I am a practical business lawyer who helps entrepreneurs and investors start, run, buy and sell businesses and do deals. A typical client is a business owner who at one time worked in a large organization and was accustomed to receiving legal services from large law firms, but now that they are running their own business do not need and do not want to pay for all of the resources a large firm deploys, and appreciates legal services delivered on the same scale as their business. One major way I am different from other Charlotte business attorneys is that I worked for years as General Counsel and Vice President of Administration for an international manufacturing and distribution company as part of its executive team. In that position I was solo in-house counsel and managed non-lawyers in the Human Resources and Environment, Health and Safety departments as well. I also bring to the table ten years experience as a commercial litigator, unusual for a corporate attorney. Consequently I am experienced in the real world that my business clients live in and my approach is practical and realistic, coming from a place of personal experience, not academic, detached and unhelpful. One of the highest compliments a client ever paid me was to stop and look up during a conversation and say, "You know, you're a different kind of lawyer. I can talk to you." I focus my practice on privately held companies, LLC formations and operating agreements, corporations, shareholder agreements, corporate asset purchases and sales, mergers and acquisitions, jvs, franchises, confidentiality agreements, non-competition agreements, non-solicitation agreements, employment agreements, license agreements, and negotiating and drafting contracts, deals and leases for businesses. I also am experienced in "business divorce," i.e. buyouts of partners and fellow shareholders.I am a Chapel Hill, North Carolina native who has practiced in Charlotte my entire career.