Freeborn Forms Private Equity & Venture Capital Team

Chicago – Dec. 4, 2013 – As private equity and venture capital continues to expand in Chicago and beyond, Freeborn & Peters LLP is announcing the formalization of its Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Team. While the firm’s Corporate and Litigation Practice Groups have both long provided counsel to those in the private equity and venture capital space, the industry-focused team brings together a cross-disciplinary group of attorneys from various practice areas to advise private equity and venture capital firms on issues affecting their portfolio company investments.

“Knowing our client’s business allows us to provide the best possible services,” said Jeff Mattson, Co-Leader of the firm’s Corporate Practice Group and its Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Team. “By coordinating the collective knowledge of multiple practice areas, our Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Team can position clients for success by helping them structure their platform acquisitions, complete add-ons, minimize litigation, retain and incentivize management, and execute efficient divestitures.”

“The legal industry is changing to become more client-focused,” added Todd Ohlms, the Industry Team’s other Co-Leader and a Co-Leader of the Commercial Litigation Group. “Freeborn has moved ahead of the curve in this respect with the formation of our industry-focused teams, which help our clients meet their industries’ unique needs.”

Freeborn’s attorneys have decades of experience assisting private equity firms with platform acquisitions, add-ons, representation of portfolio companies, and exit transactions. Not only have its attorneys worked on hundreds of M&A transactions, team members have vast experience working alongside private equity professionals and their portfolio company management teams on day-to-day operations—as outside general counsel and in some instances as in-house counsel or other senior executive positions at portfolio companies—to implement growth strategies and achieve profitable exits. These strategies range from internal growth, to roll-ups, to the replacement of members of management teams, to executive incentive plans, to aggressive litigation against industry players who were competing unfairly. Services include:

--Acquisitions of platform companies or add-ons

--Joint ventures

--Venture capital investments

--Divestitures

--Recapitalizations

--Executive compensation

--Commercial litigation

--Intellectual property counseling and litigation

--Fund formation

--Fund-to-fund investments

--Minority investments

--Pricing and distribution strategies

--Antitrust counseling and litigation

--Environmental counseling and litigation

--Employment counseling and litigation

--Trade secret/non-compete counseling and litigation

--Internal investigations

--Indemnity, escrow and clawback litigation

--Supply-chain counseling and litigation

--Corporate governance

--Document and data retention plans

The Private Equity and Venture Capital Industry Team marks the fourth such industry-focused team formed by Freeborn. Others include the Food Industry Team, the Transportation Team and the Insurance/Reinsurance Industry Team.

About Freeborn & Peters LLP

Freeborn & Peters LLP is a full-service law firm, headquartered in Chicago, with international capabilities. Freeborn is always looking ahead and seeking to find better ways to serve its clients. It takes a proactive approach to ensure its clients are more informed, prepared and able to achieve greater success – not just now, but also in the future. While the firm serves clients across a very broad range of sectors, it has also pioneered an interdisciplinary approach that serves the specific needs of targeted industries, including food, transportation, private equity and venture capital, and insurance and reinsurance.

Freeborn is a firm that genuinely lives up to its core values of integrity, caring, effectiveness, teamwork, and commitment, and embodies them through high standards of client service and responsive action. Its lawyers build close and lasting relationships with clients and are driven to help them achieve their legal and business objectives.

For more information, please visit www.freeborn.com