Michael Schlesinger retired from the partnership in June 2014. He was a corporate lawyer and specialized in complex transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and recapitalizations, joint ventures, and private equity and venture capital finance. He also provides general company representation to a wide variety of early stage and established companies.
As an M&A lawyer, Mr. Schlesinger had extensive experience in more than 25 years of practice representing numerous purchasers and sellers in a wide variety of acquisition, sale, merger, joint venture and other business combination and divestiture transactions. These matters include complex restructurings of distressed enterprises through recapitalization transactions involving multiple classes of stakeholders.
In private equity and venture capital, he has represented both companies and funds in a significant number of equity, convertible debt and bridge financing transactions, including seed, angel, early, expansion and mezzanine round financings. In later stage private equity transactions, he has represented companies and investors in joint ventures, leveraged recapitalizations, special dividend transactions, dispositions and private self tender offerings.
For numerous emerging and established entities, Mr. Schlesinger provides general corporate representation, including advice to boards of directors and management concerning corporate governance matters and structuring and implementing incentive compensation arrangements.
Mr. Schlesinger also represented a number of well known and successful Washington, D.C.-area serial entrepreneurs in a wide variety of investments and other matters. In this role, he counsels and negotiates on behalf of his clients exit strategies for investments in existing companies, employment and incentive compensation arrangements with new enterprises, investments in start up and existing ventures, service on boards of directors and advisory boards and protections against liabilities and contingencies.
Mr. Schlesinger has served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center teaching Business Planning, a course focused on corporate, securities and tax law matters affecting emerging enterprises. At the time of his retirement, he was a frequent speaker on topics involving venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and financings and other issues affecting early stage ventures. He has served as Co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Family Business Forum, as a member of the Selection Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association's Capital Connection and as a member of the Champions Committee for the greater Washington, D.C.-area chapter of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.