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FOUNDING PARTNER

Overview

Bill Stone assists clients with all types of business transactions, including business acquisitions and dispositions, complex financings, matters involving contracts with customers and vendors, employment contracts, executive incentive compensation, shareholder disputes, restructure and work-out transactions, and a broad variety of other types of legal arrangements and agreements. Mr. Stone has acted as lead counsel in matters from the routine to the highly complex. He is particularly adept at assisting clients with unique deals or arrangements, from the initial stage of determining how a transaction or a negotiated arrangement should be structured, to implementing the structure with complex, custom-drafted documents, protecting the interests of clients while ensuring fairness to all parties.

Mr. Stone enjoys getting involved with his clients’ business issues and assisting clients in achieving their goals. He is comfortable working with first-time sellers of businesses and with seasoned business executives. Mr. Stone has found that it is in learning his clients’ business that he is able to become most effective.

Experience

Served as lead counsel in countless purchases and sales of businesses in middle-market transactions

Served as outside general counsel to real estate funds

Assisted numerous companies in raising capital through debt and equity financings

Assisted several clients in restructuring their companies to overcome insurmountable debt loads or other difficulties, to separate from difficult partners or to free themselves from a business structure that is unsustainable

Assisted with complex shareholder disputes

Represented businesses obtaining financing from traditional debt sources, including complex senior and mezzanine loan facilities

Represented businesses raising capital through the sale of debt and equity securities, including early-stage financing from seed capital, angel, and private placements sources, and financing for more mature companies, including Series A and later stage venture financings

Ongoing representation of public companies seeking cost-effective assistance with compliance and corporate governance needs

Education

  • Juris Doctor, Baylor University School of Law, 1982
  • Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration, Baylor University, 1981

Community & Leadership

  • Member, Board of Directors, Texas Business Law Foundation
  • Member and former Chair, Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar
  • Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
  • Member, Board of Trustees, Dallas Theological Seminary
  • Member, Board of Incorporate Members, Dallas Theological Seminary
  • Member, Board of Directors, Dallas Seminary Foundation
  • Vice Chair, Board of Directors and Member, Executive Committee, EvanTell, Inc.
  • Member, Northwest Bible Church

Honors

  • Selected in “The Best Lawyers in America” list for Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, 2024
  • Named in “Texas Super Lawyer” list, Thompson Reuters, 2006 – 2021, 2023
  • Recognized in “Best Lawyers in Dallas” list, D Magazine,  2011, 2012, 2017 – 2020
  • Included in “The Best Lawyer in America” in Practice Areas of Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions Law, Best Lawyers/Woodward/White, Inc.,  2014 – 2022
  • Selected as one of Texas’ Top Rated Lawyers for 2014 in Business and Commercial Litigation by Legal Leaders Magazine
  • Selected in”Top Attorneys in Texas” list, Texas Monthly, 2013

Practice Areas

Corporate & Business

  • Contract Drafting & Negotiation
  • Corporate Entity Disputes
  • Corporate Finance
  • Corporate Governance
  • Corporate Reorganization
  • Entity Selection & Business Formation
  • Joint Ventures & Partnerships
  • Shareholder Disputes
  • Venture Capital Transactions

Energy

  • Oil & Gas Transactions
  • Private Offerings & Placements

Intellectual Property

  • E-Commerce
  • Licensing & Technology Transfer

Labor & Employment

  • Employment Agreements
  • Executive Compensation
  • Non-Competition Covenants

Securities & Finance

  • Corporate Finance
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Private Offerings
  • Public Company Representation

Admissions

  • State Bar of Texas, Business Law and Energy Law Sections