Z&D Special Counsel Patti Harris Quoted in Contractor Magazine

Zetlin & De Chiara LLP Special Counsel Patti Harris was quoted in Contractor Magazine on private equity (PE) investment in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) skilled trades. In an article titled “Solid Business Sense: Private Equity and the MEP Trades,” Ms. Harris highlights due diligence concerns as PE firms look to offer investment can accelerate growth and offer financial freedom.

“The idea from the private equity side is that there is an opportunity to take these small, very localized businesses, regionalize them and rebrand them […], so that you have a corps of entities, such as plumbing and heating, fire protection or roofing,” explains Patricia Harris, a construction industry attorney with Zetlin & De Chiara. She’s also the founder of Licensure LLC, incubated by Zetlin & De Chiara, which supports the administrative aspects of licensing and the strategic planning involved in business rollouts.

Due diligence in these matters is crucial to success down the road. “The most important thing for contractors to know if they are thinking about selling their business is to have your housekeeping in order,” she emphasizes. “There's a whole range of due diligence questions that that a potential purchaser is going to ask, from employment agreements to litigation history, to licenses people that you employ or the owners carry, to licenses that the business carries, to workers comp and insurance programs. These deals happen fast. It's worth getting counsel in advance if you think you're going to sell the business, to understand what you're going to need to disclose and start to put it together in a meaningful way.”

To read the full article written by Kelly L. Fallon on the Contractor Magazine website click here.