Business Lawyers

Business sense, legal ingenuity.

Entrepreneurial and business-minded, Downs Rachlin Martin business lawyers have the legal skill, financial savvy and industry knowledge to negotiate in the corporate and commercial legal arena on your behalf whether your business is a small, locally based Vermont or New Hampshire entity or a multinational corporation. We are actively involved in professional organizations and trade associations related to our areas of concentration, and we serve on both for-profit and non-profit boards, enabling us to experience business management and making hard decisions first-hand.

With a deep bench of corporate attorneys with experience in a range of industry sectors and strong business backgrounds, we provide services in the areas of:

• Business entity formation
• Commercial loan transactions
• Equity financings (including private equity and venture capital)
• Mergers and acquisitions (including sales of stock and assets, management buyouts, recapitalizations and reorganizations)
• Real estate development and transactions
• Formation and operation of captive insurance companies
• Federal and state tax planning
• Executive compensation (including employment agreements, stock option plans and incentive compensation arrangements)
• Trusts and estates and probate administration
• Business succession and wealth transfer planning

Recent Transactions & Business Law Successes

• Provided tax credit financing advice to the owners of the historic Brooks House, which burned in a five alarm fire in 2011.
  • These five local investors took on the tremendous obstacles facing the project: fire and water damage, extensive mold problems, and almost insurmountable difficulties in arranging the complex financing for the renovations which included Community Development Block Grants, Vermont Downtown Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits and New Markets Tax Credits, among others.
• Represented AIG Global Real Estate affiliate Mt. Mansfield Company in its sale of the iconic Stowe Mountain Resort to Vail Resorts.
  • Tim Sampson led the real estate, permitting, and regulatory components of the transaction, and he coordinated the DRM team’s broader labor and employment, intellectual property and governmental affairs roles in the deal. The sale of Stowe required a monumental effort to separate and transact the mountain operations of Stowe Resort, which were conveyed to Vail, from the existing and ongoing real estate development activities retained by AIG-affiliate, Spruce Peak Realty. The effort involved dozens of cross-easements and other agreements, and it required the distillation and transfer of numerous permits, operating licenses and other regulatory and third-party rights and approvals. These efforts led to a timely and efficient closing of one of the most high profile transactions in recent Vermont history.
• Assisted a Vermont-based specialty components manufacturer in acquiring a New Hampshire company with complementary capabilities, resulting in a combined company with more depth and a diverse customer base.
• Served as special US counsel to Swiss company’s global CHF 125,000,000 credit facility.