Partner at Foley & Lardner LLP
LOUIS LEHOT

Helping businesses and ventures with compelling technologies reach their growth objectives with sound legal strategies and solutions.

ABOUT
Louis Lehot is for disruptive founders for innovative companies and smart investors

with Foley & Lardner LLP, based in the firm’s Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, where he is a member of the M&A and Transactions Practices, Private Equity & Venture Capital,  and the Technology, Health Care, and Energy Industry Teams. 

Louis Lehot’s corporate, securities and M&A law practice focuses on advising public and emerging private companies and their venture capital and private equity investors from formation to liquidity. He regularly acts as company-side counsel in business formation, capital financing, scaling, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spin-offs, strategic investments and joint ventures.

ARTICLES PUBLISHED BY LOUIS LEHOT
KEY SKILLS
Practical and Commercial Legal Strategies to Drive Business Success

Our firm focuses on delivering cutting-edge legal solutions that empower businesses to grow, innovate, and succeed

Mergers & Acquisitions for Buyers and Sellers

Helping businesses and ventures with compelling technologies reach their growth objectives with sound legal strategies and solutions.

Securities / Corporate Transactions

Louis counsels on public offerings and private placements of equity, equity-linked and debt securities

Corporate Venture Groups

Louis brings his unique experience to bear in advising the innovation, R&D, corporate development and corporate venturing functions of large corporations

Venture, Growth and Private Equity Investors

Louis regularly guides cutting-edge funds in disruptive investments and buyouts and acts as company- and investor-side counsel in financings and M&A transactions.

Web 3.0

Web3, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, NFTs and the Metaverse comprise a loosely defined and largely unregulated landscape. Louis navigates and advises on avoiding pitfalls.

Startups / Emerging Companies

Louis focuses his practice on advising entrepreneurs and their management teams, investors and financial advisors at all stages of growth.

Louis Lehot
Empowering Business Growth Through Experienced Legal Guidance

With a deep understanding of corporate law and strategic transactions, Louis Lehot is committed to delivering results-driven legal counsel that aligns with your business goals.

"Louis Lehot partners with companies at the cutting edge of innovation, providing the acumen and advice they need to thrive in competitive markets and financial environments."
Super lawyers 2021-2025
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
At Ted AI
Louis Lehot Profiled as One of the Ten Most Inspiring Leaders to Follow in 2023

Foley & Lardner LLP Partner Louis Lehot is profiled in The Inc Magazine’s article, “Louis Lehot, Taking Companies from Garage to Global,” as part of the publication’s “Ten Most Inspiring Leaders to Follow in 2023” series.

AMAZING EXPERTISE
More than 20 Years of Experience.

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Value for results
0%
Global experience
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Expert perspective
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Experienced in business coaching since
year 2001.
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GENERAL QUESTIONS
Frequently Asked Questions

Explore our FAQs to find clear and concise answers to the most common questions about our legal services and expertise.

Louis Lehot is a leading corporate lawyer advising on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, and helping innovative companies grow from “garage to global.” He works with organizations in an array of industries including technology, healthcare, life sciences, and clean energy. 

Louis provides practical, commercial and strategic legal counsel to private and public companies involved in growth and liquidity events. He works on deals involving venture funding, mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, strategic investments, and joint ventures. In addition, companies and investors seek Louis out for counsel in forming companies, financing, governing, and buying and selling businesses.

Importantly, Louis has always taken a keen interest in supporting companies as they cross borders and enter new markets abroad, helping them navigate the legal and cultural landscape successful overseas expansion must cross.

Louis regularly represents companies in numerous industries—public or going public, US and non-US registrants—in dealing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the New York Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ stock exchange.

The term M&A is a broad one that means different things to different companies in different deals. An M&A transaction may refer to one company purchasing or absorbing another, a merger where two companies join together, an acquisition of major assets in a company, a tender offer to buy a company’s stock, or a hostile takeover. Companies large and small, public and private, need ongoing counsel to help them identify, structure and execute the deal that’s right for them, provide the legal framework that can optimally make it happen—and then make sure it happens successfully.

Louis Lehot represents buyers in creating acquisition programs, selling companies, purchasing assets, merging with other firms, and licensing. Louis’s clients range from bootstrapped startups to venture-backed emerging growth companies, to public companies, and the venture capital and private-equity financial sponsors that fund these entrepreneurs. His clients have included venture capital and private equity firms and corporate venturing groups that make investments in technology, healthcare, clean energy, and other innovative businesses.

Louis’s aim is to achieve liquidity events that are win-win for both sides, entrepreneurs and investors, and to create the right market fit for the innovative products involved.

Mergers and acquisitions represent one of the most common and often the most beneficial exit strategies for startups. M&A plays a leading role in integrating innovation into markets over the longer term. 

Tech entrepreneurs and startups are driven by much more than profit. These innovators are passionate about their inventions and want to see the products they develop in action, changing people’s lives and becoming mainstream in the long term—from new medicines to AI applications and apps that help manage your diet.

By finding the right M&A partner and negotiating the optimal deal, startups can both cement a strong future for their innovation and achieve the best financial results for the innovators and their investors.

When startups reach maturity, they have to take the next step. For the majority, an IPO is either not possible or is not the best option. For instance, the inventor of a fingerprint biometric scanner for smartphones has a product better suited for an M&A, since the technology is only a small part of a bigger device.

However, finding the most suitable M&A partner and structuring a deal that meets the startup’s and founders’ hopes and goals can be difficult. Wrong decisions and wrong deals can destroy years of hard work. And that’s only step one Step two is where legal acumen and execution come into play, outlining the deal and overseeing the due diligence needed on both sides. 

The process of investing and acquiring startups can be wildly lucrative, but at the same time wildly risky. Parties on both sides of a deal need to find the right partner, the right deal, and importantly, the right legal counsel to ensure the best options are sought and that everyone does their part to ensure success.

Legal counsel create the legal framework to make it all happen. This includes:

Structuring the deal. A well-structured deal maximizes returns while minimizing risks. At the same time, transactions must meet regulatory requirements and serve the interests of investors and partners on both sides.

Contracts. Governing all investments are the documentation and contracts that outline the deal and spell out all that is expected. Legal counsel behind these investment deals drafts investor agreements, shareholder agreements, and employee contracts—all to apportion the risks and rewards, incentivize and align the parties for success, reduce the likelihood of disputes and have in place a plan of action for when disputes do arise.

Due diligence. A strong legal team helps an investor test the price and conduct thorough due diligence (and a company defend price against a thorough due diligence investigation) to identify legal risks in a deal. Issues may involve commercial contracts, intellectual property rights, regulatory compliance, past or ongoing litigation, and other legal aspects. 

Risk management. Legal teams identify and mitigate potential legal risks in investments, including everything from assessing potential legal liabilities to protecting investors’ interests.

Exit strategies. Both sides of an investment are there for the same reason: Reaching the point where it all pays off. A well-structured and documented deal will outline exit strategies so that when the time comes, all parties are ready with a roadmap in hand.

Dispute resolution. Disputes will happen: It’s human nature and it’s why the best legal counsel is sought for investments. Strong counsel will both anticipate possible disputes and seek a favorable resolution when they occur.

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Helping businesses and ventures with compelling technologies reach their growth objectives with sound legal strategies and solutions.

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