Be Smarter Than Your SMB M&A Lawyer

Looking to buy a small business?

Searching is a team game. A deal team game, to be precise. Whether conducting a traditional or self-funded search, there will come a time when you need to rely on the trusted advice of others. This should include a lawyer, who can help you structure your deal and minimize risk.

Yet small-market M&A has traditionally been underserved by the legal community. Large law firms are ill-equipped to handle small deals. They have M&A experience and top-tier credentials in abundance, but their fees are simply too high. Conversely, while many small law firms and solo lawyers are more appropriately priced, they sometimes lack the same experience and credentials, leaving searchers exposed to unnecessary risks and liabilities.

Fortunately, there are now a handful of law firms specializing in small-market M&A. The rise of remote working and social networking has enabled great lawyers to jettison the standard law firm life, find one another, and start entrepreneurial enterprises with low overheads, wide reach, and the means to serve this previously underserved market.

In order to identify and work with the right lawyers, you must sufficiently understand the legal-side of M&A.

To that end, I’m starting a monthly newsletter: Be Smarter Than Your SMB M&A Lawyer. There are other lawyers already doing great work in this space. My goal is not to try and replicate or replace their work, but to add another source of high-quality content for the entrepreneurship through acquisition community.

By reading my monthly newsletter, you’ll learn the what, why, and how of small-market M&A. Armed with that knowledge, you will be better placed to select and work with the right lawyer, from your first acquisition onwards.

In the upcoming months, you’ll get a chance to:

- Examine the different phases of an M&A deal. My focus will predominantly be self-funded searchers. But I also intend to look at items specific to traditional searchers.

• Review and understand the provisions and terms included in the various transaction documents.

• Ask questions (which I will do my best to answer) and suggest future topics. Ideally, this will become a collaborative affair, with the community driving the dialogue.
  
  If any of this interests you, feel free to subscribe at https://hallamstanton.substack.com/ and receive the newsletter straight to your inbox once a month (and that is all you will receive, I will not be sending out any additional marketing materials or other types of unwanted spam).
  
  I look forward to hearing from you.