Bio

Christopher Geotes is an Partner in the Business and Corporate practice group at Martin LLP. His current corporate practice operates in three general categories – mergers & acquisitions, debt and equity financing, and outside general counsel services, with the latter including the preparation and negotiation of corporate governance documents, service and vendor agreements, employment and consultant-related contracts, and other commercial agreements. Chris’s corporate expertise is augmented by hands-on expertise in litigation gained at his prior firm, where he served in both the corporate transaction and commercial litigation practice groups. His litigation experience includes motion practice, discovery and depositions, settlement negotiations and trials. This background, unusual for a corporate attorney, is particularly valuable for general counsel clients who benefit from Chris’s ability to integrate litigation into business planning and strategy and provide guidance with respect to the procedural ins and outs of litigation, likelihood of prevailing in a dispute, cost, and timing. Many of Chris’s corporate clients are financial and technology companies. On the finance side, he advises on primarily bank lending and nonbank financing projects as well as equity capital and M&A projects. Technology companies rely on him more in a general counsel role, at every stage of their development, ranging from early-stage startups to middle-market players to fully-operational companies. Chris represents M&A clients on both the buy and sell side, counseling on issues concerning documents such as asset, stock and membership interest purchase agreements. For financing clients, he has prepared and advised on numerous private placement memoranda for companies in the process of fundraising. His work has addressed every phase of financing, from seed money and angel investing through venture capital, private equity and institutional investment, in deals ranging from six to eight figures in size. With respect to debt financing, his work has included vehicles such as lines of credit, revolving loans, secured and unsecured promissory notes, and convertible notes. As an adviser, Chris strives to take a holistic approach to assessing the needs of his clients and how they’ll be served by the particular financing methodology they’re utilizing. Whenever possible, he seeks to understand in detail the management team, business, operations and long-term objectives of his clients, and also works to help them explore perhaps previously unconsidered alternatives to their planned strategy, as well as their exit strategy.