Ted Lawrence

My Approach

I aim to help clients complete their business objectives and mitigate risk. Doing so involves talking to clients about those objectives. I start by asking clients: Why do you want to do this transaction? What goals are you trying to achieve? Everything else—the way the transaction is structured, how a contract is drafted, how hard to push the other side on a particular issue—flows from a client’s answers to these questions. I add special value to this process from my experience as a journalist. I ask the right questions and I’m good at translating spoken words into clear writing.

Practice Areas

Businesses

I provide legal support to clients in all aspects of their business lifecycle, from their formation (through organization of a corporation or limited liability company and compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act), receipt of capital (via private placement of securities or commercial financing), and interactions with other businesses and employees (by drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, employment agreements, and NDAs, and structuring and writing deferred compensation plans, including stock options and equity awards). I also advise clients on the purchase of other businesses, or the sale of their business, through structuring and negotiating merger, acquisition, and other disposition transactions. My clients include new startups, established small businesses, and mature large companies throughout Vermont.

Financial Institutions

I assist commercial lenders with regulatory compliance, loan transactions, and debt forbearance and restructurings. Clients with whom I have worked include national and state banks, mutual savings banks, and state and federal credit unions.

Investors and Individuals

I represent investors who are purchasing securities in private placements and provide advice on compliance with state and federal securities laws and regulations. I also assist individual clients in the negotiation of executive level employment agreements and deferred compensation packages.

Non-Profits

I represent non-profits in the drafting of organizational documents and governance matters. My nonprofit clients include educational institutions, summer camps, and philanthropic organizations.

Experience

• Represented Vermont-based craft distiller in multiple capital raises, including compliance with state and federal securities laws.
• Represented a large regional waste management company in multiple acquisitions of other waste management businesses in Vermont.
• Represented secondary educational institution in its merger with another secondary educational institution, including regulatory compliance.
• Represented individual in sale of equity in family business to other family members, including compliance with state and federal securities laws.
• Prior to Dinse:
  • Law Clerk to the Honorable Henry W. Saad of the Michigan Court of Appeals.
  • Assistant Editor at The National Interest, a foreign policy journal in Washington, D.C.
  • Research Assistant to CNN Chief Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic on her biographies of Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia (American Original) and Sonia Sotomayor (Breaking In).

Professional Affiliations

• South End Arts + Business Association, Board Member (2024 – present)
• Leadership Champlain, class of 2019
• Vermont Bar Association
• Michigan Bar Association