Dennis L. Knoer

Dennis serves as outside general counsel to a number of privately held companies, providing counsel and guidance on matters relating to mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, risk management, business contracts, general corporate law, and shareholder conflict resolution.

Dennis has significant experience representing clients in connection with the purchase and sale of businesses in many industries, including the following:

• Insurance and Wealth Management
• Higher Education
• Manufacturing and Distribution
• SaaS Technology
• Automotive Dealerships
• Architecture, Engineering, and Space Design

Dennis has significant experience representing insurance companies, insurance agencies, and registered investment advisors in both buy-side and sell-side mergers and acquisitions, as well as corporate governance matters.

Dennis works with corporate clients and non-profit institutions on governance and organizational structure matters. Most recently, Dennis guided two Minnesota non-profit private colleges in their creation of a unique governance structure, working collaboratively with the non-profit founding members, the respective boards of directors of the institutions, and other stakeholders.

With over a decade of experience representing companies in the food, beverage, and agribusiness industries with their M&A needs, Dennis has represented a large publicly traded snack, beverage, and bottling company in numerous business acquisitions in the U.S. and around the world, and helps nutritional ingredient and food production, processing, and distribution companies buy and sell businesses.

• Represented a mutual insurance company offering commercial property and casualty insurance in its merger with another mutual insurance company.
• Represented an independent insurance agency that offers auto and home, life and health, and business insurance in the sale of its business to an industry acquirer.
• Represented a registered investment advisor in the sale of a significant book of business.
• Represents a large, family-owned wealth management business in its M&A activities and governance matters.
• Represents a financial advisory group in its acquisition of insurance books of business.
• Represents a prominent family office in connection with its M&A activities, including:
  • Acquisition of a world leader in providing advanced intelligent solutions for integrated robotic automation and specialized material handling solutions serving the aerospace, medical device, marine/defense, nuclear, and industrial markets.
  • Acquisition and divestiture of radio stations.
  • Acquisition and divestiture of jewelry businesses.
  • Acquisitions and divestitures of automobile dealerships.
  • Divestiture of multiple SaaS-based technology companies.
• Represented a home health care agency in the sale of its assets to a private equity-backed platform.
• Represented an electric bike distributor in connection with the divestiture of a majority equity position.
• Represented a medical technology SaaS business in connection with multiple business division unit divestitures.
• Represents national architectural, engineering, and space design firms in connection with numerous practice acquisitions across the country.
• Represented a private company in connection with the sale of a grain elevator business.
• Represented a large multinational company in US food and nutritional ingredient business acquisitions.
• Represented a large publicly traded beverage company in a $750 million acquisition of a juice drink company in Ukraine – the largest transaction in the history of Ukraine in its time.
• Represented a large publicly traded beverage company in a joint venture involving operations in Jamaica, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Mexico, and Guatemala to form one of the largest privately-controlled companies in Central America.
• Regularly represents regional private real estate fund sponsors with fund formation and offerings, investment syndication, platform, and add-on transactions, divestitures, reorganizations, and recapitalization.
• Represented a private equity firm in its divestiture of a leading provider of travel solutions for loyalty programs.
• Represented a national private equity fund in a series of acquisitions of construction equipment manufacturing companies.
• Serves as outside general counsel to numerous early-stage, growth companies in a variety of industries with a wide range of legal needs, including entity and ownership structure; financing arrangements; real estate arrangements; terms of employment; equity and equity-like incentive arrangements; and licensing arrangements.
• Represented registered broker-dealer in connection with broker-placed Rule 506 private placements of securities.
• Prepared multiple Rule 506 private placement of securities for companies in the medical technology and other industries.