Eric A. Kauffman

Kauffman has handled his share of mergers and acquisitions over the years, but finds one constant: "Each deal has its own flavor," he said.

He spent the first 15 years of his career handling employment litigation, claims and counseling.

Ten years ago, Kauffman switched his focus to mergers and acquisitions, and private equity. Kauffman now specializes in compensation structures, rather than litigation.

"Everyone is working towards a common goal: To get the deal signed," Kauffman said. "I really like the corporate piece ... because I get to learn new things."

The most complex aspect is "getting to understand the companies themselves ... how a company operates, its history, and how you're moving these employees and executives over to the new company. That's what makes it a success."

In less than two years, Kauffman has offered legal advice to companies that specialize in information technology, cybersecurity and finance.

Kauffman served as the lead employment law advisor to a large investment firm in many acquisitions over the past two years.

He advised in a deal to buy AI-powered mortgage automation software.

Another of Kauffman's clients relied on his counsel as it purchased a cloud infrastructure leader in real-time monitoring and metrics in a $1.05 billion deal in August 2019.

Kauffman advised global cybersecurity company in its December 2019 acquisition of security business.

-- Karen Weil