Adam Pretty

Adam enjoys assisting his clients with all manner of transactional legal and business issues.

He has experience counseling private equity clients and their portfolio companies with acquisitions, divestitures, cross-border transactions, joint ventures, and corporate governance. He has assisted public company clients with mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, commercial contracting, corporate governance, and entity formation. Adam also has experience guiding entrepreneurs through the equity financing process and addressing the legal challenges of early-stage businesses.

Adam joined Calfee’s Columbus office in 2021, and he was elected Partner in 2024. Prior to joining Calfee, Adam worked at Winston & Strawn LLP in their Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity practice group.

In 2015, Adam received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Notre Dame Law School, where he was a Notes and Submissions Editor of the Notre Dame Law Review and a Dean’s Circle Fellow.

He received his B.A. from Miami University in 2011, where he was awarded the Oxford Scholars Scholarship.

Honors & Recognitions

• Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Corporate Law, and Mergers and Acquisitions Law (2022-2025)
• Ohio Super Lawyers, Ohio Rising Stars, Mergers & Acquisitions (2023-2024)

Education

J.D., magna cum laude, Notre Dame Law School, 2015

B.A., Miami University, 2011

Experience

Adam’s experience includes the following representative transactions and clients:

Private Equity, Independent Sponsor, and Family Office

• Align Capital Partners in its acquisition of CSSI, Inc., a provider of tech-enabled cost segregation studies, as well as CSSI’s add-on acquisition of TaxIncennovations.
• CW Industrial Partners in its acquisition of Mantaline Corp., a manufacturer of highly engineered extruded elastomeric seals, protectors and insulation.
• B&R Auto Wrecking, a portfolio company of Highview Capital Partners, in its acquisition of Reno Auto Wrecking and New Way Auto Wrecking.
• Align Capital Partners in its acquisition of Stentech, Inc., a manufacturer of SMT stencils, tooling and related custom products, as well as Stentech’s add-on acquisitions of ATD Stentech, Advanced Tooling Design, Inc. and Photo Etch Technology.
• Next Sparc Growth Partners in its acquisition of Revel Bikes, a leading mountain bike manufacturer.
• The Hunter Valley Company/Vitruvian Group in the acquisition of BOTSG, a manufacturer of boride abrasive products.
• CW Industrial Partners in the acquisition of Safe-Way Garage Doors, a leading manufacturer of residential and commercial garage doors, as well as Safe-Way’s add-on acquisition of First United Door.
• VetEvolve, a portfolio company of Align Capital Partners, in more than 15 acquisitions of veterinary care centers, as well as VetEvolve’s sale to Varsity Healthcare Partners.
• Gold Star Foods, Inc., a portfolio company of Highview Capital and A&M Capital, in the acquisition of Lamm Food Service, a broad-service food distributor in Louisiana.  
• CW Industrial Partners in its sale of portfolio company Ripley Tools, a manufacturer of precision tools for the telecom, fiber and power utility markets, to Hubbell, Inc.
• Align Collaborate, in their equity investment in Carlton Industrial Solutions.
• Next Sparc Growth Partners in the sale of Way Interglobal Network to Lippert, Inc.
• Ripley Tools, a CW Industrial Partners portfolio company, in its acquisition of Multiwave Sensors.

Public Companies

• Served as sole corporate legal counsel to a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company and coordinated input from employment specialists on post-closing restrictive covenants in a matter involving the client's acquisitions of 100% of the outstanding equity interests of a privately held company located on the East Coast. In addition to negotiating the stock purchase agreement, the transaction involved negotiating numerous post-closing covenants and agreements to maximize the ongoing value of the 2023 transaction for Calfee’s client.
• Served as sole corporate legal counsel to a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company and coordinated input from employment specialists on post-closing restrictive covenants. Calfee advised the client in its 2022 acquisition of 100% of the outstanding equity interests of three related East Coast construction products installation companies. In addition to negotiating the stock purchase agreement, the transaction involved negotiating numerous post-closing covenants and agreements to maximize the ongoing value of the transaction for Calfee's client.
• Served as sole corporate legal counsel to a publicly traded Fortune 1000 company and coordinated input from employment specialists on post-closing restrictive covenants. Calfee advised the client in its 2022 acquisitions of substantially all of the assets of a Pennsylvania-based company. In addition to negotiating the purchase agreement, the transaction involved negotiating numerous post-closing covenants and agreements to maximize the ongoing value of the transaction for the client.
• Installed Building Products (IBP) in a number of deals, including the acquisition of AMD Distribution, Inc. a leading distributor of insulation and building materials products.
• Hub Group (HUB) in numerous transactions, including the acquisition of Nonstop Delivery, LLC, a last-mile logistics provider; the acquisition of CaseStack, a logistics services provider; and the sale of Mode Transportation, a leading shipping logistics provider.  
• TreeHouse Foods (THS) in several acquisitions and divestitures, including the acquisition of ConAgra Foods private label operations; and the divestiture of TreeHouse Foods’ private label ready-to-eat cereal division to Post Holdings.
• Ferro Corporation in its sale to Prince International Corporation.

Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Firms

• Factor 75, an innovative provider of nutritious delivered meal packages, in its Seed and Series A financings, as well as general corporate counseling.
• SchoolPass, a provider of school security software and technology, in its Series A financing.
• mParticle, Inc. in its acquisition of Indicative, Inc., a customer journey analytics provider.
• SchoolPointe, Inc., a Columbus-based developer of management software for schools, in its sale to Finalsite.

ESOPs

• Marsh, Berry & Company, Inc., a Cleveland-based M&A financial advisor, in its sale to Atlas Merchant Capital.

Publications

• "Dropping the Ball: The NCAA’s Failure to Address Concussions in College Football," Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 89, Issue 5 (2015)