Steven A. Scolari

Co-Chair, Closely Held & Family Owned Businesses

sscolari@stradley.com

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Steven Scolari

Overview

Steve provides practical and strategic legal and business advice to executives and owners of both private and public businesses in connection with a variety of transactional matters, as well as business succession planning engagements, in a wide scope of industries. Those transactions include mergers and acquisitions (M&A), debt and equity financings, joint ventures and corporate restructurings.

As co-chair of Stradley Ronon’s closely held & family owned businesses practice, Steve's business succession planning engagements encompass corporate, tax, estate planning and family issues, including complex intergenerational shareholder and voting trust agreements. Additionally, he provides general corporate counseling for institutional and privately held corporate clients, and he represents both sellers and buyers of naming rights and other sponsorship rights connected with sports, entertainment and university facilities. Steve has also served as a mediator of closely held business owner disputes.

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Results

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Representative Matters

Steve has served as lead counsel for:

  • a clinical trial concierge services provider in an acquisition by an innovator of software solutions for clinical trials backed by one of the largest software investors in the world
  • a producer and distributor of novelty ice cream products in the acquisition of a controlling interest by a private investment firm
  • a domestic and international contract research organization’s acquisition via merger of another pharmaceutical services company to expand the organization’s scope of services in the new drug field
  • an investment management company’s closing of a minority investment in its organization by a major international institutional financial services company
  • a closely held manufacturing business that increased its revenues by 2,000 percent in four years via leveraged acquisitions, which included the negotiation and drafting of the acquisition agreements, as well as senior and mezzanine debt financing documentation
  • a domestic purveyor of meat products in its merger with a strategic competitor, creating a vertically integrated, national supplier of such products
  • The Penn State Alumni Association’s multiyear extension of its affinity credit card and deposit account program with Bank of America
  • numerous closely held business owners in a wide variety of industries (including recycled rubber products, distribution, continuing care facilities, physician practice groups, architecture, food processing and human resource consulting); mapping out and implementing their business succession plans, which include a sale of the business (to strategic or financial buyers or to key management personnel) or passing equity onto the next generation while maintaining control of the company; and working closely with those owners to address complicated intergenerational issues in connection with those transactions
  • Citizens Bank’s 25-year, $95 million naming rights, advertising and sponsorship agreement with the Philadelphia Phillies, and also (i) The Mann Music Center for The Performing Arts in connection with the sale of naming rights to its main house pavilion to TD Bank, (ii) the owners of eight sport and entertainment facilities in the United States in connection with their sale of naming rights for such venues, (iii) numerous public assembly facilities for the pouring rights and concession agreements at those venues and (iv) Saint Joseph’s University for the sale of corporate sponsorships for its Division I athletic program and the pouring rights agreement for the University.
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Credentials

Bar Admissions
  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey
Education
  • J.D., cum laude, Duke University School of Law
  • B.A., summa cum laude, Drew University
Memberships

  • American Bar Association, Business Law Section
  • Board of Directors, Southeastern Pennsylvania Chambers Political Action Committee
  • Executive Committee and Immediate Past Chairman, Board of Directors, Main Line Chamber of Commerce
  • Forum Committee on the Entertainment and Sports Industries, American Bar Association
  • Pennsylvania Bar Association, Banking and Business Law Sections

Publications

Speaking Engagements

  • Presenter, "Mitigation, Optimization & Maximization: Examining successful business transitions," Stradley Ronon
  • Moderator, “Maximize Your Success with Pre-Transaction Tax Structuring,” Small Business Dealmakers Conference
  • Panelist, “Succession Planning and Exit Strategies: Positioning Your Business to Succeed,” Stradley Ronon and Valley Bank
  • Presenter, “Hot Topics in M&A 2022,” Philadelphia Bar Institute
  • Presenter, “Business Succession Planning: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” Smart Business Dealmakers Conference
  • Presenter, “Excellence Award: Winner’s Roundtable,” Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia
  • Presenter, “Planning for a Successful Business Transition,” AssetMark Family Business Succession Retreat
  • Presenter, “Planning the Transition: Navigating the Ownership Transition” 
  • Presenter, “Best Practices for Preparing the Next Generation for Governance & Wealth”
  • Presenter, “The Buy-Sell Agreement: Ticking Time Bomb or Golden Parachute?”
  • Presenter, “Business Succession Planning, The ‘Keep-Sell’ Decision”
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Recognitions

  • SmartCEO Magazine, Legal Elite
  • Main Line Chamber of Commerce Chairman’s Award
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In The Community

Steve is the immediate past chairman of the board of directors for the Main Line Chamber of Commerce, currently serving in that capacity on its executive committee and having served as chairman in 2014-2015 and as vice chairman in 2012-2013. He recently participated in the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural, six-month Growth Collaborative Initiative with other regional professionals and non-profit executives. He is also a member of the youth education steering committee for St. John’s Presbyterian Church.
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