Practice Area
Private Equity
The platform deal justified the fees. The next eight don't. Add-ons run on largely the same documents, the same structure, and the same diligence checklist, but each one gets priced like it's new, by someone learning your portfolio company on the clock.
Integration is the real work
Closing the add-on is the first step, not the finish line. The real work starts after: folding the acquired business into the platform's contracts, governance, employment terms, and operations. Do that well, and do it the same way across every add-on, and the platform tells one clean story when it's time to sell. Do it unevenly and a buyer's diligence team finds seven versions of everything, which is exactly where value leaks out of an exit.
How it works
I work with private equity sponsors two ways. Add-on acquisitions get handled as deals: letters of intent, purchase agreements, diligence, and closing, priced by the deliverable. Separately, your portfolio companies can keep me on a monthly subscription for ongoing outside general counsel support and the integration work that follows each close. Big Law is the right call for a platform acquisition. It's an expensive way to paper your fourth bolt-on, and a worse way to handle integration that never really ends.
What’s included
- Letters of intent and term sheets for add-on targets
- Purchase agreements and ancillary documents, built once and reused across the platform's add-ons
- Diligence coordination, including the records your lenders and platform management will need
- Integration after each close: contracts, governance, and employment terms brought onto one standard
- Platform-wide document consistency, so the eventual exit tells one clean story
- Ongoing outside general counsel for portfolio companies, on a monthly subscription
Who it’s for
Lower-middle-market private equity sponsors and the portfolio companies they've built, working through add-on acquisitions and the integration that follows.
What it costs
A price per deliverable, scoped and quoted up front after an initial conversation that doesn't cost you anything. No hourly billing, no surprise invoice.
Common questions
Questions clients ask
- What does the subscription cover for a portfolio company?
- Ongoing outside general counsel support and the integration work that follows an acquisition: contracts, governance, employment paperwork, folding an acquired business into the platform's operations, and the day-to-day questions that come up while management runs the business. One monthly fee, no clock running on the calls.
- Are add-on acquisitions part of the subscription?
- No, those are priced separately as deals, scoped and quoted before the work starts. The subscription covers the ongoing counsel and integration side. Keeping them separate means you're not paying a deal premium in the months you aren't buying anything.
- Why does integration matter so much to the exit?
- Because a buyer's diligence team reads every entity in the platform, not just the one you started with. If each add-on was papered its own way, with different contract forms, employment terms, and governance records, diligence takes longer, the questions multiply, and you end up negotiating against your own inconsistencies. Uniform documents across the platform mean one clean story, fewer surprises, and less friction on the way to a close.
- How do you work alongside the sponsor's existing counsel?
- Comfortably. Plenty of sponsors keep a large firm on platform acquisitions, financings, and anything else that warrants it, and use me for the add-on volume. I'm not trying to replace that relationship. I'm trying to keep it from being billed against work that doesn't need it.
- What size add-ons do you handle?
- Lower-middle-market transactions. If a deal is genuinely outside that range or needs a specialist I'm not, I'll tell you that early rather than after you've paid me to find out.
Get in touch
Need help across your portfolio?
Tell me what you're working on. The initial conversation is on the house, and you'll know the price before any work begins.
This page provides a general overview of private equity matters and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is different. Contact us to discuss the specifics of your matter.