My clients know that I truly care about them and will work relentlessly to guard and advance their interests. While personally handling work in close partnership with my clients, I work efficiently and try to avoid prolonging matters, taking into account the size of the transaction and the client and their lifecycle stage. Believing that there isn’t just one way of doing things, I explain a client’s options clearly and thoroughly so we can devise smart, practical strategies to accomplish their business goals in the manner best tailored to their situation.
Advising his clients as an outside general counsel, Rich Pierson specializes in the negotiation, sophisticated drafting, and provision of a comprehensive range of services in connection with a wide array of corporate matters. He represents domestic and international businesses in their contracts, investment and loan transactions, and public and private mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures across various industry sectors. Rich assists domestic, multinational, and international clients that span the globe from Europe to Asia to Australia to the Caribbean by fulfilling their U.S. legal needs.
Clients often rely on Rich to guide them through the startup process and early growth phase, assist them in forming and governing corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies, and provide them with practical advice on ownership and financing matters. As businesses mature, he advises clients on contract matters, employment issues, and litigation strategies.
Rich’s broad and diverse practice offers a wide-angle lens to examine many different legal angles to a client’s business, which enhances his ability to help clients achieve optimal results as cost-effectively as possible. He takes on a myriad of matters stemming from issues related to venture capital investments, project finance, and investment partnerships; negotiation and documentation of bank loans; distribution and agency agreements; OEM agreements; research and development agreements; pharmaceutical industry licensing, manufacturing, supply, and distribution agreements; employment and consulting agreements; complex stockholders agreements; employment and non-disclosure agreements; trademark and copyright licensing, and technology-capital ventures.
As a skilled negotiator, Rich takes the time to connect on a personal level with everybody he deals with and fosters an atmosphere of courtesy and civility. He carefully ascertains his clients’ intentions. In many cases they prefer to avoid a damaging fight because the principals need to maintain an ongoing relationship after the transaction closes. While he always pursues the best deal possible for his clients, Rich tries to not make processes unnecessarily contentious, realizing that not all points of negotiation are of equal value and importance to the client.