67 Ward and Smith Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers® in America for 2025
August 15, 2024
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The Securities Practice Group advises public and privately held companies about capital raising, disclosure, and other issues affecting the issuance or transfer of securities.
We provide services to clients in a wide range of fields, including financial institutions, real estate syndications, and those engaged in the software, telecommunications, energy, biotechnology, medical device, and life science industries.
We also advise officers, directors, investors, banks, investment bankers, investment advisers, and broker-dealers on both transactional and regulatory matters.
The scope of our representation includes a broad range of transactional and regulatory advice, including:
- Public Securities Offerings
- COIN, Token and Blockchain Offerings
- Private Placements of Debt and Equity Securities
- Crowdfunding
- Venture Capital
- Private Equity
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Reorganizations
- Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser Regulations
- Banking Regulations
- State "Blue Sky" Compliance
- Proxy Statements, Annual Reports, and other Periodic Reporting
- Stock Options and Other Equity Compensation Plans
- Board of Directors' Fiduciary Duties
- Special Committees
- Corporate Governance Matters
Our group's representative experience includes:
IPOs:
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Representing a telecommunications company in its initial public offering and several follow on public offerings.
SPAC:
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Representing a software company going public via a merger with a Special Purpose Acquisition Company.
Venture Capital Investments and Investment Funds:
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Representing dozens of technology and science-based businesses in their capital-raising in seed, angel, venture capital, and corporate partner investments.
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Forming multiple Venture Capital Investment Funds, related private placement offerings to investors, and providing counsel regarding Investment Adviser and Investment Company Act regulatory issues.
Crowdfunding and Crowdfunding Platforms:
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Assisted the first North Carolina company to launch a Title III Regulation Crowdfunding.
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Representing Crowdfunding Platforms in regulatory, contract, website, and other matters.
Regulation A offering:
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Representing issuer in first offering approved by Securities and Exchange Commission under new Regulation A+.
Licensing:
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Representing licensor of patent and related cell line in license to large public biotechnology company in $2B transaction.
Acquisitions:
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Advising a global CRO business in the staged acquisition of the leading interactive response technology provider for $75M in value.
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Representing a global semiconductor manufacturing company with the acquisition of a privately-held company (valued at approximately US $200M).
Furthermore, our securities and patent lawyers are collaborating to offer Fintech services for tokenized securities offerings and ICOs using blockchain and smart contracts, crowdfunding and other media assisted offerings for both venture capital funds, portfolio companies and businesses that choose alternative financing.
Our litigators frequently represent issuers, officers, directors, investors, broker‑dealers, and investment advisers in securities fraud, fiduciary duty, and regulatory proceedings, including before the dispute resolution division of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA").
We also frequently draw upon the skills and experience of attorneys in our other practice groups, including real estate, intellectual property, employment, tax, and financial institutions. This allows us to assist our clients with a variety of other legal matters.
We are your established legal network with offices in Asheville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington, NC.
