Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Corporate Counseling & Governance Mergers & Acquisitions

Partner

For over 35 years, Paul has represented clients in a variety of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), equity and debt financings, and other corporate transactions. Regardless of the transaction, he’s learned that the most important part of his job is to listen to his clients’ goals for the deal and help them achieve those goals in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Paul regularly works with entrepreneurs (business owners) who want to sell or merge their companies, and the buyers of those companies, each of which face their own challenges with any transaction.

Entrepreneurs selling their businesses face formidable challenges, especially when working with a private equity firm or strategic buyer which has purchased numerous companies. The M&A process can be complex for sellers and misguided decisions can have bad consequences. Paul helps sellers successfully and efficiently complete the sale of their company, and minimize their future potential liabilities to the buyer. He translates the complexities of the M&A process into a language that sellers can understand, so they can make the right decisions for their company.

Buyers face challenges working with entrepreneurial business owners, especially when these owners are new to the M&A process and may not be adequately represented by experienced M&A counsel. Paul’s objective is to help the buyers he represents quickly build trust with the target company and their counsel, and help guide the transaction to closing quickly and cost-effectively. Additionally, he keeps buyers focused on the most important issues exposed during due diligence, and creatively solves the inevitable problems that arise during a transaction.

For both buyers and sellers, Paul has an outstanding record of helping the parties uncover and dispel any misunderstandings and other issues that occur prior to closing. Clients appreciate when transactions go smoothly both before and after closing since post-closing claims frustrate the ability of both parties to achieve their respective goals for buying or selling the company.

As part of his practice, Paul regularly works with private equity funds and their portfolio companies, including platform acquisitions and add-on acquisitions to help the portfolio company increase its geographic footprint, and range of products and services.

He has also distinguished himself as an advisor to emerging growth companies and their angel investors, from the startup phase through the financing and growth process to the final exit. He serves as the general counsel to the Houston Angel Network, which has more than 90 angel investors.

Paul loves working at Seyfarth because he gets to help a wide range of clients achieve their goals, and he gets to work with a talented group of colleagues at the firm who help support him and his clients. Paul also appreciates Seyfarth’s innovative approach to using technology and project management tools to make the practice of law more efficient and economical for clients.

JD, University of Texas School of Law BS, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business