Key Service Areas
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Real Estate Law
- Services for Business and Industry
legal assistant - Patty Doren
Grand Rapids Location
55 Campau Avenue NW, Suite 300
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503
Holland Location
11377 James Street
Holland, Michigan 49422
About Jon
How do you help businesses and individuals?
As a business and real estate attorney, I take a practical approach to solving problems in the following practice areas:
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) – I work with buyers, sellers, investors, and lenders in asset sales, stock sales, membership interest and unit sales, mergers, conversions, and spin-offs. I have significant experience working with deals involving private equity and strategic buyers.
Succession Planning/Exit Planning – Counseling owners, key employees and management teams, and next generation family members, I guide the internal and family transitions of business ownership and management.
Commercial Real Estate Development – Serving developers, investors, and lenders through all phases of commercial real estate development, including purchase, finance, construction, leasing, and sale.
Corporate Finance – I advise companies, lenders, and investors in loan transactions and private placements (i.e. non-public sales of securities).
General Corporate – I help start-ups and existing companies with entity formation, creation and modification of governance documents (bylaws, operating agreements, shareholder agreements, buy/sell agreements, etc.), joint ventures and other strategic relationships, and contracts.
What sets you apart from other lawyers in your practice field?
I view my clients’ legal challenges through a business perspective. Typically, legal issues are just one component of a transaction. By keeping legal issues in perspective, I seek legal solutions that make sense from a business perspective and best help my clients achieve their business goals.
What did you learn in your first year of practice that you still utilize today?
I learned to keep scholarly legal analysis out of my practice. Business clients rarely want their attorney to spend the time identifying fifteen different ways to solve a legal problem. Typically, clients want me to find one or two solutions that work so they can focus on their business. Scholarly debates belong in the lunch-room, not the board room.
Education
Indiana University School of Law, J.D., magna cum laude, 1997
Hope College, B.A., 1993
Insights
Read ArticleMergers and acquisition activity remained strong in West Michigan through the third quarter, as many...