BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS LAWYERS IN ROCHESTER
We represent owners on both sides of the transactions that change who controls a company: sales and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, lending, and the agreements that govern what happens afterward.
What This Work Actually Involves
What a Transaction Requires
A transaction is a series of decisions about risk, made under time pressure with imperfect information. Our job is to make sure the client understands which risks they are accepting, which ones can be shifted, and which ones are worth walking away from. That work happens in diligence and in drafting, not at the closing table.
We have handled transactions across state lines and across borders, in industries from manufacturing and healthcare to professional services and sport. Where a deal needs local counsel, a valuation professional or a specialist accountant, we retain and coordinate them rather than sending the client away to manage it.
Sales and acquisitions
Representing buyers and sellers of closely held companies through letters of intent, diligence, definitive agreements and closing, including cross-border transactions.
Investment and capital raises
Minority and majority investments, investor documentation, and the governance terms that determine what an investor can and cannot do.
Commercial lending
Loan and security documentation for borrowers and lenders, including the covenant and default terms that matter when conditions change.
Owner and shareholder agreements
Operating agreements, shareholder agreements and buy-sell arrangements that set out in advance what happens when an owner leaves, dies or wants out.
Commercial contracting
Supply, distribution, services and construction contracts, including the insurance, bonding and indemnity terms that carry the real exposure.
Joint ventures and expansion
Structuring new entities and ventures for owners expanding an existing group of companies across states.
Representative Experience
Matters We Have Handled
Cross-border sale of a manufacturing business
Represented the owner of a manufacturing business serving the automotive and aerospace sectors in a sale to a foreign purchaser, working across Michigan, Ohio and Canada. Negotiation proceeded through a language and cultural barrier between the parties. The sale closed and allowed the client to retire.
Reese Serra · 2025
Minority investment in a professional sports organization
Represented a multi-state group of minority investors in the acquisition of interests in a professional sports organization. Valuation, diligence and confidentiality constraints were managed across five jurisdictions.
Reese Serra
Healthcare and pharmaceutical investment program
Represented a serial entrepreneur across a series of lending and acquisition transactions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
Reese Serra
Eight-figure public construction subcontract
Represented a Michigan specialty subcontractor negotiating an eight-figure subcontract on a large-scale public construction project. Insurance and bonding requirements, complex contractual terms and regulatory compliance obligations were resolved before execution.
Reese Serra · 2026
The matters described above are examples of work performed by The Private Firm. Client identities and identifying details have been omitted or generalized. Every matter turns on its own facts and its own law. Prior results do not guarantee, predict or imply a similar outcome in any future matter. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship.
Who Handles This Work
Transactional Counsel at The Private Firm
Transactional matters are led by the attorney who will stay with the client afterward, so that the agreements reflect how the business is actually going to be run.