Craig A. Sklar is a partner in the Business Transactions Group within the Corporate Finance Department at Seward & Kissel. Craig joined the firm in 1998 after practicing corporate and commercial litigation for three years. Craig was recently selected by Institutional Investor News as one of the "10 Rising Stars of Private Equity and M&A," profiling individuals expected to shape the private equity and M&A legal field in the years to come.
Craig represents public and private companies, private investment funds, investment management firms, financial institutions, business owners and managers in connection with a variety of business transactions, financings and general corporate matters. Representative transactions include mergers and acquisitions, private equity, debt and venture capital transactions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and seed capital arrangements, PIPEs, alternative investment transactions involving SPACs, initial public offerings, high-yield debt offerings and other public and private securities offerings. His general corporate work includes the formation and organization of various business entities, including corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, drafting letters of intent, confidentiality agreements, shareholder agreements, employment and consulting agreements, non-compete agreements and various other forms of commercial arrangements. In addition, Craig currently acts as an editor for IM Deals® (a blog covering investment management transactions).
In recommending the Seward & Kissel Business Transactions Group among the firms ranked in the middle market M&A category in 2011, The Legal 500 quoted a client as stating “Co-business transactions group leader Craig Sklar has earned my trust and confidence. From my perspective, the highest compliment that a lawyer can receive is to be viewed as practical, not tangled in theory, but caring about the client’s objectives, understanding where they fit in relation to the law, and achieving a working union between the two. Craig is that kind of lawyer, one that I would, and have, recommended to colleagues and friends.”
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Craig received a B.S. degree, cum laude, from New York University’s Stern School of Business in 1992, and a J.D. degree, cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law in 1995 where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif (top 10%) and was a member of the Urban Law Journal. Craig is admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut and is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Connecticut Bar Association.