Bio

Salvatore Totino corporate and M&A practice focuses on counseling public and privately owned companies with respect to transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions and a wide range of general corporate and business matters such as equity offerings and commercial contracts. Sam serves all types of clients, whether start-ups, closely held family businesses, private equity firms or multinational public companies, in a broad range of industries, including health care, energy, chemicals and consumer products. Sam has worked on a wide variety of merger and acquisition transactions, representing both buyers and sellers, including numerous privately owned companies and public companies such as RPM International Inc., Align Capital Partners, Chart Industries, Inc., Invacare Corporation, Linsalata Capital Partners, Watervale Equity Partners, Ferro Corporation, Cache Creek Industries, The W.W. Williams Company, LLC, and The Lincoln Electric Company. Through his representation of A&A Management Group, a talent management company providing brand, image and business and personal management services to professional athletes in the NFL and NBA (some of which include Travis Kelce, Mitchell Schwartz and Denzel Ward), Sam also has significant experience in negotiating business opportunities and arrangements for A&A’s high-profile athlete clients. Additionally, as a member of Calfee’s Tax practice group, Sam regularly advises both public and privately owned companies on federal, state and local tax issues in corporate transactions. His tax practice is specifically devoted to assisting clients in structuring tax-efficient transactions from formation through dissolution. Sam is a regular presenter at the annual Cleveland Tax Institute as well as a member of the Tax Club of Cleveland. Sam has significant experience with counseling nonprofit organizations with respect to all manners of issues, including those related to formation and ongoing operations. He is also a member of Calfee’s Public Finance group and regularly counsels governmental issuers, 501(c)(3) entities and underwriters with respect to tax issues related to the issuance of tax-exempt bonds, including the arbitrage and rebate rules and private business use. Sam has been recognized as a Leading Lawyer in Corporate/M&A Law by Chambers USA in Ohio: North (Up & Coming, 2024). In providing feedback to Chambers USA researchers, clients stated that Sam "is an excellent lawyer who provides business-minded counsel on corporate transactions. He is efficient and very responsive." Sam is a member of the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, an organization that performs the highest quality symphonic pops music to entertain and enrich a wide and diverse audience and that provides educational programs to develop an enduring appreciation of music, both enhancing the richness and vibrancy of Northeast Ohio living. He received a B.S.B.A., summa cum laude, Master of Accounting and J.D., summa cum laude, from The Ohio State University. Sam began his tenure at Calfee in 2012, was elected Partner in 2021, and has served as a member of the firm's Hiring Committee.