Keith G. Baldwin
Senior Counsel
Keith Baldwin is a highly experienced business transactions and securities lawyer with a forty-year history of serving clients’ legal needs. Keith focuses his practice on business relationships, including mergers and acquisitions, making agreements and solving problems among owner-entrepreneurs, and best practices for corporate governance. Keith’s practice particularly emphasizes family-owned and other closely held private businesses, businesses funded by non-U.S. investors, and U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations. He assists growth-oriented companies in raising capital in compliance with federal and state securities laws, and serves as outside counsel to both emerging and mature businesses. He is also co-editor of Davis Wright Tremaine’s Family Business Resource Center, a law blog serving family-owned and closely held businesses.
Keith is a frequent public speaker on business succession planning and corporate matters, and co-authored the Private Equity Funds chapter of the "Washington Partnership and Limited Liability Company Deskbook." He is also a frequent speaker to inbound Chinese investors on doing business in the United States.
Practice Highlights
- Counseling business owners in transitioning their interests to another generation or to management
- Advising private companies on corporate governance and ethical standards that derive from adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
- Corporate mergers and acquisitions, including stock and asset transitions, spinoffs and recapitalizations
- Advising inbound Chinese investors on U.S. business and investment practices
- Corporate shareholder/management dispute resolution where litigation is not a realistic option
- Extensive experience with Federal Regulation D and state blue sky laws, Rule 144, Investment Advisers Act, and Investment Company Act exemptions for private companies
- Advising investment professionals on the formation of private investment funds, including hedge funds, venture funds, social benefit funds and real estate funds
Admitted to Practice
-
Washington, 1976
Education
-
B.S., Geology, Oceanography, University of Washington, 1970, cum laude with college honors
-
J.D., Stanford Law School, 1976
Memberships & Affiliations
-
- Co-Editor and Frequent Author, Family Business Resource Center, www.familyownedbusinessadvisors.com
- Co-Author, “Six Keys for Successful Investment in the U.S.”, Mandarin language article in Seattle Luxury Living Magazine, January 2016
- Member, Securities Committee, Business Law Section, and Past Chair, Legislative Committee – Washington State Bar Association
- Past Chair, Legislation Committee, King County Bar Association
- Member, Corporate Law Section, American Bar Association
- Chair, Advisory Council, Bellevue Arts Museum
- Past President, Board of Trustees, Bellevue Arts Museum
- Board of Directors, Bear Creek Country Club Homeowners Association
Professional Recognition
-
- Named one of the "Best Lawyers in America" in Corporate, M&A, and Securities Law by Best Lawyers, 2003-2006; named in Corporate Law, 2007-present
- Selected to "Washington Super Lawyers," Thomson Reuters, 2000-2006, 2010-2020
- Avvo rated