Bio

Michael de León Hawthorne is nationally recognized in the areas of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and securities law. He has extensive experience working on securities matters and helps his clients comply with related laws and regulations. Michael assists public and private companies to successfully implement corporate structures that allow them to grow their business through capital formation, M&A, and joint venturing with potential business partners. He advises companies preparing for a public or private offering, ensuring these companies are structured properly in all stages of their development. He has represented seed, venture, and private equity investment funds worth more than $6 billion. Michael also regularly represents private investment firms seeking investment opportunities and companies raising capital. On either side of these transactions, he taps his extensive knowledge of complex securities and financial instruments to discover, document, and close deals that achieve, and frequently exceeds, his client's goals. Michael has handled more than 50 private placements, more than 25 public offerings, and hundreds of M&A deals and has restructured numerous domestic and international companies. With the regulatory environment getting increasingly more complicated, Michael understands that his clients want straightforward advice so that they can make informed and sometimes difficult decisions. He gets to know his clients and related industries in depth so he can provide traditional as well as non-traditional options that allow them to balance risk and return on investment. Michael's clients are involved in a wide range of industries, including technology, logistics, the movie industry, telecommunications, distribution, manufacturing, natural resources, health care, energy, restaurant, and broker dealers. He represents many family-owned businesses and works collaboratively with their advisors to provide cross-disciplinary approaches that address issues that are unique to these clients, such as succession planning, trusts and estate preparation, and balancing the needs of multiple generations and other family members. Michael is a long-term member of the International Association of Attorneys for Family-Held Enterprises, Inc. (afhe), and was the President and Chair for afhe for seven years. J.D., University of Wisconsin, 1987, B.S., Denison University, 1984, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa.