Donna Brooks has 25 years of experience serving as a counselor and advisor to clients in diverse industries, including healthcare, bioscience, agri-business, technology, services and manufacturing. Her business clients include emerging growth companies and middle market companies, including public companies. Donna’s clients have included various healthcare providers, tissue banks, physician practice management companies, medical device companies, a healthcare informatics company, dairy and natural food cooperatives, a provider of smart grid technologies for utilities, architectural firms, and various manufacturers. Donna assists her clients “in the business of doing business.” She helps clients by providing practical advice on a breadth of issues, including business organization, business operations and contracting, corporate governance, asset management, finance, raising capital, private and public offerings of securities, equity compensation, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. For businesses in the development stage, especially bioscience companies, Donna assists them with research and development agreements, including sponsored research and consulting agreements with universities and their faculty and technology transfer offices. Donna also assists companies with both federal and state securities laws compliance and with the preparation and filing of SEC periodic reports, registration statements, Section 16 stock ownership reports and proxy materials.
In addition to her role as a business counselor, Donna represents institutional investors, venture capital funds, mezzanine funds and other private investment funds, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental lenders such as the Connecticut Development Authority, Connecticut Innovations and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. Donna has assisted private investment funds in making numerous portfolio investments in a wide range of industries including retail and consumer goods, manufacturing and health services. She has also assisted Connecticut Innovations with the structure and administration of its funding of stem cell initiatives in Connecticut. In addition, she has represented institutional investors in making alternative investments with varying investment objectives, including channel finance, credit default obligations, low-income housing and historic rehabilitation tax credits, and real estate. She has also assisted various endowments in vetting and engaging investment managers. In addition, through her representation of various private investment funds, Donna has been involved in highly complex transactions, requiring an appreciation of the issues of holders of senior debt, mezzanine debt, and seller debt, as well as equity sponsors and venture capitalists, and she is experienced in successfully negotiating, documenting and closing these multi-tiered transactions. She is often called on to write and speak about securities law and venture finance matters.