Venture Capital & Private Equity

Burns & Levinson’s approach allows our attorneys to offer clients a full understanding of the issues and concerns on both sides of a financing transaction and positions us to cultivate business relationships between our venture capital and private equity clients and the emerging growth and start-up companies that we represent. Our clients engage in complex transactions that require an innovative but sensible method to solving legal and business issues. We have the advantage of cross-practice collaboration and draw upon our knowledge for each situation using a wide range of practice areas, including corporate, finance, securities, tax, intellectual property and labor, employment and employee benefits. We work continuously to extend the reach of our practices through innovation to provide our clients with access to cutting-edge solutions and strategies.

Our client-centric culture breeds responsiveness to address our clients unique needs and business opportunities. We work hard to understand our clients’ businesses and industries so that we can add value to their strategic plans as well as anticipate and solve their legal challenges. Our attorneys have extensive experience representing both venture capital firms and venture-backed companies in a variety of industries such as technology, life sciences, medical devices, software, sports, energy, cleantech, internet, media & entertainment, telecom and healthcare. In addition to this, we have a strong presence regionally, nationally, and internationally in countries such as Canada, China, Europe, India and Israel, which provides us the resources to complete cross-border transactions with skill and efficiency.

We understand the venture capital process and offer clients strategies for negotiating and structuring venture investments. We are familiar with the industries in which venture capital funds typically invest, and understand the potential benefits and risks associated with investing in these industries. We believe that a close understanding of the economics and business realities of each deal is critical to efficient deal management and effective representation.

After assisting a venture capital or private equity client with its investments, we continue to add value by supporting and advising the fund in its ongoing relationships with its portfolio companies in a number of ways. We stay abreast of the evolving standards by which clients evaluate investments and the market terms of venture investments. We understand the balance between obtaining appropriate terms and cultivating quality, long-term relationships between venture capital investors and the emerging growth in which they invest. We strive to maintain this balance while helping our venture capital investors and emerging growth companies with successfully completing their financing transactions.

Our lawyers understand the need to quickly and cost-effectively conduct due diligence, prepare documents, negotiate and close a venture capital transaction. We have extensive experience in structuring these funds and expertise regarding relevant ERISA, securities, investment company, and tax rules associated with structuring private investment funds. Our familiarity with market terms in the venture capital fund context enhances our ability to aid a venture capital fund client in forming its fund and negotiating with its investors. Our lawyers have been representing all of the various participants in private equity funds, as well as in leveraged acquisitions and other private equity investment transactions. We have organized the full range of private investment funds, from leveraged buyout funds, to venture capital funds, to funds of funds, to CDO funds, to hedge funds, to mezzanine funds. We have helped organize and represent venture capital funds based in Canada, China, Japan, Israel, Russia, Brazil and Belgium, as well as in the U.S. We also represent in-house corporate venture funds. We are real business attorneys, with a firm grasp of finance and an entrepreneurial spirit.

The US/Canada Venture Capital Pipeline is a quarterly event hosted by Burns & Levinson LLP that links U.S. venture capital and investment banking firms with Canadian companies seeking financing. The first Pipeline was held in June 2002 and in February 2007 it became a co-branded partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Canada). The event is designed to build relationships and create opportunities between U.S. VCs and investors and early stage Canadian companies. Click here to view the Burns & Levinson Canada Co. website.

Burns & Levinson is listed as one of the member-recommended service providers for the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The firm is also a member of Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA), Réseau Capital , Capital Innovation (a Quebec-New England angel investor organization) and a gold sponsor of the WPI Venture Forum.

Services we provide for our Venture Capital & Private Equity clients:

Acquisition/disposition Brokering inter-founder relationships Business plan review Copyright registration Corporate finance Corporate governance Debtor-in-possession financing Dispute resolution/litigation Employee benefit plans Equipment leasing Equity financing Equity incentive plans Exchange fund Executive employment agreements/incentive arrangements Financial sponsor Formation/choice of legal form Founder exits from existing employers Fund formation Growth capital High yield bond financing Intellectual property Leveraged buyout Licensing and distribution agreements Management buyout Management compensation

Mergers & acquisitions Mezzanine capital Mezzanine financings Minority investments Partnering and joint venturing agreements Patent registration Portfolio company transactions Preferred stock transactions Private equity fund Private equity secondary market Private investment in public equity Public company planning/best practices Public equity and debt offerings Real estate acquisition/leasing Recapitalizations Receivables factoring Rollups SEC compliance Securities offerings Seed capital financings Seller financing Senior financing Subordinated and structured financings Taxation of private equity and hedge funds Venture capital financings

Check out our Corporate Practice for more information.