Business & M&A
Most of the value is created before the sale.
Counsel for owners across the life of a company — formation and governance, the contracts in between, and eventually the transaction. The work that most affects the outcome usually happens well before a buyer appears.
Counsel for owners across the life of a business — formation and governance through the eventual sale. Much of this work begins years before a transaction, when an owner starts asking what the company would need to look like to be sellable.
- Business sales and acquisitions, stock and asset
- Exit and succession planning for owner-operated companies
- Entity formation, governance, and owner agreements
- Commercial contracts and vendor arrangements
- Buy-sell agreements and ownership transitions
Background
I began in private practice at a large firm, then spent years in-house — first at a national hospitality company, later with a foundation and its investment affiliate. In-house work changes how you read a contract. You are not producing a document; you are living with it afterward.
It also means I have sat on the client side of a legal bill, which is part of why fees here are fixed and quoted up front.
Getting ready to sell
Three horizons.
Owners often call a lawyer when they have a buyer. By then, most of the leverage is gone.
Years before
Clean up the things a buyer will discount for — unwritten arrangements, undocumented ownership, contracts that do not assign, a company that cannot operate without you in the room.
The year before
Decide what is actually being sold, get the diligence file in order, and understand how the structure of the deal changes what you keep.
The transaction
Letter of intent, diligence, purchase agreement, and closing — with the disputes that usually arise anticipated in the documents rather than after them.
Buying, selling, or getting ready?
If a sale is somewhere on the horizon — this year or in five — the earlier conversation is the more useful one.