Susan E. Pravda

Susan E. Pravda is office managing partner of Foley & Lardner’s Boston office, chair of the firm’s Emerging Technologies Industry Team, and a member of the Private Equity & Venture Capital and Transactional & Securities Practices, and the Life Sciences and Nanotechnology Industry Teams. Prior to joining Foley, she was co-managing partner at Epstein Becker & Green’s Boston office.

Ms. Pravda’s practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and securities transactions. She represents high-growth and emerging businesses, including companies in the telecommunications, Internet, software, wireless and service industries, as well as life science and biotechnology companies, from start-ups to public companies.

Ms. Pravda also frequently acts as special mergers and acquisitions counsel for "middle-market" private and public companies in the manufacturing, service, consulting and technology sectors, including buyers, sellers and management groups. She advises clients with respect to valuation issues, stockholder relationships, incentive compensation plans, director and officer liability and contractual issues.

Ms. Pravda lectures frequently to businessmen/ businesswomen and professionals on buying and selling middle-market companies and is a frequent keynote presenter for Vistage International meetings nationwide. Her articles on mergers and acquisitions, creative financing tools, and negotiating techniques appear in a variety of business publications. Ms. Pravda’s extensive knowledge as a negotiator of mergers and acquisitions is highlighted in the book, "Swim with the Dolphins: How Women Can Succeed in Corporate America on Their Own Terms," by Connie Glaser and Barbara Steinberg Smalley. She is the co-editor of MCLE’s Buying and Selling a Privately Owned Business in Massachusetts.

Ms. Pravda received her J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude, 1983) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University (magna cum laude, 1980).

Ms. Pravda is a director of the Boston Public Library Foundation and the YWCA Boston, and serves on the boards of a number of technology and life science companies. In 2004, 2005 and 2006, Ms. Pravda was named a Massachusetts Super Lawyer, an honor received by only 5% of Massachusetts attorneys. She has also been selected by her peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2007©.

Ms. Pravda is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New York, and the District of Columbia. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and Boston Bar Association, where she is co-chair of the Mergers & Acquisitions Committee.