Bio

Lesley Weigand counsels companies and individuals in a broad range of organizational and operational matters most prominently in the area of business succession and estate and tax planning. Lesley enjoys working with family and privately-held businesses on strategy and succession planning. This may encompass transitioning from one generation to the next; finding creative ways to transition ownership to an inside management team; or even divesting of the business. All of these options come with their own particular nuances and dynamics but the beauty is in the challenge of the reward of the results. Lesley is a trusted advisor to her clients not only in their business needs, but also in their personal lives through estate, retirement and disability planning. Many of Lesley's clients have global operations and she is well-versed in drafting and negotiating domestic and international distributorship and reseller agreements as well as structuring joint ventures of many shapes and sizes all around the world. Given Lesley's background in accounting and tax she also becomes very involved in financing whether through traditional avenues or through mezzanine and syndicated financing structures. Some of Lesley's representative transactions include the acquisition of a Swedish entity on behalf of domestic family-owned business and then the divestiture of another division to a Danish company. In addition, with the growth of private equity, Lesley represented numerous executives in the negotiation of their exit and/or continuation packages from the corporate, tax and estate planning aspects. Often times governmental regulations force companies to make decisions they many never have thought possible. Lesley guided a nearly 100 year old family business through a complex web of shareholder, regulatory, financial, labor and transactional issues to successfully sell the entity to create an industry-defining strategic alliance and protect both entities' future existence. Helping families pass philanthropic values from one generation to the next is a particular passion of Lesley’s. Over the years Lesley has found that the family foundation model enables the next generation to learn investment strategies, corporate governance and civic responsibilities. In addition, charitable remainder trusts coupled with donor advised funds also provides clients with an array of charitable vehicles to serve each family's unique purposes. She is honored to help many families, with all degrees of wealth, plan according to their desires. Due to Lesley’s background and experience she is trustee for many families and has been invited to serve on the Board of Directors for several privately-held and not-for-profit businesses in Northeast Ohio.