Evan Berquist is a business lawyer advising clients on a wide range of transactional matters. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. Evan works with entrepreneurs, investors, and company management on all aspects of a company’s life cycle, including entity formation, financings, governance, and commercial transactions.
Evan works for clients big and small, including startups, middle market companies, private equity investors and large multinational corporations. He serves as outside general counsel to a number of emerging or closely held companies.
A significant portion of Evan’s practice involves cross-border transactions. He helps U.S. and foreign clients with their international business projects, including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and sales, agency, and distribution agreements. Evan is familiar with the legal issues that arise when doing business abroad.
He frequently advises clients with respect to anti-corruption laws, export controls, and sanctions regimes. He routinely works with local counsel in a variety of foreign jurisdictions and has completed multiple cross-border deals in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
A Minnesota native, Evan also lived and worked for several years in Latin America, where he became fluent in Spanish. Evan has presented and written about international business topics in professional forums and has published pieces in The Hill, National Review Online, and the Star Tribune, among others.
He graduated from Stanford Law School. Recently Evan was selected by Minnesota Lawyer magazine as a 2018 “Up & Coming Attorney.” Evan is a board director of New Vision Foundation, a nonprofit that teaches coding skills to disadvantaged youth in Minnesota and East Africa.
EXPERIENCE :
- Represented Doerfer Corporation in its acquisition of Votaw Precision Technologies, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of complex aerospace and flight hardware.
- Represented WWSC Holdings, LLC, one of the largest structural steel fabrication and erection companies in North America, in connection with the acquisition by Alleghany Capital Corporation of a majority interest in the company.
- Represented a Midwestern manufacturing company in the sale of one of its business units to a private equity investor. The business unit sold included several subsidiaries in the U.S. and three other countries.
- Represented a Minnesota software technology company from formation, up to and through its asset sale to a strategic buyer in the media industry.
- Represented online app developer in several acquisitions of technology companies, venture financing, and ultimately, sale of the company to large media conglomerate.
- Provide trade sanctions and compliance advice to entities doing business in Cuba, including in agribusiness, infrastructure, tourism, and cultural exchange.
- Represented a U.S. company that is the leading manufacturer of test equipment for microchips in drafting and negotiating a new sales agent agreement for its foreign sales agents in East Asia.
- Helped several U.S. clients reorganize the ownership and management of their foreign subsidiaries, including in Japan, France, China, Singapore, and India.
- Drafted a joint development agreement among three U.S. parties for the design, manufacture, and sale of industrial equipment in East Asian markets.
EDUCATION :
- Stanford University Law School, J.D., 2011
- Colorado College, B.A., magna cum laude, 2004
BAR ADMISSIONS : California; Minnesota
COURT ADMISSIONS :
- U.S. District Court — Puerto Rico
- U.S. District Court — Minnesota
AFFILIATIONS :
- Judicial Clerkship: U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, 2011-2013
- Minnesota State Bar Association
- Hennepin County Bar Association
Cost
Rate : $$$
