Louis Lehot Partner at Foley & Lardner LLP

Whom is Louis Lehot?

Louis Lehot is a partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP, based in the firm’s Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, where he is a member of the M&A and Transactions Practices, Private Equity & Venture Capital, and the Technology, Health Care, and Energy Industry Teams.

Louis Lehot’s corporate, securities and M&A law practice focuses on advising public and emerging private companies and their venture capital and private equity investors from formation to liquidity. He regularly acts as company-side counsel in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spin-offs, strategic investments and joint ventures.

Public and private companies, financial sponsors, venture capitalists, investors and investment banks seek him out for smart counsel and skill in forming, financing, governing, buying and selling companies.

His domain experience in public offerings and private placements of equity, equity-linked and debt securities, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spinoffs, strategic investments and joint ventures, as well as corporate governance and securities law compliance matters, serves his clients well. He regularly represents US and non-US registrants before the SEC, FINRA, NYSE and NASDAQ.

Prior to joining Foley, Louis was the founder of L2 Counsel, a Silicon Valley boutique law firm.

What industries does Louis Lehot specialize in?

Louis Lehot is a leading corporate lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, and helping innovative companies go “garage to global.” He works with organizations in an array of industries including technology, healthcare, life sciences, and clean energy.

Louis provides practical, commercial and strategic legal counsel to private and public companies involved in growth and liquidity events. He works on deals involving venture funding, mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, strategic investments, and joint ventures. In addition, companies and investors seek Louis out for counsel in forming companies, financing, governing, and buying and selling businesses.

Importantly, Louis has always taken a keen interest in supporting companies as they cross borders and enter new markets abroad, helping them navigate the legal and cultural landscape successful overseas expansion must cross.

Louis regularly represents companies in numerous industries — public or going public, US and non-US registrants — in dealing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the New York Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ stock exchange.

What is the significance of mergers and acquisitions in the current business landscape?

Mergers and acquisitions represent one of the most common and often the most beneficial exit strategies for startups. M&A plays a leading role in integrating innovation into markets over the longer-term.

Tech entrepreneurs and startups are driven by much more than profit. These innovators are passionate about their inventions and want to see the products they develop in action, changing people’s lives and becoming mainstream in the long term — from new medicines to AI applications and apps that help manage your diet.

By finding the right M&A partner and negotiating the right deal, startups can both cement a strong future for their innovation and achieve the best financial results for the innovators and their investors.

When startups reach maturity, they have to take the next step. For the majority, an IPO is either not possible or is not the best option. For instance, the inventor of a fingerprint biometric scanner for smartphones has a product better suited for an M&A, since the technology is only a small part of a bigger device.

However, finding the most suitable M&A partner and structuring a deal that meets the startup’s and founders’ hopes and goals can be difficult. Wrong decisions and wrong deals can destroy years of hard work. And that’s only step 1. Step 2 is the legal expertise and efforts needed to outline the deal and oversee the due diligence involved on both sides.

What services does Louis Lehot offer for M&A transactions?

The term M&A is a broad one that means different things to different companies in different deals. An M&A transaction may refer to one company purchasing or absorbing another, a merger where two companies join together, an acquisition of major assets in a company, a tender offer to buy a company’s stock, or a hostile takeover. Companies large and small, public and private, need ongoing counsel to help them identify, structure and execute the deal that’s right for them, provide the legal framework that can optimally make it happen — and then make sure it happens successfully.

Louis Lehot represents buyers in creating acquisition programs, selling companies, purchasing assets, merging with other firms, and licensing. Louis’s clients range from bootstrapped startups to venture-backed emerging growth companies, to public companies, and the venture capital and private-equity financial sponsors that fund these entrepreneurs. His clients have included venture capital and private equity firms and corporate venturing groups that make investments in technology, healthcare, clean energy, and other innovative businesses.

Louis’s aim is to achieve liquidity events that are win-win for both sides, entrepreneurs and investors, and to create the right market fit for the innovative products involved.

Louis Lehot Press and Profiles

1. Explore insightful articles authored by Louis Lehot on Data Driven Investor platform.
2. Explore Louis Lehot’s profile on Just Great Lawyers to learn more about his legal expertise.
3. Connect with Louis Lehot via his profile on LawLink and discover his contributions to the legal field.
4. Louis Lehot’s outstanding legal skills are recognized on Super Lawyers.
5. Delve into Louis Lehot’s insights on legal matters through his contributions on Law Insider.
6. Learn about the legal implications of blockchain technology from Louis Lehot’s perspective in this article on Legal Tech News.
7. Louis Lehot shares his insights on the changing trends of remote work in this article on Thrive Global.
8. Explore Louis Lehot’s views on the future of virtual deal-making and the return to office in this piece on VentureBeat.
9. Gain insights into legal perspectives on cryptocurrency with Louis Lehot’s analysis in this article on Bloomberg Law.
10. Discover Louis Lehot’s thoughts on the new normal for venture capital firms in this article on Business.com.
11. Learn how to kickstart a legal career in Silicon Valley with advice from Louis Lehot in this article on Attorney at Law Magazine.
12. Louis Lehot’s success as a lawyer is highlighted in this feature on Foreign Policyi.
13. Louis Lehot on Facebook
14. Louis Lehot on Instagram
15. Louis Lehot on YouTube
16. Louis Lehot on Twitter
17. Louis Lehot on LinkedIn

References

1. Louis Lehot. Medium. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
2. Louis Lehot. readwrite.com. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
3. Louis Lehot Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More » StarsUnfolded. starsunfolded.com. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
4. Louis Lehot, Author at VC List”. VC List. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
5. Home. Louis Lehot Attorney. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
6. Louis Lehot. blank. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
7. Louis Lehot, Partner @ Foley & Lardner LLP | Law Insider Resources | Author Profiles”. Law Insider Resources. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
8. Louis Lehot. CFA Institute Enterprising Investor. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
9. Louis Lehot — Partner at Foley & Lardner”. ideamensch.com. 13 April 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2023.