Ian R. Cohen

Ian R. Cohen is the deal lawyer who's been the GC. He is the founder and principal attorney of IRC Legal, a New York boutique for M&A and fractional general counsel work. He represents owners and buyers in lower-middle-market acquisitions and exits, and serves as outside General Counsel to companies that need one and can't yet justify a full-time hire.

He spent nearly a decade in New York BigLaw at Schulte Roth & Zabel and BakerHostetler on high-stakes M&A and securities matters, and founded IRC Legal in 2013 between the two. At BakerHostetler he was part of the firm's team representing the Madoff Trustee, and is named among the attorneys the Securities Investor Protection Corporation credited with assisting the Madoff Recovery Initiative. He then served as General Counsel of Pharmapacks and its parent, Packable, a venture-backed and later PE-backed ecommerce company, where he is listed on the management team in the investor presentation filed with the SEC announcing Packable's proposed business combination with Highland Transcend Partners I Corp. At Packable he also served as interim head of HR. He guided that business through nine-figure financings and an announced SPAC merger. When the market turned, he stayed through the unwind.

That combination is the point. Clients get BigLaw deal mechanics and the judgment of someone who has sat in the GC seat.

He has closed 500-plus transactions totaling over $3 billion in deal value, including two billion-dollar PE-backed exits. He handles buy-side and sell-side M&A, typically $5 million to $250 million, and has closed at $1 billion-plus. He also embeds as fractional general counsel and advises founders and executives on equity, employment, non-competes, and board matters.

Online, he is known as Bitcoin Lawyer Guy (@btclawyerguy).

Representative Transactions

M&A and Exits

• $1 billion sale of PE-backed telecom company
• $1 billion sale of PE-backed government contracting business
• Minority and majority investments
• Joint ventures, partnerships, and fund formation

Financings

• Series A, B, and C financing rounds ($50 million to $300 million)
• Seed financing rounds ($10 million to $50 million)
• SAFE note and convertible note financing rounds
• Going public transactions, including SPAC transactions
• Tender offers

Operational and Commercial

• Hundreds of commercial agreements across technology, SaaS, ecommerce, retail, logistics, B2B, and B2C
• Licensing and lease agreements
• Entity formations
• Dispute resolution

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Bar Admission & Recognition

• New York, admitted 2010 (NYS Registration No. 4802245)
• Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2014 – 2019

Education

Hofstra University - School of Law, JD

University of Maryland — College Park, BA