Connolly Bove Venture Capital Attorneys
Having a competitive edge in the marketplace has never been more important for venture capital investors and emerging growth companies. Funding has become more difficult to obtain, business models have become more complex, and the competition can be overwhelming. Investor and business clients need creative and entrepreneurial approaches grounded in sound legal advice in order to succeed.
Connolly Bove’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Group consists of a multidisciplinary team of business, intellectual property, financial services, private equity and securities attorneys with technology and regulatory backgrounds.
Our venture capital attorneys guide our clients through every step of the business formation process and stay with them to advise on their operations. In addition, as needed, we facilitate and help implement successful exit strategies, whether by sale, public offering, merger or acquisition.
IP Smart
Many of Our Venture Capital Attorneys Have Advanced Degrees that Strengthen our Venture Capital Practice.
Our private equity attorneys apply not only deep knowledge of intellectual property law but also academic acumen to our clients’ issues, with Ph.D.s and other advanced degrees in areas including:
Electrical engineering and electronics Semi-conductors Telecommunications Computer software and hardware Biotechnology Chemistry Bio-chemistry Pharmaceuticals | Bio-informatics Medical devices Mechanical engineering Material science Aerospace engineering Physics Computer science |
We have experience in multiple technologies and industries and have actively represented clients in various technology transactions in the U.S. and throughout the world that include or encompass:
- Patent portfolio development, acquisition and protection
- Licensing
- Strategic alliances and joint ventures
- Co-development agreements
- Asset and company acquisitions
- Trade secret protections and systems
- Distribution agreements and strategies
- Co-marketing, branding and franchising matters
- Copyright, content and Internet strategies and policies
- Patent rights procurement and management issues, including product clearances and design-arounds, prosecution, reissue, re-examination, interference, ownership, misappropriation, infringement and validity, patent enforcement and defense
Business Savvy
Our Attorneys Understand Venture Capital Intellectual Property Issues as They Relate to Your Business.
Because we are current on the evolving standards for evaluating investments, our clients’ industry developments and the applicable regulations, our venture capital attorneys have insights into our clients’ businesses and markets. We appreciate the risks they face and their specific legal needs, and we anticipate issues and provide practical, cost-effective advice through all phases of their life cycles.
Our venture capital attorneys have the knowledge, experience and market presence to handle all aspects of structuring and closing venture capital transactions on a global scale, and we deal regularly with the ongoing operation and administration of funds in the United States and abroad. Venture capital firms, investment banks, and angel investors rely on Connolly Bove’s counselling at all stages, as we provide advice on issues including the following:
- Incorporation and business plan structure and development
- Private placement memoranda
- Obtaining financing through private, public and strategic investors, including seed funding and venture capital financing for publicly held companies
- Developing, protecting and leveraging business assets for publicly held companies through contractual and intellectual property strategies
- Structuring and cultivating strategic business combinations, including licensing arrangements, joint ventures, supplier, distributor and other relationships
- Handling employment issues, fostering key executive and employment relationships, and benefit plans
- Structuring initial and follow-up public offerings, mergers & acquisitions and exit strategies
- Tax implications
- Competition laws, corporate governance and securities law issues
Through our long history of growth company representation, we have developed an in-depth, hands-on understanding of our clients’ industries and the venture capital relationship, what drives the market, industry trends, and the legal and financial challenges our clients face. Our comprehensive knowledge of intellectual property enables us to effectively promote planning and structuring and to counsel companies on how to leverage IP assets as a business advantage.
Client Connected
Our Venture Capital Attorneys
Connolly Bove takes a team approach, drawing on the talents of our practice groups and partnering with our clients to provide a cost-effective, responsive approach to service. We add further value by making introductions and finding solutions to our clients’ problems, legal and otherwise, while always keeping the clients’ business goals as a priority.
Our venture capital attorneys have relationships with both entrepreneurs and investors; we help companies raise funding as well as help investors seeking investment opportunities, enabling us to put capital and ideas together. Our representation of many sizes and types of companies -- venture firms, corporate and institutional investors, hedge funds, private equity firms, start-up and emerging growth companies, a wide range of funds, investment bankers and angels – enhances our understanding of the issues, positions and concerns of all parties to a transaction.
Representative Matters
- Represented a publicly held manufacturer in the acquisition and divestiture of multiple product and business lines involving national and international operations; acquisition structures included reverse and forward triangular mergers.
- Developed, structured, negotiated and drafted a multi-party joint venture agreement for a new product line with multiple publicly held companies in the sports entertainment industry.
- Structured and drafted hedge fund programs for a large institutional investment adviser providing services in multiple jurisdictions and handled all related securities and compliance filings.
- Prepared and structured private placement memorandum for privately held securities offering for an international service provider in the aerodynamic design industry.
- Negotiated and drafted exclusive licensing and royalty agreements with two of the largest theme park owners in the nation on behalf of an equipment manufacturer, one structured as a joint venture and the other as a third-party provider.
- Negotiated multi-million dollar settlements with publicly held company on behalf of another publicly-held company in the licensed product industry accused of contract breaches; settlement included resulting licensing and manufacturing rights.
- Negotiated and structured joint venture on behalf of a new media company with one of the largest, national auto manufacturers for development and introduction of a complimentary product line based on joint branding and marketing initiatives.
- Represented a private equity firm in connection with a multi-million dollar stock acquisition of a U.S.-based business owned by foreign investors.
- Represented a medical technology company in a multi-million dollar asset sale to a medical technology industry leader.
- Negotiated and documented substantial equipment purchases and inventory purchases of assets in multiple jurisdictions for a leading manufacturer.
- Negotiated and documented exclusive license and distribution rights on behalf of an internet service provider with one of the largest telecom providers in the nation.
- Represented a technology-based company in its acquisition of three separate companies and their integration as subsidiaries of the acquirer, including all assimilation of management personnel into the holding company parent.
- Structured, prepared and negotiated management buyout programs for multiple executives in a regional technology services company.
- Represented an education business in the purchase of the assets of a competitor’s complimentary product line, in a multi-jurisdictional transaction.
- Structured and negotiated a significant, regional manufacturer’s internal reorganization, which included asset sales, stock sales, recapitalization and bank refinancing.
- Structured and prepared a successful multi-million dollar bid package and documentation for underlying acquisition, and addressed all related regulatory compliance requirements for a multi-branch acquisition of a state chartered bank.
- Negotiated and documented the stock purchase of a minority interest with management control rights in a regional legal services provider.
- Negotiated and documented several multi-billion dollar, and several more multi-million dollar acquisitions of credit card accounts and receivables on behalf of one of the largest card lenders in the world, and crafted documentation relating to servicing rights and obligations, and ongoing marketing and co-branding relationships with third parties, and addressed related compliance and conversion operational issues.
- Represented a large real estate brokerage company in its acquisition of separate companies located in other jurisdictions, and in their integration as subsidiaries of the acquirer, and in the subsequent sale of that assembled corporate group to a larger market competitor.
- Represented and documented a federal savings bank in the sale of its multi-million dollar automobile leasing subsidiary to a private entity.
- Participated in the negotiation of and drafted exclusive co-branded licensing and royalty agreements for various financial service products with each of the largest national sports leagues in the country, many of the largest universities in the country, and several Fortune 500 companies.
- Participated in the negotiation of and documented the acquisition by a new investor of controlling interests in a multi-million dollar asset shipyard and marina, and again in the buyout of the remaining interest in such entities.
- Represented an investor in and documented a new venture for patenting and bringing to market a technology for creating new water-soluble food and beverage nutritional additives.
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