less than it could have been. The revenue gap between the Orioles and their division rivals continues to grow. (Here’s a statistic that I find chilling: according to the Forbes numbers, in 2016 the NYYs took in about $81 per ticket sold, the Sox about $63, and the Orioles about $27. The Nats were at about $40.) Toronto is a potentially revenue-rich franchise that someone will straighten out sooner or later. As a result of high ML payrolls in the last few years, relative to their revenues, the Orioles have had little operating income (or have lost money), according to Forbes.

It's clear to me that, for the team to have a fair shot at success after the next two or three years, the owner will have to make substantial investments that might not be recovered until the team is sold again (if then), and even then there is likely to be a rebuilding process with at least a few years of losing. I think Angelos understands, if incompletely and with resistance, these challenges and problems, and that he knows that his win-soon strategy is exacerbating some of them.

From what I can tell, Peter Angelos has taken very good care of his sons, and I assume he has great affection for them. At the same time, I have seen nothing to indicate that he has (or should have) confidence in the ability of either of them – in particular, the street smarts and tenacity he believes he possesses in such abundance – to meet the challenges of running this franchise successfully, including the gumption to stand up to the Commissioner and the other owners.

It’s hard for me to see how Angelos would be running the team the way he is if he intends for his son(s) to carry on the family’s ownership after his death. This is where the estate tax analysis came in. Angelos almost certainly has some understanding that it’s at least very possible -- I would say it's certain -- that, if he leaves to his son(s) his roughly 80% interest in the Orioles upon his death, (a) much of the value of his non-Orioles assets will be drained away in estate taxes, (b) his son(s) will lack the wealth that will be needed to make the team competitive in the long run, (c) his son(s) will face the embarrassing prospect of potentially having their ownership turned down by MLB because he has left them with insufficient financial resources and because of what he’s done to offend the Commissioner and the other owners, and (d) if his son(s) will through no fault of their own re-establish the connection between the Angelos name and losing baseball. My guess is that Angelos is reluctant to pass on to his sons a losing team and a franchise that will be in disrepair and in need of large cash investment base on hos own short-term focus.

Finally, I think Angelos is haunted by his richly deserved legacy as the owner of a perennially losing team, but is pleased to see the stain of 14 losing seasons fade by virtue of five straight .500-or-better teams and some post-season baseball, and will pull out all the stops to expand on that in 2017 and 2018, if not beyond. (It’s been a while since I’ve seen the team referred to as a laughingstock.) My guess is that if he can’t have a November victory parade, he wants the Angelos regime to be remembered for success, in its final years, in turning the team around and bringing excitement and postseason baseball back to baseball in Baltimore. (Of course, if lightning does find the Orioles’ bottle, so much the better.)  Continuing his own ownership if he is still living, or passing ownership of the team on to his sons, is almost certain to tarnish whatever gloss the past few years have created, and make the six- or seven-year run of winning baseball an island in a sea of Angelos losing seasons. On the other hand, getting out of the baseball business a few years down the road will both avoid that and enable Angelos to leave hundreds of millions to his family, as well as estate-tax-deductible hundreds of millions more to charities that can be used for good works benefiting Baltimore and perpetuating the Angelos name.

If that’s the way Angelos is looking at it, his recent decisions make sense to me. Ordinarily, someone who’s trying to sell a business tries to gussy it up and enhance its curb appeal. Angelos has done pretty much the opposite, but I can understand that. A buyer of the Orioles will be paying over $1 billion – the 2017 Forbes valuation is $1.175 billion, and the $1.2 billion Marlins deal announced the other day tracks the Forbes number – for the privilege of owning an MLB franchise that brings with it Baltimore’s baseball tradition and one of the game’s most desirable venues. A weak farm system and scouting staff, or a few million dollars owed to over-the-hill veterans, aren’t likely to put a huge dent in the sale price – half of which, at the margin, will go to pay income taxes or estate taxes anyway. Why spend money, or try to minimize future payroll commitments, to benefit a team that will belong to someone else?

The way the team is configured, along with the Duquette and Showalter contracts, suggests to me that Angelos was targeting a sale of the team after next season. That could be wrong; maybe that’s just how the timing of those things shook out. And there’s no reason that time couldn’t be extended if Angelos lives a bit longer and the Orioles’ on-field performance holds up. In any event, there’s been a glitch: it will be very hard to get much for the Orioles’ stake in MASN while the rights fees issue is unresolved.  That should be cleared up by 2018 or 2019, but it’s hard to know for sure.

I’ve thought this through privately in an effort to understand why the Orioles’ owner would act in ways that seem so clearly inconsistent with the long-range and even mid-range health of his franchise. You don’t need to tell me that I don’t know Peter Angeles and can’t possibly know what his plans are; I’m well aware of that. Maybe it’s been a waste of my time, and a little of yours. Maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe this has been shaped by wishful thinking that competent ownership is not too far away. Anyway, this is what I’ve come up with, and with some reluctance I decided to write it out and share it. 

 

 

 

 

 

[mdbdotcom]

I doubt he considers dying an option.

[Tx Oriole]

43 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

In a lengthy August 9 post in the “Astros GM is going to have a long 2 months” thread, I tried to explain the burden that federal and state taxes will impose on Peter Angelos’s estate, and I opined that estate taxes will deplete the estate’s assets to the point where MLB owners probably would not approve a transfer of control of the Orioles to his son or sons. My analysis of estate taxes came out of my musings about a question that’s been bothering me: Why is Peter Angelos doing the things he’s doing to the Orioles?

I’ve been critical of Angelos almost since he took over the Orioles. I believe his character flaws – including egomania, delusions of baseball expertise, unwillingness to take responsibility for (or even acknowledge) his decisions, political grandstanding, slow decision-making, and strong preference if not insistence on team executives’ sycophancy – have hurt the team badly. Nonetheless, I have to believe Angelos is a reasonably intelligent guy who, despite his advanced age, continues to be rational.

How, then, to explain the Orioles’ spurning of international signings, relative disinterest in the farm system, the Davis, O’Day and Trumbo contracts, trades of prospects for rental veterans, and the decision last month not to sell any valuable assets, including “going dark” at the eleventh hour? I can’t understand how someone of even modest intelligence who is trying to build a winning ballclub would make these decisions. Peter Angelos can’t be that dumb (though I recall New York columnists asking about George Steinbrenner, “If you’re so rich, why aren’t you smart?”). It’s my nature, when something I’m observing closely seems inexplicable, to try to find a rationale for it that makes sense. The only way in which I can make sense of Peter Angelos’ decisions is to conclude that he plans to sell, or have his estate sell, the team within a few years.

I’m certain of a few facts. One is that, more than anything, Angelos wants to see his team win, or least reach, the World Series. I’d like to see that, too. But I know, and Angelos has to know, that for an 88-year-old the chances of seeing that happen are pretty slim.

Some more facts. This team is likely to be in rough shape a few years down the road, both financially and on the field. Forgoing the Latin American talent pool has moved from dubious to untenable; someone has to spend the millions needed to build an international infrastructure and sign young Latin players, and that process will take a while. The Nats, especially if they do well in their surprisingly weak division, will continue to erode the fan base. The financial benefit to the Orioles of the MASN deal will diminish, maybe very quickly, through potentially rigged arbitrations. The Yankees and Red Sox are stocked with good young players, whom they can afford to retain if they want to, as well as strong farm systems. Machado, Schoop, Britton and Jones may not be Orioles much longer. I don’t think they’ll be traded, but if they are the return will be much less than it could have been. The revenue gap between the Orioles and their division rivals continues to grow. (Here’s a statistic that I find chilling: according to the Forbes numbers, in 2016 the NYYs took in about $81 per ticket sold, the Sox about $63, and the Orioles about $27. The Nats were at about $40.) Toronto is a potentially revenue-rich franchise that someone will straighten out sooner or later. As a result of high ML payrolls in the last few years, relative to their revenues, the Orioles have had little operating income (or have lost money), according to Forbes.

It's clear to me that, for the team to have a fair shot at success after the next two or three years, the owner will have to make substantial investments that might not be recovered until the team is sold again (if then), and even then there is likely to be a rebuilding process with at least a few years of losing. I think Angelos understands, if incompletely and with resistance, these challenges and problems, and that he knows that his win-soon strategy is exacerbating some of them.

From what I can tell, Peter Angelos has taken very good care of his sons, and I assume he has great affection for them. At the same time, I have seen nothing to indicate that he has (or should have) confidence in the ability of either of them – in particular, the street smarts and tenacity he believes he possesses in such abundance – to meet the challenges of running this franchise successfully, including the gumption to stand up to the Commissioner and the other owners.

It’s hard for me to see how Angelos would be running the team the way he is if he intends for his son(s) to carry on the family’s ownership after his death. This is where the estate tax analysis came in. Angelos almost certainly has some understanding that it’s at least very possible -- I would say it's certain -- that, if he leaves to his son(s) his roughly 80% interest in the Orioles upon his death, (a) much of the value of his non-Orioles assets will be drained away in estate taxes, (b) his son(s) will lack the wealth that will be needed to make the team competitive in the long run, (c) his son(s) will face the embarrassing prospect of potentially having their ownership turned down by MLB because he has left them with insufficient financial resources and because of what he’s done to offend the Commissioner and the other owners, and (d) if his son(s) will through no fault of their own re-establish the connection between the Angelos name and losing baseball. My guess is that Angelos is reluctant to pass on to his sons a losing team and a franchise that will be in disrepair and in need of large cash investment base on hos own short-term focus.

Finally, I think Angelos is haunted by his richly deserved legacy as the owner of a perennially losing team, but is pleased to see the stain of 14 losing seasons fade by virtue of five straight .500-or-better teams and some post-season baseball, and will pull out all the stops to expand on that in 2017 and 2018, if not beyond. (It’s been a while since I’ve seen the team referred to as a laughingstock.) My guess is that if he can’t have a November victory parade, he wants the Angelos regime to be remembered for success, in its final years, in turning the team around and bringing excitement and postseason baseball back to baseball in Baltimore. (Of course, if lightning does find the Orioles’ bottle, so much the better.)  Continuing his own ownership if he is still living, or passing ownership of the team on to his sons, is almost certain to tarnish whatever gloss the past few years have created, and make the six- or seven-year run of winning baseball an island in a sea of Angelos losing seasons. On the other hand, getting out of the baseball business a few years down the road will both avoid that and enable Angelos to leave hundreds of millions to his family, as well as estate-tax-deductible hundreds of millions more to charities that can be used for good works benefiting Baltimore and perpetuating the Angelos name.

If that’s the way Angelos is looking at it, his recent decisions make sense to me. Ordinarily, someone who’s trying to sell a business tries to gussy it up and enhance its curb appeal. Angelos has done pretty much the opposite, but I can understand that. A buyer of the Orioles will be paying over $1 billion – the 2017 Forbes valuation is $1.175 billion, and the $1.2 billion Marlins deal announced the other day tracks the Forbes number – for the privilege of owning an MLB franchise that brings with it Baltimore’s baseball tradition and one of the game’s most desirable venues. A weak farm system and scouting staff, or a few million dollars owed to over-the-hill veterans, aren’t likely to put a huge dent in the sale price – half of which, at the margin, will go to pay income taxes or estate taxes anyway. Why spend money, or try to minimize future payroll commitments, to benefit a team that will belong to someone else?

The way the team is configured, along with the Duquette and Showalter contracts, suggests to me that Angelos was targeting a sale of the team after next season. That could be wrong; maybe that’s just how the timing of those things shook out. And there’s no reason that time couldn’t be extended if Angelos lives a bit longer and the Orioles’ on-field performance holds up. In any event, there’s been a glitch: it will be very hard to get much for the Orioles’ stake in MASN while the rights fees issue is unresolved.  That should be cleared up by 2018 or 2019, but it’s hard to know for sure.

I’ve thought this through privately in an effort to understand why the Orioles’ owner would act in ways that seem so clearly inconsistent with the long-range and even mid-range health of his franchise. You don’t need to tell me that I don’t know Peter Angeles and can’t possibly know what his plans are; I’m well aware of that. Maybe it’s been a waste of my time, and a little of yours. Maybe I’m completely wrong. Maybe this has been shaped by wishful thinking that competent ownership is not too far away. Anyway, this is what I’ve come up with, and with some reluctance I decided to write it out and share it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty good write up. Just a couple of questions.  When did Angelos offend the commissioner and other owners? 

 

[spiritof66]

20 minutes ago, Tx Oriole said:

Pretty good write up. Just a couple of questions.  When did Angelos offend the commissioner and other owners? 

 

When he sued them and alleged (correctly) that they screwed up the rights fees arbitration.   When he said he wouldn't hire replacement players. There's more history than that, but the first is what I had in mind. 

[MDtransplant757]

1 hour ago, spiritof66 said:

When he sued them and alleged (correctly) that they screwed up the rights fees arbitration.   When he said he wouldn't hire replacement players. There's more history than that, but the first is what I had in mind. 

That and he and bud selig butted heads when Selig first came into the commissioners office, bringing the expos to D.C. and MASN in general

 

[wildcard]

I wish I had read the last paragraph first because it is probably the most accurate.

I doubt Peter's estate  plan is public.

[foxfield]

This makes for an interesting read, and it could turn out to be 100% accurate.  I probably join you in hoping that the team is sold and for me it won't come soon enough.  But it is wishful thinking to believe in any way that IF Peter Angelos wants one or both of his sons to end up with the team, that it simply will not happen because of estate taxes or MLB.  While both would certainly be obstacles I do not expect that PA does not either have the legal mind or access to it, to provide the necessary planning to accomplish it's goal.  I think it is foolish to believe that the outcome you desire is essentially preordained for either of these reasons.  It is not.

The way this is written tells me that you have worked in the field of law.  The piece is clearly very well written and as I stated it is very interesting.  I DO agree that IF Peter has decided to sell that the timing is good and I do believe that IF he has decided to sell that he would for purely selfish reasons want to do as much as possible to keep the "window for success" open.  But I also think that curb appeal would have been improved by trading Zack et al and signing Manny, Schoop etc long term.  The next owner will hopefully love the franchise but will surely pay more than the 1.2 Billion the Jeter group settled on for the Marlins.  The simple fact that PA is 85 means this is a very near and dear subject for all of us.  But unless PA wants someone else to own the Orioles, I wouldn't be too sure that they will.

Either way, thanks for the interesting thoughts.

[tntoriole]

I see little difference in how Angelos owns the team now from how he has always owned it.  The flaws you rightly point out are the same flaws he had 25 years ago so I don't know that this leads to the conclusion he is acting so differently because he plans to sell.  The reality is that the organization has done much better when Angelos has hired competent GMs like Gillick, Macphail and Duquette and has failed miserably with the Frank Wren, Syd Thrift, Jim Beattie, Jim Duquette, Mike Flanagan (God bless) consecutive tenures. 

I pray that he does sell.  I just doubt it will come about. 

[TonySoprano]

4 hours ago, spiritof66 said:

How, then, to explain the Orioles’ spurning of international signings, relative disinterest in the farm system, the Davis, O’Day and Trumbo contracts, trades of prospects for rental veterans, and the decision last month not to sell any valuable assets, including “going dark” at the eleventh hour?

....

If that’s the way Angelos is looking at it, his recent decisions make sense to me. Ordinarily, someone who’s trying to sell a business tries to gussy it up and enhance its curb appeal. Angelos has done pretty much the opposite, but I can understand that. A buyer of the Orioles will be paying over $1 billion – the 2017 Forbes valuation is $1.175 billion, and the $1.2 billion Marlins deal announced the other day tracks the Forbes number – for the privilege of owning an MLB franchise that brings with it Baltimore’s baseball tradition and one of the game’s most desirable venues. A weak farm system and scouting staff, or a few million dollars owed to over-the-hill veterans, aren’t likely to put a huge dent in the sale price – half of which, at the margin, will go to pay income taxes or estate taxes anyway. Why spend money, or try to minimize future payroll commitments, to benefit a team that will belong to someone else?

 

I disagree with much of this premise.  Generally, a team owner looking to sell dumps off it's over-priced veterans to give the new owners more flexibility.  A team looking to sell would instead lock-up it's young stars like Machado, long-term.
 

"Going dark at the deadline" had to do with reportedly low-ball offers from the Astros.  The pressure was more on LA and Houston to make a deal mid-season to increase their playoff chances.
 
Moreover, the MASN rights deal, which was supposed to be in place for the 2012-2016 seasons is still tied up in the courts.  An owner looking to sell wouldn't dump that mess on his successor.  

I made my "bones" here a dozen years ago, criticizing Angelos, but I no longer perceive him to be as active as he was back then.  He's 88, and maybe I'm wrong, but I assume he's started delegating more to his sons.  If he's trying to win now, I see it as an elderly man trying to rebuild his legacy before the inevitable.  Given the lack of comments from Angelos himself for a few years, that's all any of us can do, assume.

[accinfo]

I assume his sons will also inherit his law practice which will provide a pretty good revenue stream to pay off any estate liabilities that arise.  Peter Angelos is one of the very few law practices that has never taken a partner.  If the Angelos family wants to continue to own the Orioles I suspect they will.  What that may look like is anyone's guess at this point. 

[spiritof66]

Some posters seem to think that Peter Angelos is some sort of legal magician. He is not. If he owns a big hunk of the team when he dies -- and it's certain that he does as of today -- he will, in the absence of a change in the law, have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in estate taxes. The amount of the tax bill will be based on the net value of all his assets as of the time he dies. That result is unavoidable.

There's also an assumption that Peter Angelos must have a very good estate plan in place that will enable him to do whatever the hell he wants. Apart fropm what I believe is the impossibility of avoiding taxes on the Oriolkes if he owns the teams, some very wealthy people die with inadequate or outdated estate plans. I would imagine Angelos is a difficult client who has difficulty taking legal advice. (There was a suggestion in an earlier post that Angelos has estate planning expertise available to him in his own law firm. I don't believe that's true. Based on the firm's website and reputation, it doesn't do that kind of work.)

One of the problems in putting together an estate plan for an MLB owner is that the value of the team -- and thus the tax -- is uncertain and in recent years has been increasing rapidly. Forbes valued the Orioles at $620 million in 2014, so by the Forbes numbers the same team, which is generating less income than it did three years ago, will lead to almost twice the estate tax liability now. An estate plan that would have worked three years may not work as well now, or two years from now. 

 

 

[tntoriole]

9 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

Some posters seem to think that Peter Angelos is some sort of legal magician. He is not. If he owns a big hunk of the team when he dies -- and it's certain that he does as of today -- he will, in the absence of a change in the law, have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in estate taxes. The amount of the tax bill will be based on the net value of all his assets as of the time he dies. That result is unavoidable.

There's also an assumption that Peter Angelos must have a very good estate plan in place that will enable him to do whatever the hell he wants. Apart fropm what I believe is the impossibility of avoiding taxes on the Oriolkes if he owns the teams, some very wealthy people die with inadequate or outdated estate plans. I would imagine Angelos is a difficult client who has difficulty taking legal advice. (There was a suggestion in an earlier post that Angelos has estate planning expertise available to him in his own law firm. I don't believe that's true. Based on the firm's website and reputation, it doesn't do that kind of work.)

One of the problems in putting together an estate plan for an MLB owner is that the value of the team -- and thus the tax -- is uncertain and in recent years has been increasing rapidly. Forbes valued the Orioles at $620 million in 2014, so by the Forbes numbers the same team, which is generating less income than it did three years ago, will lead to almost twice the estate tax liability now. An estate plan that would have worked three years may not work as well now, or two years from now. 

 

 

Are any of these scenarios possible?  I am not a financial planner or lawyer...lol.

If Angelos really had wanted to save money  and keep it with his sons, he could have transferred his interest to them years ago and paid the tax at that point as a gift tax.  This is what Lamar Hunt did with the Chiefs who he transferred to his sons in 1997.  

There are no taxes if the team remains as an asset of his widow which has been done with other franchises, NY Giants, for example, where Mara's sons assumed the active role of operating the team and leveraged ways to pay the eventual taxes.   And the Raiders went to Al Davis widow and his son, Mark. 

There seem to be ways for sports families to retain their team if there is the desire, although some families have had to get out due to their financial issues, like the Robbie family with the Dolphins.  And John Angelos is an attorney and presumably has been considering the options for quite some time given his role with the organization.  And hopefully getting sound advice. 

 

[spiritof66]

6 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

Are any of these scenarios possible?  I am not a financial planner or lawyer...lol.

If Angelos really had wanted to save money  and keep it with his sons, he could have transferred his interest to them years ago and paid the tax at that point as a gift tax.  This is what Lamar Hunt did with the Chiefs who he transferred to his sons in 1997.  

There are no taxes if the team remains as an asset of his widow which has been done with other franchises, NY Giants, for example, where Mara's sons assumed the active role of operating the team and leveraged ways to pay the eventual taxes.   And the Raiders went to Al Davis widow and his son, Mark. 

There seem to be ways for sports families to retain their team if there is the desire, although some families have had to get out due to their financial issues, like the Robbie family with the Dolphins.  And John Angelos is an attorney and presumably has been considering the options for quite some time given his role with the organization.  And hopefully getting sound advice. 

 

You're right about the lower taxes that would have been paid on lifetime gifts made when the value of the team was much lower, but it's too late for that now.

You''re also right about deferring estate taxes by a transfer to Mrs Angelos, but deferring the taxes might make things worse since the value of the team at her death is likely to be much greater. 

I mentioned in the other thread that estate taxes drove the Wrigley family out of MLB after 45 years. These teams no longer work very well as family businesses because the values are so high and the only way to extract that value is by selling the team -- or a part of it. The Steinbrenners avoided this problem because George died during the brief period when there was no federal estate tax.

[wildcard]

Peter's Law firm is listed as one of Maryland's top Estate Planning firms by Lawyer.com.

It take about 2 minute to Google this.   I would not worry about Peter's Estate or the Orioles not being planned for upon his passing which could be many years away.

http://www.lawyers.com/estate-planning/baltimore/maryland/law-firms/

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, accinfo said:

I assume his sons will also inherit his law practice which will provide a pretty good revenue stream to pay off any estate liabilities that arise.  Peter Angelos is one of the very few law practices that has never taken a partner.  If the Angelos family wants to continue to own the Orioles I suspect they will.  What that may look like is anyone's guess at this point. 

You can't really "inherit" a law practice.    I don't believe John is even an attorney at his dad's firm, though Lou is.    I'd previously heard that Peter is the only owner of the firm, and that everyone else is an employee.    I guess the other lawyers tolerate that because Peter controls so much business, but I doubt they'd put up with being subservient to Lou.