Bio
Kristen is a partner in PilieroMazza’s Business & Transactions Group. As a business attorney, she represents private companies, private equity firms and other capital providers in a wide variety of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, including acquisitions and investments, carve-outs, and dispositions. Kristen also represents financial institutions, private equity and venture capital firms, funds, and corporate borrowers in finance transactions, including secured and unsecured lending and acquisition financing, as well as matters involving payment processing.
As part of her venture capital practice, Kristen represents high-potential, growth companies and lead investors in venture capital financings, including Series Seed and Series A preferred stock financings, as well as convertible note financings. She also regularly advises startups and emerging companies throughout all stages of their lifecycles and assists executives of small, mid-size, and large companies in the nonprofit and private sectors with general corporate and governance matters.
In addition to her corporate practice, Kristen has extensive experience representing charitable organizations and private foundations on a variety of transactional matters, including assistance with incorporation and obtaining 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, creating and unwinding fiscal sponsorship arrangements with partnering nonprofits, and counseling board members and senior management on compliance issues and charitable registration and reporting requirements.
Prior to joining PilieroMazza, Kristen was senior counsel at a global law firm.
*Admitted to Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Not admitted to practice law in D.C. Attorney is practicing under the supervision of an attorney or attorneys licensed to practice law in D.C.
Related Practice Areas
Representative Matters
- Serves as outside general counsel to a national provider of concierge mental and behavioral health, accountability and life management support services for youth and college students.
- Represents a nonprofit affiliate of a global insurance company in general corporate governance affairs and the formation of a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization.
- Serves as outside general counsel to a startup financial technology (FinTech) company that engineers and provides software powered by artificial intelligence and related services to private consumers and businesses.
- Represented a private equity-backed company in the acquisition of all the equity of a consulting company that helps small businesses comply with government security mandates.
- Represented a private equity-backed clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on ocular drug development in its sale to a publicly traded ophthalmic pharmaceutical and medical technology company focused on developing and commercializing novel therapies for rare ophthalmic diseases.
- Represented a private equity-backed insurance brokerage company as a buyer in multiple platform- and bolt-on acquisitions of insurance brokerage, payment processing and/or insurance marketing companies, including the acquisition of 1) all the equity of an insurance planning company designed to protect and incentivize key employees, and 2) a majority of the equity of a Florida-based automobile insurance agency with a franchising arm; the transaction involved a sophisticated pre-closing merger and F-reorganization and post-closing internal corporate restructuring.
- Represented a private equity-backed company in the acquisition of substantially all the assets of a wastewater and stormwater collection services and hydro-excavation company and a sustainable water engineering firm.
- Represented North American Bancard LLC (d/b/a North), a U.S.-based FinTech and payment processing independent sales organization, as the buyer in multiple acquisitions of gateway providers, software developers, ISOs and other companies in the payment processing industry, including the acquisition of all of the equity of IPA 18 LLC, an insurance brokerage company.
- Represented CKC Holdings Inc. (d/b/a buyer in the acquisition of Signature Payments) in acquiring substantially all of the equity of an insurance brokerage company.
- Represented a client as a buyer in the acquisition of all the assets of CardWorks Acquiring LLC and all the equity of an insurance and payment processing company.
- Represented a client as a buyer in PayTrace LLC, in the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of an insurance brokerage company assets of DinerIQ Inc. and the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Salido Inc.
- Represented a software company that makes Salesforce-native apps as the company’s counsel in the issuance of series seed preferred stock in the principal amount of $100,000 to an angel investor and, in tandem, as borrower’s counsel in negotiating a $15 Million secured term loan made to two national private investment firms.
- Represented a global executive search firm in the strategic acquisition of the assets of a corporate culture consulting firm; the purchase price was approximately $30 Million.
- Represented a global private equity firm as lender’s counsel in negotiating a $20 Million secured term loan made to a leading technology and infrastructure cannabis company.
- Represented a juice franchise based on the U.S. West Coast in a merger with another juice and wellness company, making the newly branded business one of the largest certified organic, locally sourced, cold-pressed juice companies in California.
- Represented a premier art media company in the sale of its art magazine publishing business to a leading digital media corporation.
- Represented an aerobics dance company in the offering, sale, and issuance of convertible promissory notes in the aggregate principal amount of approximately $2.5 Million.
- Regularly represents one of the largest distributors of automotive and truck parts to the aftermarket auto parts industry in the purchase of add-on businesses.
- Represented a developer of customer outcome management software solutions in the $100 Million sale of its company to a financial sponsor.
- Represented a gambling casino in a Chapter 11 proceeding; restructured claims and liabilities were approximately $1.5 Billion.
- Represented a leading provider of portable sanitation services in the acquisition of four subsidiaries in less than two years.
- Represented a luxury specialty retailer with flagship stores in New York City in a fully consensual out-of-court restructuring that reduced the company’s long-term outstanding indebtedness from more than $590 Million to $50 Million.
- Represented a leading retailer of trend-right women’s fashions that operated more than 400 retail stores nationwide in a Section 363 bankruptcy sale, allowing the company to exit unprofitable store locations.
- Represented a direct-sales marketing company in the health and wellness industry with aggregate indebtedness of approximately $295 Million in a successful out-of-court restructuring.
- Represented a large brewery in negotiating a note purchase agreement with the company’s founders and equity owners.
- Represented a charitable organization that provides therapy services to children in negotiating a partnership agreement with another nonprofit that offers music programs to children in hospitals.
- Assisted numerous startup nonprofits, including a modern ballet company and an organization that offers therapeutic horsemanship services to disabled individuals, in incorporating, drafting bylaws and other core corporate governance documents, and obtaining federal tax-exempt status.
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Credentials
Education
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D., cum laude
- Cornell University, B.S.
Admissions
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- New York
Not admitted to practice law in D.C. Attorney is practicing under the supervision of an attorney or attorneys licensed to practice law in D.C.
Activities/Honors
Activities
- Member, Association of Corporate Growth (ACG), New York Chapter, Women of Leadership Committee, 2023-Present
- Former Co-President and Current Chapter Advisor, Ellevate Network, Fairfield/Westchester County Chapter, 2020-Present
- Member, Cornell ILRAA Alumni Finance Committee, 2024
- Founding Board Member, East Coast Contemporary Ballet Company, 2019-Present
Honors
- National Association of Women Lawyers Leadership Program, Class of 2024
- Top 25 Women in M&A, Opus Connect, 2023