Special Counsel
Bill Hubbard has over 30 years of experience helping lower middle-market companies and other businesses and their owners buy, grow and sell their companies, as well as navigate many other important matters which they face. He serves as Special Counsel to the Handler Law Commercial Practice Group and established Hubbard Business Counsel in 1997, after previously having been a partner in two of the largest Chicago law firms. He graduated from West Point (B.S., 1973), and the Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D., with high honors 1978) and is a Certified Public Accountant.
He is admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois. To stay current, he is (or has been) a member of each of the ABA Business Law Committees or Sub-committees (e.g. Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities, Private Equity, Business Law, Taxation, Limited Liability Companies, and Middle Market and Small Business Committees) and Chicago Bar Association Sub-committees (Mergers and Acquisitions, Securities, Taxation), the American Institute of CPAs, the Illinois CPA Society, the Association for Corporate Growth, Alliance of M & A Advisors, and the Midwest Business Brokers and Intermediaries Association. He is a former Director and Education Committee Chair of the National Crowdfunding Association. He helped found, and chaired during its first year, the Middle-Market Pillar of the Private Directors Association. He is a former Director and Past President of the West Point Society of Chicago. He served as an airborne and ranger trained infantry officer for the U.S. Army, Judge Advocate Corps prosecutor and Officer-In-Charge in Berlin and as an Army prosecutor in Augsburg, Germany. Bill and his wife, Susan live in Windham, NY.
Most of Bill’s professional life has centered around helping entrepreneurial clients buy, sell, and grow their businesses, such as:
Bill is as comfortable negotiating business deals directly with the other owner as well as drafting the complex legal documents needed to protect his clients’ interests and get the sought after result: a successful deal closing.
He’s served as faculty lecturing on the art of M&A to other attorneys and taught the legal portion of an M&A certification course for and to various intermediaries and investment bankers across the country. Bill has been recognized by Super Lawyers on the list of Illinois’ Top Mergers and Acquisitions and Closely Held Business Attorneys. He has been listed by Illinois Leading Lawyers in the areas of Closely & Privately Held Business Law, Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Securities & Venture Finance Law. He was also named by Corporate INTL as Business Transition Attorney of the Year in Illinois.
Limited Liability Companies and S Corporations Leadership and Management, Liability, and Dispute Resolution with Supplement and Selected Forms, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (2015 and ’08, ’10, ’12, ’13)
Advisor Engagement Letters, Mergers and Acquisition Handbook for Small and Midsize Company, Wiley (1997)
Letters of Intent and Purchase and Sale Agreements, Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook for Small and Midsize Companies, Wiley (1997)
Illinois & Delaware Corporations; Co-Authored with Jim Lestikow, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (1996)