Heidi Carpenter Bio

Heidi A. Carpenter is a commercial attorney focusing her practice on providing counsel to investors, start-up companies, and closely-held businesses of all sizes with business, corporate, transactional, and employment law matters. Heidi has been with FMJ for more than 25 years, providing general counsel assistance to companies and their owners. Heidi leads the Corporate & Business Practice Groups at FMJ, and she was unanimously selected as the firm’s CEO in July 2022. In the area of mergers and acquisitions, Heidi is a formidable negotiator, having negotiated mergers, acquisitions, and other multi-million dollar deals, with her largest transaction to date valued in excess of $215 million. Heidi represents bidders, targets, financial advisors and bankers in structuring, negotiating and closing mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations, leverage buyouts, and other restructurings. In the area of employment law, Heidi assists employers in the handling of all areas of employment and HR matters, with an eye toward preventing potential litigation. Heidi has experience providing HR professionals and business owners with personnel policies and strategies related to discrimination, harassment, non-compete, trademark and intellectual property protection, employee benefits, employment and contractor agreements, hiring and firing procedures, and employment law compliance. An experienced and fine-tuned drafter, she is particularly adept in drafting compensation plans and agreements, employment policies and non-qualified plans. Heidi has repeatedly been recognized by her peers as one of Minnesota’s “Rising Stars” in the legal profession and has been named a “Super Lawyer” since 2014 – an honor given to only the top lawyers in Minnesota. Heidi was named a Notable Woman in Law by Twin Cities Business in 2020, and she was selected as one of the Top Women in Law by Minnesota Lawyer in 2024. In addition, Heidi is ranked by Chambers and Partners as one of the top corporate and M&A attorneys in the country.