Douglas J. Drennan Partner
DJ Drennan's practice encompasses a wide range of business transactions, with a core expertise in corporations/LLCs, securities law, equity compensation plans (including stock options, restricted stock and vesting profits interest), private placements, bond financings, convertible note/bridge financings, venture capital and private equity financings, loan agreements, secured transactions, buy-outs and buy-ins, mergers & acquisitions, and succession planning. He has extensive experience working with owners and companies throughout the entire life cycle of a business, and he understands the unique circumstances of family-owned businesses.
DJ received his JD in 1995 from UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. He received an LLM (Masters of Law) in Japanese and International Business Law in 1996 from Kyushu University in Japan, where he lived for three years. He received a BA in Japanese in 1992 from Brigham Young University. Prior to joining SMT in 2002, DJ worked in the San Francisco offices of Perkins Coie LLP and Brown & Wood LLP.
DJ is a member of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, as well as the Business Law Section and the Intellectual Property & Technology Section of the Sonoma County Bar Association. He has spoken on various topics at U.C. Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, Kyushu University Faculty of Law, Santa Rosa Junior College, as well other venues.
Practice Areas
Business Asset and Stock Purchases • Buy-Sell Agreements • Contracts • Corporate Finance • Corporate Governance • Corporations | LLCs | Partnerships • Financings | Private Placements • Formations | Dissolutions • Mergers | Acquisitions • Noncompetition | Nonsolicitation • Reorganizations | Recapitalizations • Secured Transactions • Securities • Stock Options | Equity Compensation • Succession Planning • Venture Capital •
Real Property Leases • Lender | Borrower
Professional Affiliations
Publications
Representative Presentations
Representative Client Matters
Publications & Presentations
- “Getting Serious about Delaware Series LLCs,” SMT Newsletter, 2004
- “California Business Entities” presentations, Santa Rosa Junior College, 2003-2004
- "Asset Securitization in the United States and Japan," presentation, Faculty of Law, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, 1999
- "Regulation and Response: Industrial Safety and Health Law in Japan," 64 HOSEI KENKYU (Journal of Law and Politics) 932, 1998
- "The First Step Towards a Heisei Minpo: Revision of Japan's Family and Succession Laws," presentation, Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California at Berkeley, 1996