Business and Finance

The 2021 pandemic environment is showing trends toward evasive debtors trying to protect their wealth by moving assets fluidly around the world as creditors evaluate the value of assets and the ability to recover claims and debts.

In December 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed amendments to the definitions of “accredited investor” and “qualified institutional buyer”.

In the 2021 Supreme Court term (October 2021 – September 2022), the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued decisions in 66 cases. With its new conservative majority (J. Roberts, J. Alito, J. Thomas, J. Gorsuch, J. Kavenaugh and J. Barrett), the Court tackled a wide variety of issues ranging from immigration, freedom of religious expression, gun safety to abortion rights.…

In the 2021 Supreme Court term (October 2021 – September 2022), the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued decisions in 66 cases. With its new conservative majority (J. Roberts, J. Alito, J. Thomas, J. Gorsuch, J. Kavenaugh and J. Barrett), the Court tackled a wide variety of issues ranging from immigration, freedom of religious expression, gun safety to abortion rights.

Chicago's amended sexual harassment laws went into effect on July 1, 2022, adding steeper penalties and new employer obligations.

HMB Legal Counsel is pleased to welcome Jeralyn (“Jeri”) H. Baran who joins the firm as a Partner in its Business & Finance group. Jeri will lead HMB’s growing Employment Law practice.

HMB is proud to announce that Marla M. Izbicky has been elected as a 2022-2023 Women’s Bar Associations of Illinois Officer! Marla has been a WBAI member since 2015 and has served on the board since 2020. This year, she will serve as the WBAI’s Recording Secretary.

On July 1, most Chicago employers face an increase in the Chicago minimum wage. Chicago’s Minimum Wage Ordinance applies to employers who maintain a business facility within the city or who are required to obtain a business license to operate in the city and to employees who work two hours in the city within a two-week period.

HMB would like to congratulate Lumaita, a healthcare-specific AI platform, on a successful sale to Somatus, the nation’s leading and largest value-based kidney care company. Lumiata is a predictive analytics company that specializes in tools for healthcare. Lumiata was represented by Brett M. Winterstein, Brian H. Axelrad, Marla M. Izbicky and Ryan T. Kelley.

Congratulations to Mark-It Express Logistics, a leading Midwest intermodal trucking and freight brokerage company, on its acquisition of Clean Car Connexion Trucking, a transportation company that specializes in intermodal, flatbed and overweight loads.

HMB would like to congratulate Hoosier Logistics (“Hoosier”), an Indianapolis-based logistics and supply chain provider, on its successful sale to Direct Connect Logistix (“DCL”), a third-party transportation and logistics service provider.

HMB congratulates Svoboda Capital Partners, LLC (“SC”) on their partnership with Horwitz, LLC (“Horwitz”).

HMB congratulates Science on Call on the closing of its $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. The Chicago startup will use the new funding to keep restaurants up and running by helping with outages, glitches and other tech challenges.

HMB would like to congratulate LandscapeHub on the successful closing of their $9 million Series A round of funding.

Dunes Point Capital Announces the Sale of Specialty Products and Insulation.

Hy-Tek Holdings ("Hy-Tek"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC") has acquired Advanced Handling Systems, LLC ("AHS"). AHS, located in Erlanger, KY, is a material handling automation integrator offering a full suite of services with a focus on robotic solutions. Located in Columbus, OH, Hy-Tek Holdings is a material handling automation integrator serving clients in diverse end markets…

HMB is pleased to announce that Matthew R. Barrett, Jenna E. Stein and Raymond J. Jacobi III have been elevated to Partner. “We are delighted to have Matt, Jenna and Ray as Partners at HMB,” said Jeff Hechtman, HMB's Managing Partner. “I am very proud of each of them and all they have accomplished, and know they will do great…

HMB Represents Long-time Client and Social Enterprise LuminAID in Sale to Leading Provider of Outdoor Recreation Products.

HMB would like to congratulate Loft Growth Partners on its partnership with Back to the Roots.

Jeffrey A. Hechtman and Aaron L. Hammer Discuss Deal Making Insights at the Mid-Market Dealmaker Symposium.

Client Success: Svoboda Capital Partners LLC Announces Recapitalization of The Variable.

Dunes Point Capital, LP Announces Premium Label & Packaging Solutions LLC’s Acquisition of Luminer Converting Group, LLC.

Client Success: HMB Represents Classic Journeys in Sale to Global Provider in Experiential Travel Offerings.

SPI, a portfolio company of DPC, has acquired Amerisafe.

Located in Neenah, WI, All-Lift is a provider of aftermarket services and parts for overhead cranes and other lifting equipment, including OSHA mandated inspections, safety-critical parts and repairs, and crane equipment. All-Lift has three facilities in Wisconsin and Michigan and employs approximately 100 people.

HMB would like to congratulate HAAS Alert on the closing of their equity financing round. The $5M in investment capital will support the nationwide expansion of Safety Cloud, the leading automotive digital alerting system that’s standard on emergency and roadway fleet vehicles. HAAS Alert’s platform enables real-time safety alerts between vehicles and connected infrastructure (V2X) to reduce the risk of…

Beyond Capital Ventures invests in next wave innovation addressing the growing needs of 1 billion+ consumers in India and East Africa. The firm first closed in Spring 2021 and will invest in conscious leaders building businesses to address growing needs in “need-to-have” sectors, primarily in healthcare, agriculture and financial inclusion. 

Specialty Products and Insulation ("SPI"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired the assets of Thermaxx, LLC ("Thermaxx"). Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, SPI is a value added distributor and fabricator of mechanical insulation and complementary products for commercial and industrial applications. SPI's products help conserve energy, preserve worker safety and provide noise abatement. SPI currently operates 57…

Ehrhardt Tool and Machine, LLC, dba Ehrhardt Automation Systems ("EAS"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC") acquires SAF Drives Inc ("SAF Drives"). DPC was represented by HMB’s Private Equity Team, including Corporate Associates Raymond J. Jacobi III and Payal J. Patel.

HMB would like to congratulate Everywhere Wireless, a preeminent Internet service provider in Chicago, and CEO and Founder Keegan Bonebrake and the rest of the Everywhere Wireless team on a successful investment round with M/C Partners ("M/C"), a Boston-based communications and technology focused private equity firm. Everywhere Wireless, one of the largest private Internet Service Providers to multi-family and commercial…

Northmoor Education Foundation awarded $77,000 of college scholarships to 11 outstanding Northmoor employees. The Northmoor Education Foundation (NEF) was founded in 2018 to assist Northmoor Country Club employees, caddies and their children who plan to continue their education in college or vocational school programs. Scholarships are offered each year for full-time or part-time study at accredited institutions of the student’s…

7/13/21 4:30PM - 6:00PM CT The Midwest Chapter is hosting an interactive and enlightening panel discussion on the role of rollover equity in M&A transactions including what you need to know as a seller or buyer to protect your interests in transactions involving rollover equity. Prior to the panel discussion Chapter Leaders and Staff will provide updates on local and…

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the untimely passing of our dear friend and colleague, Joshua Haberkorn. Josh passed away on June 24th at the age of 31 after a long and heroic battle with cancer. Josh was a talented attorney with an incredible work ethic and a contagious smile. Josh started at HMB as a…

Specialty Products and Insulation ("SPI"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired the assets of NewStar Solutions Inc. ("NewStar").

HMB would like to congratulate PechaKucha, a social storytelling platform that has been used by millions of people across the globe, and CEO and Co-founder Sean Smyth and the rest of the PechaKucha team on a $2.7 million Seed funding round. PechaKucha, based in Chicago and Tokyo, is a fast-growing storytelling platform used by millions of people across the globe. Content creators, schools,…

Best in Class Technology Services ("BCTS"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired Thayer Corporation and Dyer Service. Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, BCTS is a provider of commercial HVAC aftermarket services including maintenance, repair and project work. BCTS has 14 locations across seven states and employs over 500 people. For more information, please visit Vulcan Mechanic…

HMB would like to congratulate Parkonect, a cloud-born, mobile-first parking technology company delivering Parking Access and Revenue Control, and its CEO Harlan Karp and the Parkonect team on a successful sale to FLASH, a leader in flexible technology solutions for urban real estate. Parkonect helps properties by facilitating connectivity and mobility in parking assets via real-time intelligence and digital commerce…

Hy-Tek Holdings ("Hy-Tek"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired BP Controls Inc. and Nogol Electric LLC (collectively "BP Controls"). Located in Columbus, OH, Hy-Tek Holdings is a material handling automation integrator serving clients in diverse end markets and applications, including ecommerce, third party logistics and parcel. DPC was represented by HMB’s Private Equity Team. Tax Partner Kenneth…

HMB would like to congratulate DigIn Technologies, LLC d/b/a Spraoi, a leading provider of machine learning capabilities for the Group Life and Employee Benefits industry, and its Co-Founders Karan Mishra, Matthew O’Mara and Santoash Rajaram, on a successful sale to FINEOS Corporation, a global market leader in core systems for life, accident and health insurance. Spraoi is an insurance technology…

HMB congratulates client Kuur Therapeutics Inc. ("Kuur"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of off-the-shelf CAR-NKT cell immunotherapies for the treatment of solid and hematological malignancies, and its CEO Kevin S. Boyle, Sr., on a successful sale to Athenex, Inc. ("Athenex"), a global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapies for the treatment…

Svoboda Capital Partners ("SCP"), a private equity firm, announced its recapitalization of Marcus Thomas LLC ("MT"), a full-service marketing and advertising agency. HMB represented SCP in the recapitalization. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. SCP is a Chicago-based private equity firm that invests in leading middle market growth companies. Founded in 1998, the SCP team has more than…

HMB would like to congratulate Vetspire, an artificial intelligence veterinary medical record and practice management platform, and founder Sam Ginn on a successful sale to Pathway Vet Alliance ("Pathway"), an industry leading veterinary management group serving pets and their parents at more than 400 locations throughout the U.S. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Founded in 2017, Vetspire’s software…

HMB would like to congratulate Lightstream and its CEO and Co-founder Stu Grubbs, COO and Co-founder Aaron Hassell, CCO and Co-founder Ryan Forquer and Principal Engineer and Co-founder Dan Trocchio on a successful sale to Creative Solutions, a division of Vitec Group, a UK publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange. Lightstream is a US-based tech company that builds…

Premium Label & Packaging Solutions, LLC ("PLPS"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired Label Graphics Manufacturing, Inc. ("LGM"). Headquartered in Rye, NY, PLPS is a group holding company for specialty label converters producing custom pressure-sensitive labels, shrink sleeves and related packaging products for the health, wellness, personal care, food and beverage and other markets. DPC…

HMB congratulates Skubana in their strategic sale to 3PL Central ("3PL"), expanding their supply chain technology and filling an important gap in the ecommerce and omnichannel ecosystem. The combination of Skubana's intelligent order orchestration with 3PL Central's extensive network of warehouses offering ecommerce fulfillment and retail replenishment is expected to open a new chapter in software, allowing companies to have…

HMB would like to congratulate WorkChew and its co-founders, Maisha Burt and Allyson McDougal on a successful funding round. WorkChew, a startup that turns hotels and restaurants into on-demand flexible workspaces, raised $2.5 million. With WorkChew, company employees can access workspaces wherever they are: whether in an urban corridor or a suburb outside of a major city. Membership is often…

Specialty Products and Insulation ("SPI"), a portfolio company of Dunes Point Capital, LP ("DPC"), has acquired Rocky Mountain Construction Wholesale, LLC ("RMCW"). Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, SPI is a value added distributor and fabricator of mechanical and building insulation products and complementary products for commercial and industrial applications. The Company currently operates 56 distribution branches and 13 co-located fabrication facilities…

HMB congratulates Aeropay, a Chicago-based digital payments platform powering bank transfer payments for businesses, and CEO and Founder Daniel Muller on announcing the closing of a $5+ million venture round. AeroPay is a next-generation payments company, reimagining the way money is moved in exchange for goods and services. Since its founding, AeroPay has operated with the goal of simplifying payments…

Ashling Partners, LLC ("Ashling"), a professional services and technology firm, announced the closing of a growth capital investment by funds managed by Thomas H. Lee Partners ("THL"). Joshua Bresler, THL Managing Director, and Kearney Shanahan, THL Director, will join the Ashling board of directors as part of the transaction. “The investment and partnership with THL not only enables our global…

HMB congratulates FingerprintJS and its founders, Dan Pinto and Valentin Vasilyev, on closing an $8M Series A financing round. The company, a new kind of toolkit offering a browser fingerprinting service, is based on an open-source project that already has 10 million downloads and 8,000 websites using the service. Fingerprint JS plans to use the capital to expand its fraud prevention…

HMB congratulates the management team of client Surgical Directions, a national consulting, leadership and analytics partner to hospital systems and medical groups who seek to improve their perioperative and anesthesia services, for acquiring the company from Mednax Services, Inc. ("Mednax"), a national health solutions partner. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “We are incredibly excited about how this will…

HMB congratulates client Dina Care, an AI-powered care-at-home platform and network, for successfully closing a $7 million Series A funding round led by Philadelphia-based Osage Venture Partners. Existing investors, strategic partners and Wheaton, Ill.-based First Trust Capital Partners LLC, also participated in the round. Funding will be used to accelerate Dina Care’s development of its industry-leading care coordination platform and…

Illinois-based CaptionAccess is a deaf-owned and managed company providing communication access services to the government, corporate and education sectors. CaptionAccess is strongly positioned in the education sector, providing a broad and complementary expansion of Ai-Media’s enterprise customer base in the region.

Chicago, IL December 18, 2020 HMB Legal Counsel, a preeminent provider of legal services in Business and Finance, State and Local Tax, Trusts and Estates, Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Creditors' Rights, Real Estate and Litigation announced that Robert J. Schaul was elevated to partner. Robert is a partner in HMB’s Business and Finance Group. He focuses his practice on general corporate…

HMB congratulates TruQua, a Chicago-based IT Consulting company, for its sale to IBM. TruQua will enable IBM to broaden its consulting expertise and capabilities to help clients implement SAP solutions that will improve and automate financial management workflows, enhance operational efficiency and, ultimately, drive an enterprise-wide transformation through the adoption of SAP S/4HANA, the latest generation of SAP's ERP business…

HMB congratulates Svoboda Capital Partners LLC ("SC") on their partnership with Clarion Healthcare ("Clarion"). Founded in 1998, SC is a Chicago-based private equity firm that identifies, invests in and helps build excellent businesses in its targeted business niches: value-added distribution, business services and consumer products. “Clarion is a very impressive organization, delivering high value to clients by bridging the intersection…

In less than a decade, Illinois went from treating cannabis as a criminal issue to developing a heavily-regulated legal medical and adult use cannabis industry. Illinois law uses cannabis as a blanket term covering regulated products, including cannabis-infused products, such as edibles. Medical cannabis is a term that covers the same types of product as cannabis, but refers to products…

11/2/20 Chicago, IL HMB Legal Counsel, a preeminent provider of legal services in business and finance, litigation, trusts and estates, real estate, state and local taxes and corporate reorganization, bankruptcy and creditor's rights, announced that Loan K. Tran joins the firm as an associate in the Business and Finance group and Elysa J. Chew joins the firm as an associate…

HMB congratulates FingerprintJS and its founders, Dan Pinto and Valentin Vasilyev, on closing a $4M financing round. The company, a new kind of toolkit offering a browser fingerprinting service, is based on an open-source project that already has 5 million downloads and 8,000 websites using the service. “We have a unique opportunity to disrupt the fraud technology market by enabling our…

HMB congratulates AM Money, also known as Chicago Student Loans, and CEO & Founder Daniel Rogers, on closing a financing round. AM Money fights to give low-income students across the city, state and country every opportunity to graduate from college, find quality employment and build wealth. Google for Startups is one of AM Money's many supporters and has provided additional funding through…

HMB congratulates AeroPay, a Chicago-based alternative payments platform, and CEO & Founder Daniel Muller, on closing a seed round to accelerate its growth led by Continental Investors. The AeroPay platform eliminates traditional payment processing burdens and enables seamless bank-to-bank digital payments between businesses and their customers. The platform is built to work in any environment, both in-person or online. With…

Cohesion, a Chicago-based startup which makes a SaaS platform for building managers, announced that it raised $6.5 million in a funding round led by HPA, with participation from Frasers Property Group, investment firm CMT and a host of individual angel investors. HMB represented Hyde Park Angels (HPA) in their lead investment and congratulates HPA on the closing. HPA's people-first approach…

HMB congratulates client, Red Flag Mania, a game-based investigative experience, and founders Roni Jackson and Kelly Richmond Pope, on their recent partnership with WGU Labs, Inc. ("WGU"). Under the agreement, WGU will make both a service and capital investment in Red Flag Mania, that's innovative e-learning solution combines film, theory and "whodunit" fun to empower learners to use data to…

Alicia was named to Best Lawyers 2021 Ones to Watch List. These awards are recognitions given to attorneys who are earlier in their careers for outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the United States. Best Lawyers' methodology for determining these awards is through peer-review. Learn more about Alicia here.…

Mark-It Express Logistics LLC ("Mark-It"), a leading Midwest intermodal trucking and freight brokerage company, acquired Sava Transportation ("Sava"), a Maywood, Illinois-based intermodal freight hauling company. HMB represented Mark-It in the acquisition. Mark-It, founded in 2009 and recently named to Crain Chicago's Fast 50 for the second time and INC. 5000 for the fourth time, offers a full array of third-party…

Chicago, IL July 21, 2020 HMB Legal Counsel, a preeminent provider of legal services announced Brett M. Winterstein as the Practice Chair for the Business and Finance Group. As a practice group leader, Brett will oversee coaching, planning, economic oversight, positioning and recruitment for his group. Practice group leadership transitions are part of HMB's planning and leadership strategy, designed to…

On June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (“PPPFA”) was enacted, amending key provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). The changes provide relief to borrowers of PPP loans in the form of expanded forgiveness and increased flexibility in the use of loan proceeds. Businesses…

Omnitracs, LLC ("Omnitracs"), a global pioneer of fleet management solutions to transportation and logistics companies, announced its acquisition of VisTracks, a leading provider of device-agnostic, SaaS-based compliance solutions to the transportation and logistics industry. HMB represented VisTracks' founder, Stephen G. Eick, in the transaction. The VisTracks architecture provides a lightweight, mobile device-based and cloud-enabled solution, which will allow Omnitracs to…

Project Management Advisors ("PMA"), a real estate and development consultancy company, announced its partnership with American Realty Project Management ("ARPM"), a full-range construction oversight and project management company. HMB represented PMA. This partnership will expand the Austin offices and broaden both PMA and ARPM client and industry sector involvement in the Austin market and neighboring area. The alliance will continue…

Hadley Capital ("Hadley"), a small-business investor, announced its acquisition of Equustock, a manufacturer of animal bedding and litter products, predominantly horse-related products sold under their Guardian Horse Bedding brand. HMB represented Hadley in the transaction. Founded in 1998 bu Scott Dickes, Hadley plans to build on the Guardian Horse Bedding brand's excellent reputation and to expand Equustock's production capacity and…

May 12, 2020 As COVID-19 presses state and local governments to continue their shutdown orders, some businesses are incurring extensive expenses and losses. Whether the business is open with limited capacity, allowing employees to work from home, or closed until the orders are lifted,  businesses are asking if and how insurance can provide relief. This article provides information on the…

The Small Business Reorganization Act (SBRA) was enacted in February 2020 with no one anticipating the global pandemic. Today, the financial consequences have hit small businesses hard. The SBRA, commonly known as Subchapter V, may provide much-needed relief to small businesses as they struggle through the crisis. With the Subchapter V election likely to surge during and after the pandemic,…

As Illinois and other states begin to rollback stay-at-home orders, employers need to be prepared for employee COVID-19 claims. Please join us for a 45 minute discussion on how to prepare your business to manage COVID-19 in the workplace. The discussion will include guidance on: What to do when an employee notifies you that they have COVID-19 What to do…

Many current businesses own cyber insurance policies that actually may not cover incidents or claims that are the result of an employee using his/her own personal device(s) for Work From Home (“WFH”) purposes for their employer. This is an easy mistake for employees as WFH is the current norm. As with all insurance contracts, whether there is coverage or not…

Engineered Plastic Systems ("EPS"), an engineer and manufacturer of high-density polyethylene ("HDPE"), announced its acquisition by CMI Limited Co. ("CMI"), a Georgia-based manufacturing portfolio company of Capital Partners. HMB represented EPS in the transaction. EPS is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois and manufactures HDPE for decking, railing and park products among others. Founded in 2000, EPS markets its products under Lumberock,…

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) is Congress’s initial economic stimulus plan in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Additional economic stimulus packages are expected. The CARES Act was signed into law by the President today. The $2 trillion package provides relief to businesses, individuals, families, the healthcare system, states, and more. We are continuing to review…

Covid-19 is disrupting businesses, their supply chains and their customers and causing major losses. Governors of Illinois, California, New York and Pennsylvania have issued “stay at home” and similar orders impacting employees and many businesses. Are any of these losses covered by insurance? The answer is maybe. The type of insurance a business carries and the specific insurance policy language are critical to determine…

DataCubes is the first underwriting decisioning platform for commercial property and casualty insurance. Leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence software, DataCubes provides commercial carriers of all sizes the ability to make real-time underwriting decisions. The intelligence gathered provides efficient, accurate, and productive steps forward for DataCubes' clients. The company was founded in 2016 by Kuldeep Malik and Harish Neelamana and…

HMB represented Ascent in a $19.3 Million Series B Funding Round, led by Drive Capital. Ascent is an AI-driven solution company. Their goal is to help customers automate regulatory compliance by delivering customers regulatory knowledge in the form of a dynamic obligations register. This approach reduces the mundane and error-prone manual efforts of regulatory research and analysis. With Series B…

HMB represented EDCO Health Information Solutions Inc. in it's sale to BV Investment Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on the business services, software and IT sectors. Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, EDCO provides automated unstructured data indexing solutions to healthcare providers. EDCO's Solarity®, a patented medical record indexing software, gives automated transformation of unstructured data into clinically relevant patient…

HMB represented Launchways in a new partnership deal with Patriot Growth Insurance Services, LLC. Launchways, founded in 2009, provides business leaders with human resources consulting, employee benefits and commercial insurance solutions. Launchways has guided over 400 customers to overcome insurance and human resources challenges throughout the Midwest. The company recently moved its headquarters to Chicago to accommodate its growing employee…

HMB represented Quantitative Insights, developer of QuantX, the first-ever FDA-cleared computer-aided breast cancer diagnosis system in radiology, in its sale to Qlarity Imaging, a portfolio company of Paragon Biosciences. Quantitative Insights was founded at the University of Chicago around technology developed at the University and with the support of the University’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Paragon is a…

Spring 2014 The winter months were unusually cool in late 2013 and early 2014, and most middle market borrowers and lenders will likely concede that lending activity during those months was equally cool.  The optimism for robust deal flow in 2013 never materialized into actual results, even though most middle market lenders remained quite optimistic until the bitter end.  Spring,…

CHICAGO, September 13, 2011 - Four highly-experienced partners have joined the Chicago business law firm of Horwood Marcus & Berk Chartered (HMB), expanding the firm's service offerings in the areas of banking, finance, securities, restructuring and bankruptcy, as well as commercial litigation. The four most recently practiced in the Chicago office of a large Detroit-based law firm and prior to that the…