John Gilson Bio

John C. Gilson is a private equity attorney in Holland & Knight's Charlotte office. Mr. Gilson is a co-head of both Holland & Knight's Independent Sponsor and Search Funds teams. His practice includes a broad range of corporate transactional matters. Mr. Gilson's core practice includes the representation of strategic and financial buyers and sellers in a variety of complex business transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, carve-out transactions, structured equity products, cross-border transactions, minority equity, growth equity and venture capital investments, and joint ventures. Mr. Gilson has extensive experience representing independent sponsors, search funds and traditional and self-funded searchers in all aspects of their transactions, including equity structuring and transaction execution. He has authored several articles and lectured on these topics. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Gilson was an attorney at law firms in New York and Charlotte. During college, Mr. Gilson was a member of the Phi Alpha Theta historical honor society at the State University of New York at Albany. Mr. Gilson was also a two-time captain of the University at Albany men's lacrosse team and a member of the school's football team. He studied abroad in 13 different countries in Europe and the Middle East through Eastern Michigan University's European Cultural History Tour. He also served as a student teacher at an Albany middle school and public high school.