Jeffrey R. Seul

Jeff Seul is a corporate, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strategic transactions lawyer. Mr. Seul chairs the Firm's Technology & Telecommunications Industry Sector Group and co-leads the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Team. With more than 35 years of experience, Mr. Seul advises companies, investors, founders and boards across a wide range of industries and transaction types.

Mr. Seul brings an uncommon combination of deep transactional experience, sophisticated corporate governance counsel and advanced negotiation knowledge and experience to his clients' most complex and consequential matters. He advises boards and senior management of large enterprises and sophisticated private companies – founder-led, family-owned or backed by institutional investors – on governance structures and best practices, stakeholder alignment and the resolution of difficult disagreements among shareholders, directors and management. Clients value his ability to think strategically about organizational dynamics and decision-making, not just the legal mechanics of a transaction or governance question.

On the transactional side, Mr. Seul's work spans the full corporate life cycle: helping entrepreneurs launch, finance and scale businesses; advising financial and strategic investors on capital deployment; representing buyers and sellers in M&A transactions; structuring joint ventures and strategic alliances; and negotiating major commercial and intellectual property agreements. His clients include companies at every stage of development, from early-stage startups to established enterprises, as well as acquirers ranging from family office vehicles to private equity firms to large strategic buyers. He also regularly advises U.S.-based companies and investors doing business internationally, along with non-U.S. companies and investors transacting in the United States.

Although Mr. Seul has deep expertise advising technology companies – including those disrupting traditional industries through autonomous transportation, digital health, financial technology, climate technology and other innovations – his transactional and governance work spans many industries, and he brings the same strategic framework to every client regardless of sector. General counsel, CEOs and board members will find in Mr. Seul a trusted outside counsel who understands the full range of legal, strategic and human challenges their organizations face.

Mr. Seul's negotiation experience sets him apart. He has taught advanced negotiation courses at Harvard for many years, including courses he developed on complex multiparty negotiation and effective negotiation across conflicting worldviews. He has trained scores of private- and public-sector lawyers and leaders in negotiation skills. He has published in leading negotiation and conflict resolution journals and has a long history of contributing to the development and adoption of negotiation support technologies.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Seul served as vice president, general counsel and secretary of Groove Networks, a software company acquired by Microsoft. He has served on the boards of several companies, including C3 Technologies (acquired by Apple), Energy Materials Corp. and Movimento (acquired by Delphi Automotive, now Aptiv). Mr. Seul has been recognized as a Board Leadership Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Mr. Seul serves as co-chair of the Peace Appeal Foundation, an international non-governmental organization that helps catalyze and support broad-scale peace and national dialogue processes to end or prevent wars. He has served as an advisor and mediator to parties seeking to avoid or resolve armed conflicts.