With 45+ dedicated attorneys, Calfee’s Corporate and Finance practice group is one of the largest and most prolific in Ohio, handling a significant number of complex and sophisticated business and financial transactions for clients across the country and globally.
Calfee boasts a robust Mergers and Acquisitions, Divestitures, and Sales practice, annually consummating 60-75 M&A transactions, led by an active private equity client base and a large roster of public and significant privately held corporate clients. These financial and strategic buyers, coupled with our deep investment banking representations and relationships, drive a thriving and diverse M&A practice at Calfee.
Calfee also has a full range of corporate governance, SEC reporting and compliance, and capital markets services and a wealth of experience representing public companies, including NYSE and NASDAQ-listed issuers. Calfee has represented issuers and underwriters in more than 230 public and Rule 144A offerings since 1981. In addition, Calfee has a strong history, unique in our region, of representing financial services providers such as banks, broker-dealers, and investment advisers.
Calfee’s Commercial Lending attorneys represent clients in all aspects of domestic and international transactions, financings, and debt structures. We counsel financial institutions and borrowers in analyzing, structuring, documenting, and negotiating all aspects of finance in private, public, syndicated, international, and governmental settings. We also assist companies in developing and structuring the commercial aspects of domestic and international business relationships including development projects, sales, distribution arrangements, and multinational ventures.
Calfee's Public Finance attorneys cover the entire range of governmental borrowings, from routine general obligation bonds and notes of local cities and villages to projects as complex and unique as the redevelopment of inner-ring suburbs, urban hotels and parking facilities, student housing, and sports facilities and the transformation of a large public hospital. The practice encompasses economic development incentives and Public / Private Partnership law services.
Our lawyers serve as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel, disclosure counsel, issuer’s counsel, and borrower’s counsel for a wide variety of public finance transactions.
Calfee Corporate and Finance attorneys are committed to fostering deep and long-standing relationships with our clients. This requires understanding our clients' overall business goals and their specific goals for each transaction and matter we handle. We invest our time developing in-depth knowledge of the industries in which our clients operate to better understand their complex legal and business issues and provide more insightful practical advice.
Finally, in conducting client feedback interviews, we have learned that beyond experience and expertise, Calfee clients value our high level of responsiveness and collaboration (both internal and with our clients), our understanding of clients' risk tolerance levels, and our desire to customize communications to match our clients' unique preferences.
For more than a decade, Calfee has been recognized as a Leading Law Firm for Corporate/M&A by Chambers USA, most recently in Band 2 in Ohio: North and Band 3 in Ohio: South and Central and in Band 2 in Banking & Finance in Ohio (2024).
Clients provided feedback to Chambers USA researchers, "Calfee consistently generates exceptional outcomes for their clients. They are extremely responsive and meet tight deadlines. Their lawyers represent the client's best interests while also conducting themselves in a collegial and professional manner. They offer exceptional service levels. The firm has done an excellent job with some of our most difficult transactions and brings a business sensibility while protecting and mitigating our risk."
Calfee was selected for inclusion in the 2025 "Best Law Firms" rankings in the following areas:
The "Top-Listed" designation is given to the firm that has the most recognized lawyers in a particular location and practice area.
Calfee was selected for inclusion in IFLR1000 – Guide to the World's Leading Financial and Corporate Law Firms in 2024:
IFLR1000 researchers quoted a Calfee client describing Calfee's Banking Group in the following way: "Everything they did seemed a level above all my prior dealings with other law firms."
Our Corporate and Finance attorneys work collaboratively with their colleagues across Calfee’s 30+ practice areas to ensure that transactions and other client matters are handled efficiently and by the attorney with the necessary experience and skills. We regularly collaborate with attorneys in other practice areas on client matters to provide efficient and well-informed legal counsel and services.
Whether your business is a new venture navigating the early stages of formation, organization, and capital raising, or an established enterprise undertaking complex contract negotiations, corporate succession planning, a significant merger, acquisition, or divestiture, or a complex commercial or public finance transaction, we will guide you through the inevitable and unexpected legal hurdles to achieve your organization's objectives.
Combining technical and legal expertise with business insights and sound judgment cultivated over years of corporate counseling, Calfee attorneys provide superior, customized service in a timely and cost-effective manner in the following areas of concentration:
With offices spanning the state of Ohio and deep connections in the state’s capital, Calfee’s Corporate and Finance attorneys regularly assist clients who are starting, relocating, or expanding business operations in the state. Calfee attorneys are experienced in helping clients understand and participate in Ohio’s state loan and grant programs, state tax credits, and other state programs such as JobsOhio.
Calfee attorneys have developed a Guide to Doing Business in Ohio, which details important information for business owners and executives operating in Ohio or considering moving or starting a business enterprise in the state. If you would like to receive a copy of the Guide, please contact your Calfee attorney or one of our Practice Contacts.
Calfee's Corporate and Finance practice "draws from an impressive statewide team with a strong track record across a broad range of corporate and transactional matters. Areas of excellence include M&A, securities offerings, and private equity and venture capital fund formation...financing corporate transactions, capital markets work, bankruptcy and workout matters and counseling on regulatory compliance."
Chambers USA
