JOE chairs Calfee’s General Corporate group and advises Calfee’s corporate clients and business owners on general corporate law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, finance, succession planning, venture capital and private equity investments.
Joe’s extensive corporate experience includes representing numerous private companies on a wide range of legal concerns. His areas of skill focus on the issues confronting entrepreneurs and family businesses. Joe has also worked extensively with equity sponsors, angel investors and other financing sources in negotiating and documenting debt and equity placements for privately-held entities. He has represented clients in a variety of industries and with diverse financial requirements, enabling him to offer practical and creative advice on general business and corporate law issues.
Joe also is experienced in facilitating mergers and acquisitions, having represented a number of buyers, sellers and intermediaries in transactions involving diverse industries and deal structures. He has advised entrepreneurs, equity sponsors and management groups in acquisitions and divestitures and is able to assist clients in value adding pre-transaction planning, designing innovative acquisition structures to address multiple financing and tax considerations.
In the venture capital arena, Joe represents investment funds and individual investors in early-stage alternative energy and medical device companies as well as corporate clients engaged in the development of carbon fuel cells, algae fuel oil and remote patient monitoring systems.
Joe is involved throughout the community, serving as director of a number of privately-held companies and various civic and charitable organizations. He is a past president of the board of trustees of both the Early Childhood Enrichment Center, Inc., and Open Doors, Inc., and a former Senior Warden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Currently, Joe serves as the vice-president of the board of Urban Community School. He is a fellow with Attorneys for Family Held Enterprises; a member of the American Society of Corporate Secretaries; and serves on the American Bar Association’s Closely Held Businesses Committee. Joe is also a member of the American, Ohio, Massachusetts and Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associations.
Joe joined Calfee in 1989, was elected a partner in 1992, and became a member of the firm’s executive committee in 2009.