Bio

Edward W. Ahart is a business law attorney and chairs the Schenck Price Corporate and Business practice as well as its Nonprofit Organizations practice. He has been widely recognized as one of New Jersey’s leading business attorneys and a noted business leader. Mr. Ahart’s practice focuses on advising both for-profit and nonprofit entities, their owners, directors/trustees, and managers on board development and governance; entity structural issues; transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and finance; strategic planning; and succession issues. He has extensive experience in these areas, both as a legal advisor and as an experienced company leader himself. A considerable portion of Mr. Ahart’s practice is comprised of the representation of privately held companies, including family-owned businesses. He has guided many clients through very complex mergers & acquisitions and counseled them on structural issues arising throughout all phases of the life cycle of business entities. He is a frequent speaker on entity governance, both in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, as well as on topics such as the development and role of the Board of Directors, strategic planning and succession. Mr. Ahart served for more than thirty years as a member of the Schenck Price management team, including twenty years as the Firm’s Managing Partner and Chair of its Management Committee, before relinquishing that role to become Chairman of the Firm. He has now returned to the full-time practice of law to serve his clients more fully while also helping to lead the continued growth of the Firm’s business and nonprofit practice areas. Throughout his career Mr. Ahart has spent a considerable portion of his time serving on the boards of numerous organizations. As a result, he has had very extensive experience in leadership roles with both for-profit and nonprofit entities, having chaired boards of directors in each sector, including the following boards: Lafayette College; the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation, where he is the current Board Chair (the Rippel Foundation is focused on improving the nation’s health and health care systems); the Morris County Chamber of Commerce; the Greenwich Cemetery Association; the Warren County ARC, and the Morristown Club. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Karl Stirner Arts Trail in Easton, Pa., an organization devoted to the arts in an outdoor setting and environmental sustainability. Mr. Ahart was recently elected to join the Board of the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown. He previously served as President of the Lafayette College Alumni Association and remains a long-time member of the governing body of the Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville, NJ. He continues to contribute to his various local communities in additional informal ways as an advisor as well as on a philanthropic basis.