Steven Shapiro

A former public company General Counsel, Steve H. Shapiro returned to private practice to provide his clients with the same level of responsiveness, sound judgment and billing flexibility that he required as a General Counsel.

A highly accomplished transactional lawyer, effective negotiator and seasoned business adviser, Mr. Shapiro focuses his practice in three areas:

• Technology and IT Contracting
  • Mr. Shapiro has extensive experience in technology contracting and related transactions, both on the provider side, as a General Counsel of a technology vendor, and on the procurement side, representing numerous purchasers of technology and technology consulting.
  • He quickly sizes up the risks to and benefits for a company, using his practicality and real-world business knowledge.
  • He then leverages his market knowledge, creativity and negotiating skills to complete contracts that work best for his client’s particular situation and business needs.
• Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Mr. Shapiro completes M&A, banking, venture capital and securities issuances successfully, efficiently and collegially.
  • He has represented publicly traded companies, start-ups, banks, investment banks, venture capitalists and private equity funds in several types of sophisticated deals in a range of industries.
• Financing and Securities Transactions
  • Mr. Shapiro also handles financing and securities transactions and has extensive experience counseling both public and private companies and Boards of Directors on corporate governance and other issues.
  • He has worked on public and private securities offerings, venture capital financings and every type of lending transactions from small loans to multi-million dollar syndicated loans, asset-based loans, working capital.

EDUCATION:

• University of Chicago, J.D.
• Columbia University, B.A. in Economics, cum laude

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

• Mayer Brown LLP
• eLoyalty Corporation (now Mattersight) (VP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary)
• Cole Taylor Bank (now MB Financial Bank, NA) (General Counsel and Corporate Secretary)
• FMC Corporation/FMC Technologies (Deputy General Counsel)
• First Midwest Bancorp, Inc. (Exec. VP and Corporate Secretary

BAR ADMISSION : Illinois

MEMBERSHIPS:

• North Shore General Counsel Association
• The Law Project
• 1871 Incubator
• Society of Corporate Secretaries and Corporate Governance Professionals (1998-2016)

Representative Experience:

• Rewrote and negotiated SaaS agreement for a superregional bank’s largest software vendor
• Negotiated all software licensing and consulting agreements for one of the U.S. largest mall operators
• Numerous secured lending financings, ranging in size up to $100 million
• Advised Special Committee of Board for financial institution in a series of convertible preferred stock financings
• Most trusted adviser on technology contracts for national consumer finance company