Angela C. Baldwin

About

Angela’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, trademark protection, and general corporate counsel. She brings a business owner’s perspective to each: she holds both a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and an M.B.A. from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, and she has founded and run businesses of her own. She understands that legal decisions are business decisions, and she advises clients with both in mind.

Angela works with clients throughout North Carolina and represents trademark clients nationwide. Her clients range from founders launching their first venture to established, closely held companies preparing for growth or sale. They include medical and therapy practices, insurance agencies, real estate businesses, industrial companies, landscaping companies, restaurants, retail and e-commerce businesses, and professional services firms, among other service based businesses.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Selling or buying a business is often the most consequential transaction an owner will ever make. Angela represents buyers and sellers from the earliest conversations through closing. She helps structure the deal, prepares and negotiates letters of intent, manages due diligence, and drafts and negotiates purchase agreements. She also handles the ancillary documents that often determine whether a deal works in practice, including transition services agreements, seller financing arrangements, employment agreements, and restrictive covenant agreements.

She also helps owners plan ahead for succession. Whether the goal is a sale to a third party, a transfer to family members, or a buyout by key employees, she works with clients and their other advisors to prepare the company well before a transition is on the table.

Trademarks

A strong brand is often a company’s most valuable asset, and it is far easier to protect from the start than to defend later. Angela counsels clients nationwide on selecting and clearing marks before launch, prepares and prosecutes applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and responds to office actions. She also helps clients maintain and monitor their portfolios as they grow.

Because she also advises on transactions, Angela helps clients account for their trademarks in corporate deals and business relationships. She drafts and negotiates trademark assignments and license agreements, whether a brand is changing hands in a sale or being shared with a partner, licensee, or affiliate.

Corporate

Angela serves as outside general counsel to companies at every stage. She advises on entity selection and formation and drafts operating agreements, bylaws, and shareholder agreements. She also counsels owners on governance, ownership changes, and disputes among owners. On the commercial side, she drafts and negotiates the contracts businesses rely on every day, including vendor and customer agreements, services agreements, licenses, and nondisclosure agreements. She also advises on private capital raises and related securities compliance.

Angela earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Clemson University in just two and a half years before moving to North Carolina for law school. Outside of work, she enjoys trying new restaurants and traveling with her family.