Practice Areas

Business Sales and Combinations
Business Transactions
Corporate Finance and Securities Law
Corporate Governance
Corporate Law
Corporate Reorganization
Electronic Commerce and Internet-Related Transactions
Emerging Businesses
Entity Selection and Business Formations
Mergers and Acquisitions
Shareholders Disputes
Venture Capital Transactions


Practice Emphasis

Mr. Stone assists clients with all types of business transactions, including business acquisitions and dispositions, complex debt and equity financings, securities issuance transactions and compliance issues, matters involving contracts with customers and vendors, employment contracts, executive compensation (such as stock option plans), 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.

Representative Matters

• Served as lead counsel in countless purchases and sales of businesses ranging in size from a few hundred thousand dollars to $200 million.

• Served as outside general counsel to two $100 million+ 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 of a business structure that is unworkable.

• 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.

Memberships

• Member, Advisory Board, West Dallas Initiative (serving underprivileged families in West Dallas through a private school and other programs)

• President and Founding Member, President's Council of Dallas Theological Seminary. www.dts.edu (preparing people to study the Bible, and providing practical training to enable them to communicate their knowledge to others)

• Chairman, Board of Trustees, Probe Ministries. www.probe.org (training trainers to instill Christian worldview principles to communities worldwide by providing opportunities to integrate faith and learning through balanced, biblically based scholarship)

• Northwest Bible Church

• Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 80, Boy Scouts of America

Professional Involvement

• Member, State Bar of Texas

• Business Law and Energy Law Sections

• Member, The Entrepreneurship Institute

Honors and Awards

• Completed college and law school in just over five years.

• Recognized by Texas Monthly as a "Texas Super Lawyer", 2006.

Education and Professional Background

• J.D., Baylor University School of Law, 1982

• B.A., Business Administration, Baylor University, 1981