Matthew I. Hafter

Matt Hafter draws on his wide-ranging corporate law background to guide entrepreneurs toward growth and success at each stage of their business. Matt often serves as outside general counsel to his clients to help them address business challenges and develop creative and practical solutions. Using an array of legal tools, Matt structures and negotiates business arrangements that closely align with and advance his clients' overall business strategies.

At the foundation of his practice, Matt works with entities involved in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity transactions. His diverse transactional experience includes developing and commercializing technology, purchasing goods and services, building intellectual property protection programs, securities offerings and compliance, crafting competition and equity incentives for service providers, and other complex partnering and licensing arrangements.

Matt's clients come from many industries, but one significant area of his practice involves technology, which Matt particularly enjoys due to the industry's economic creativity and innovation. In addition to the technology sector, Matt represents manufacturing and distribution companies, start-ups and other established private and public enterprises. He also represents stockholders and directors (including special committees) who seek counsel on fiduciary duty issues.

Matt also has unique experience in the intersection of complex commercial litigation and transactions, as a former partner in a leading commercial litigation firm. He worked closely with litigators to analyze transactions and fiduciary duty issues, contribute to strategy, and develop changes to business practices and policies that led to the underlying litigation. This gives Matt unique insight into structuring transactions, working with legal compliance officers, and mitigating litigation risk and resolving disputes when litigation does occur.

As part of his ongoing effort to add value to each client engagement, Matt has been a leader in applying project management techniques to the delivery of legal services involving transactions. He is a "lean six sigma" yellow belt and has been trained in Agile Project Management.

Good to know

Job Types Partner
Areas of Practice 1) Closely Held Businesses, 2) General Corporate, 3) Information Technology, 4) Licensing & Technology Transfer, 5) Manufacturing, 6) Mergers & Acquisitions, 7) Private Equity Transactions and 8) Venture Capital
Law School The University of Michigan Law School (J.D.,1986)
Education University of Michigan (B.A.,1983)
Bar Member / Association Illinois State Bar Association
Most recent firm Thompson Coburn LLP
LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewhafter
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