Verrill Dana maintains one of the largest and best-established Business Law practices in New England. The Firm has been a leading provider of legal services to corporations and other business enterprises in this region for nearly 150 years, successfully guiding clients through enormous legal and economic changes over the decades. Along the way, our Business Law Attorneys have become highly respected for their specialized knowledge and broad experience in corporate law, taxation, securities law, commercial finance, intellectual property, and other related areas of practice.
The Business Law Attorneys in the group are drawn from the nation’s best law schools and many have joined Verrill Dana in Portland or Boston after having worked for other prominent law firms in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia and other leading legal centers. The lawyers in the Business Law Group bring the sophistication and expertise of large-firm legal practice to bear on issues and transactions affecting our clients. This accumulated expertise has been recognized by third-party rating organizations.
Members of our Business Law Group currently serve as general counsel to several dozen companies, large and small, both public and private, spanning a broad range of industries and Business sectors. As general counsel, they advise management, directors, and Business owners about the full range of legal and regulatory issues these businesses confront. Except where the client’s needs dictate otherwise, our approach is to maintain one lead lawyer for the account who becomes intimately familiar with the operations and risks of the business. We believe strongly that a thorough understanding of the factual context is essential to providing useful and efficient legal advice on problems and opportunities the client may face.
In addition to service as general counsel, the Business Law Attorneys in our Group have experience in a wide variety of transactions, working with Attorneys from around the country and around the world. For example, we represent clients in mergers and acquisitions; reorganizations; joint ventures; private and public securities offerings; complex multi-party commercial financings; proxy contests, and takeover battles. In guiding clients through these transactions, the Business Law Group works closely with the Firm's other specialized groups, including Real Estate, Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation; Labor and Employment; and Litigation.
The Business Law Group includes well-regarded experts on fiduciary duty, securities law, and tax issues facing executives, directors, and owners of businesses. We advise numerous companies and individuals on compensation arrangements, conflicts-of-interest, and reporting obligations. We also are active in Bar Association panels that help draft or comment on proposed legislation affecting business organizations.
The Attorneys in our Business Law Group are also committed to assisting smaller and entrepreneurial businesses at the earliest stages in their development. Through the Small Business Counsel Program (SBCP) and the Securities Law Group, they represent a large number of start-up companies with an array of fixed-fee or deferred-fee services for typical legal matters that new businesses must address. Through this program, early-stage clients are able to access expertise in matters of corporate law, securities, tax, commercial finance, and venture capital that might otherwise be unavailable to new and emerging businesses.
Drawing on our expertise in securities Law and our familiarity with a wide range of investment transactions, the Group has developed a large and growing practice representing venture capital firms and private equity firms. These matters include not only investment transactions but also the structuring and organization of investment funds and other pooled-capital arrangements.
Representative client engagements include the following:
- In 2006 and 2007 we represented one of the largest privately-held timber companies in the nation and developed an investment vehicle by which they could syndicate interests in timber holdings to wealthy families in need of multi-generational investments.
- In 2006 and 2007 we represented a substantial minority owner of a publicly-traded bank holding company in a proxy contest.
- In 2006 we represented one of the largest commercial snowplow distributors in the nation, in the sale of its business to a vertically-integrated snowplow manufacturing enterprise owned by Philadelphia private equity firm.
- In 2005 and 2006 we were retained by one of the leading D&O insurance carriers to advise directors in a claim brought by disgruntled shareholders in connection with a sale of the assets of a Delaware corporation headquartered in Maine.
- In 2005 we represented a manufacturer of highly specialized products for the health care industry in the sale of an interest of the company to a private equity fund based in New York City.
- In 2005 we represented a venture-backed medical call center provider in the sale of its business to a public company.
- In 2005 we represented a rapidly growing internet jobs posting business to a publicly-traded newspaper conglomerate.
- In 2004 and 2005, we represented a publicly-traded bank holding company in connection with its successful acquisition of another bank holding company, and the merger of the operating bank subsidiaries of both companies.
- In 2004 we represented a small, publicly-traded biotechnology firm in a license of their technology to one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.
- In 2003 we represented the successful purchaser of a propane distribution business in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut. The transaction involved complex environmental, real estate and labor issues, in addition to issues related to the acquisition and financing of a multi-state business.
During a fourteen month period beginning in 2000, the firm assisted one of its clients, a national payroll processing company, in the acquisition of eight payroll companies located around the country, including a competitor with offices and customers in numerous states. The firm was also later involved in the successful sale of its client to a rival firm.
We have represented either the target or the bidder in every major takeover battle in Maine since 1985.
For more information about Verrill Dana's Business Law Department, contact Department Chair Alan MacEwan or Vice-Chair Charlie Bacall.