Brandi N. Weekley

Brandi’s practice primarily focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital transactions. She counsels private equity funds, venture capital funds, and emerging growth companies on all aspects of acquisitions, dispositions, capital formation and private placements. Brandi has a wide range of experience with structuring and consummating complex early-stage and growth-stage capital formation transactions, from convertible note and series seed financings to later stage and follow-on investment transactions. She counsels buyers and sellers on all aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence, deal structures, pricing alternatives, negotiations, and documentation, from letter of intent stage through closing. Brandi has counseled physicians, professors and doctoral candidates who are interested in commercializing technologies they have developed at local universities and hospitals. She also has experience with corporate organization, governance and general corporate matters.

Through her legal work and her extracurricular participation in prominent associations, Brandi has devoted her efforts to assisting, recruiting and retaining entrepreneurs in the greater Cleveland area. She was selected for the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s exclusive LEAD (Link. Engage. Advocate. Develop.) Program, which develops emerging leaders who have an interest in economic development, and engaging in work that impacts the region.

In 2020, Brandi was appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Cleveland State University College of Law Alumni Association to serve a three-year term. Brandi previously participated in the Cleveland Leadership Center’s “Civic Leadership Institute.” She also formerly served on the board for Summer on the Cuyahoga, a unique summer internship program that brings together 50-70 students for an intensive summer immersion program designed to help interns explore the professional, civic, and social offerings of the Cleveland area. For several years, she served on Taft’s Gender Advancement Committee, which helps to develop, promote, and advance women attorneys within Taft, the legal profession, and the community.

Brandi received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2006, where she graduated summa cum laude with university honors. She received her J.D., summa cum laude, from the Cleveland State University College of Law in 2010, where she served as the business editor of the Cleveland State Law Review.

Prior to joining Taft, Brandi was a judicial attorney for the Honorable Carla D. Moore in the Ninth District Court of Appeals. She also worked at a Cleveland digital media company as a contracts and licensing associate. Prior to attending law school, Brandi worked in accounting and finance for a Fortune 20 company.

Quoted, Crain’s Cleveland Business, “Law firms’ summer associate programs adapt to pandemic challenges,” April 3, 2021.