Joe Zender, an associate in the Business and Corporate group at DUGGAN BERTSCH, serves as advisor and outside general counsel to business owners, founders, entrepreneurs, professional athletes and closely held/family-owned businesses.

Joe’s practice specializes in representing clients at all stages of the business life cycle – from formation or acquisition to exits. He regularly counsels clients on a broad range of corporate transactions, including acquisitions, sales, capital raises, minority investments, joint ventures and equity transfers.

As outside general counsel, in addition to working with clients to navigate day to day legal matters and risk analysis/mitigation, he regularly assists clients with respect to shareholder and operating agreements, employment, consulting and advisory agreements, commercial contracts, equity agreements and plans, and corporate and board governance matters.

Joe also works closely with his DUGGAN BERTSCH colleagues advising clients with respect to trust and estate planning/implementation, family office administration and governance, wealth transfer planning, asset protection planning and charitable giving. In that regard, Joe’s clients have access to the full range of private client services, with Joe serving as the point of contact.

Prior to joining DUGGAN BERTSCH, Joe was a member of the private equity / mergers and acquisitions group of Paul Hastings LLP in Chicago, IL.  In that role he concentrated on corporate transactional matters with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions for private equity clients.

Joe holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.