WHAT WE DO
Trusted advisors who understand your priorities and invest in your success
Founded by veterans of two of Boston’s largest firms, our firm exemplifies the same entrepreneurial energy and spirit that guides so many of our clients.
Our first priority is your success
Managing your growing business in a competitive environment is a day-to-day challenge. You need a lawyer who does more than just prepare and review form documents, with an outsized invoice for every single interaction and iteration. You need a thought partner who can offer insights based on experience and also co-create solutions that are practical, cost-effective, and actionable.
It really is all about you—and our first priority is your success.
Why Choose Us?
We won't just add a dozen lawyers to every call and email. We’re committed to putting clients first by taking the time actually to listen and understand.
The traditional law firm approach can be challenging, expensive, and ineffective for innovative companies. We built our firm with your needs in mind. We concentrate solely on the core corporate, finance and transactional legal needs of innovative companies, entrepreneurs, and the investors and firms that finance them. We don’t carry or pass on the overhead of hundreds of lawyers, dozens of practice areas, and multiple offices. When you need advice outside of our expertise, we take a “general counsel” approach and work to engage the best-suited professionals to address your specific needs.
When you work with Gennari Aronson, you get an engaged and dedicated team of experienced, practical, hands-on lawyers who are passionate about helping you succeed. We take a long-term view of client relationships rather than invoicing clients for every interaction, every time, all the time. Our common sense, reasonable billing approach means you won’t be frustrated by exorbitant fees or gimmicky deferral programs and allows us to focus on providing thoughtful strategic advice.
Boston Magazine Top Lawyers
Boston Magazine curates a list of the top lawyers in Boston based on research by the editorial team in partnership with DataJoe Research. Recipients are chosen based on their credentials and the number of votes they received from industry peers, as reviewed by an advisory board of select lawyers.
Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.
Only five percent of lawyers in the state are chosen. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multi-phased process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent research evaluation of candidates, peer reviews by practice area, and a good-standing and disciplinary check.
INBLF is offered only to carefully selected law firms that provide top caliber, cost-effective legal services. INBLF members are committed to providing the highest level of personal service to their clients based on their impeccable credentials, specialized knowledge, and wealth of experience.
Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™, the gold standard in attorney ratings, have recognized lawyers for their strong legal ability and high ethical standards for more than a century. Attorneys looking to refer a client, as well as individuals researching lawyers for their own legal needs, use these ratings to identify, evaluate and select the most appropriate lawyer for their legal issue.
OUR PRACTICE AREAS
We have decades of experience helping countless innovative leaders at every stage of business.
At Gennari Aronson, we represent a broad range of emerging growth companies, providing “general counsel” on operational day-to-day corporate matters ranging from incorporations, buy-sell and operating agreements to distribution agreements, commercial contracts, standard licenses and terms of use. We also advise clients on corporate governance and board development and on near and longer-term strategic matters such as employee compensation and equity planning, financing and growth strategy, and mergers & acquisitions. We strive for a close, hands-on relationship with the management team, the board, and other outside and in-house advisors throughout a company’s lifecycle.
For each client, we establish a team that develops a detailed understanding of our client’s business and markets so that our work can be responsive, strategic, cost-effective, and practical.
We also assist clients by providing targeted referrals to investors, board members, partners and companies, bringing together the intellectual, human, and financial capital that enhances our clients’ prospects for success.
We advise companies and board compensation committees on best practices and alternatives for structuring compensation packages that attract and retain executive talent, encourage commitment and reward results. We craft employment agreements and also work to design equity instruments (incentive and non-statutory stock options, RSUs, phantom stock and more) with tailored features, vesting schedules, acceleration triggers, contractual restrictions and other provisions to align employees’ and employers’ incentive and retention goals and performance objectives.We also represent accomplished individuals and executives on executive employment issues, including retention and separation agreements, change in control, equity-based compensation programs, and annual and long term incentive plans.
We have represented clients in a wide variety of licensing and outsourcing transactions, both in the U.S. and abroad, and in a diverse range of industries, including semiconductor, consulting and professional services, information services, computer software, online retailing, telecom, network and personal computer hardware, components and accessories, interactive entertainment, insurance, learning and education, manufacturing, wireless, and broadcast and media. We provide advice on all aspects of technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO) transactions, from pre-bid planning and request for proposal strategies to deal structuring, contract negotiation, and overall risk avoidance and post contract support.
We have substantial experience in representing audit committees, compensation committees, and governance committees in corporate governance and compliance matters. We regularly advise special board committees and individual directors in connection with related party transactions, restructurings, recapitalizations, downrounds, and other unique situations.
We guide successful executives and entrepreneurs on business succession planning, wealth transfer strategies, tax reduction planning, charitable giving, and asset protection planning.
We have extensive experience in designing and implementing lifetime wealth transfer programs, including structures for making gifts to minors, education trusts, section 529 college savings programs, generation-skipping trusts (GST or Dynasty Trusts), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs) and other trusts for residences, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and grantor retained income trusts (GRITs), domestic asset protection trusts, family limited partnerships (FLPs), family limited liability companies and intrafamily sales. We advise on gift, generation-skipping transfer, and other tax issues.
General Counsel
We're ready to help your emerging growth company thrive.
INDUSTRIES
Our work reflects the diversity of the innovation economy and spans nearly all business segments.
Apparel
Consumer
Education Technology
Energy
Environmental Tech
Financial Services
Footwear
Healthcare Technology
Insurance
IT/Managed Services
Manufacturing
Medical Device
Professional Services
Retail
Semiconductor
Social Media
Software and SaaS
Specialty Food
Technology
Telecommunications
We have decades of experience in guiding both buy-side and sell-side clients with mergers and acquisitions (M&A), stock and asset transactions, insider buyouts, divestitures, spin-offs, going-private transactions, and corporate reorganizations. We’re often involved at the beginning of a potential transaction, offering guidance on planning and structure, due diligence, employment transition matters, whether and how to retain investment banking professionals, and negotiating terms sheets and letters of intent.
We have represented companies in structuring and negotiating some of the largest merger and acquisition exits during the past several decades, including sales to both publicly held strategic acquirors as well as nationally known private equity firms. Our transactional work spans all business segments, including software, telecommunications, ad-tech, social media, professional services, healthcare services, consumer, footwear, retail, technology, manufacturing, semiconductor, medical device, food, energy, pharmaceuticals, insurance, and finance.
We counsel clients, private and public, domestic and global, on how best to structure and negotiate corporate partnering and strategic alliance transactions, licensing arrangements, R&D deals, OEM agreements, distribution/agency contracts, and joint ventures. We have advised companies in a variety of market sectors, including software, hardware, insurance, financial services, Ad-tech and media, communications, semiconductor, and footwear and apparel, in significant transactions with partners around the world.
M&A
We will guide your company through the entire M&A process.
We represent a broad range of emerging growth companies from startup through the various stages of their financing activities. During our decades of financing work, we have “seen it all” and we can offer an evolving and practical perspective of “what’s market” based on our many completed transactions. We have substantial experience in negotiating and structuring preferred and common equity offerings, convertible note financings, and SAFEs under Regulation D, as well as, for later stage companies, private equity and venture capital financings, and also corporate and strategic investments from larger industry players.
We also have represented hedge funds, venture funds, angel investors, strategic corporate investors and individuals in connection with their investment activities. Our investor-side work has encompassed equity investments, acquisitions and sales of portfolio companies, add-on acquisitions by portfolio companies, recapitalizations, restructurings, and liquidity and strategic exit events.
We represent emerging growth companies at every stage of their lifecycle, including through IPOs and into the capital markets, and subsequently through secondary offerings and PIPEs. We advise clients on securities issues specific to public companies and assist with preparing and filing registration statements, proxy statements, periodic reports and other SEC filings as well as private placement memoranda and related offering materials.
We understand the unique challenges in negotiating and structuring debt financings to allow operating flexibility. We represent client company borrowers in a variety of debt financing transactions, including syndicated and single-bank credit lines, acquisition financings, convertible note offerings, structured finance, off-balance-sheet financings, capital leases, and a number of other debt and quasi-debt vehicles.
Financing
We will represent your business through every stage of its financing activities.