Baltimore partner Colleen Pleasant Kline is a transactional lawyer who serves as outside general corporate counsel and advisor to middle market clients. She assists her clients in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, succession planning, venture capital investments and general corporate governance matters. She regularly advises clients on Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification filings.

Her diverse client base includes privately held companies, portfolio companies, private equity firms, American subsidiaries of foreign owned entities and public companies, government contractors, manufacturers, distributors, and real estate entities and serial entrepreneurs.

Why M&A?

I’ve always enjoyed M&A because it is an elaborate puzzle where you need to solve. It requires that you not only understand your clients’ businesses but interact with a significant number of subject matter experts (internal and external) to find the best ultimate resolution. No transaction is ever the same, so it always stays fresh and challenging each time. While I represent both buyers and sellers, I especially enjoy helping my privately held clients navigate what is often one of the biggest business decisions they make.

What are some of the traits that you admire the most amongst your peers?

I value my colleagues who are not only intelligent but creative in finding solutions to our respective clients issues. Individuals who are entrepreneurial understand more acutely the challenges or drivers for our clients, and that helps us to provide excellent practical advice for a business. More often than not, there is more than one possible solution to a legal issue and being willing to explain what those options may be, and why perhaps certain options may not be available or ideal to our client is critical in building trust and finding the best outcome for them.

What is one piece of advice you would give to individuals who want to get into this industry?

Stay curious. The law is frequently changing and our client’s businesses evolve. It is important to not only have an excellent substantive knowledge of the law, but also to understand the companies that we represent and the key motivators for the key stakeholders of our client. If you don’t know what motivates your client, while you may be offering good technical advice, it may not be the right advice or option for the client based on what their key motivators or metrics are.

What’s one piece of advice that greatly impacted you and your career trajectory?

 I was lucky to have a mentor early in my legal career, who had been very influential in helping me learn how to communicate and provide clients with options (when feasible) on how to tackle a business or legal matter. He once told me to remember Maya Angelou when it came to clients and her quote “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” He said being technically correct is not enough to have a trusted advisor relationship. By that he meant that we should be mindful of providing our information to the client in the best way that this particular client will understand and be able to communicate that information effectively. You also must be not only technically proficient, but responsive and empathetic in your advice. The greatest value we can provide to our clients is showing them we are sensitive to the costs as much as the benefits of a particular legal solution.