Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Partner

Timothy Lavender chairs the firm's Corporate practice, bringing more than thirty-five years of global transactional leadership to every engagement. A seasoned dealmaker and trusted advisor, Tim has guided clients through the full spectrum of mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, general corporate and tax matters, internal investigations, and litigation avoidance. Over the course of his career, he has built deep, enduring relationships with private individuals and entrepreneurs, small and fast-growth companies, large middle-market businesses, and multinational corporations alike. Tim is distinguished not only for the practical, results-driven counsel he delivers, but also for the steady, even-keeled disposition he brings to high-stakes negotiations. His CPA credential further sharpens his perspective, allowing him to evaluate transactions through a rare, multi-disciplinary lens that few attorneys of his caliber possess. Clients and their constituents alike consistently cite the credibility and trust Tim has cultivated over decades of practice, a testament to his ability to translate sound business judgment into pragmatic, actionable legal strategy.

Tim frequently serves as outside general counsel to many of his middle-market and emerging company clients, drawing on decades of accumulated judgment to manage complex, multi-faceted workstreams with efficient staffing models and seamless delivery of legal advice. He is widely recognized for his diplomatic negotiating style, consistently securing immediate results while cultivating long-term relationships that materially strengthen his clients' bottom lines. Having begun his career in tax and accounting, Tim brings a rare command of the financial and accounting dimensions of operational issues, a foundation that has enabled him to serve as a versatile, indispensable advisor across the many roles his clients require of him.

Over three decades, Tim has amassed extensive M&A experience spanning small asset acquisitions and dispositions to complex, hundred-million-dollar transactions, providing strategic counsel and leading primary negotiations at every scale. He has advised numerous manufacturing clients on strategic alliances, deftly balancing the protection of intellectual property, management control, and economic expectations against ROI potential. Tim represents sellers, financial and strategic buyers, and private equity firms, and has spent decades representing issuers and investors, among other clients, in debt and equity financings ranging from early-stage venture financing to sophisticated private equity funding, including the formation and operation of private investment funds.

In addition, Tim guides clients through every stage of financing preparation, including private placement memoranda, and his extensive experience extends deeply into the securities arena, where he possesses longstanding familiarity with both private and public issuances of equity and debt. He also counsels real estate private equity fund sponsors and institutional investors on real estate fund investments, with particular skill in structuring real estate investment trusts, debt funds, and hedge funds that invest in real estate securities. Drawing on his multi-disciplinary command of tax, corporate, and securities law developed over decades of practice, Tim is a go-to authority on the often-paramount issues that arise in negotiating fund organizational agreements, side letters, and market offering terms.