Terri Krivosha
Senior Counsel and Chair of Professional Development
Overview
Terri Krivosha, business attorney and mediator, enjoys nothing more than helping shareholders, family business owners, and companies buy or sell businesses or solve their legal problems—the more complicated, the better. Terri loves helping clients and parties to a mediation resolve conflict.
After years of experience with a wide array of commercial transactions and businesses, Terri is now focusing her practice on M&A, restructurings and shareholder business divorces, and mediation of commercial disputes.
M&A and Restructuring
Terri excels at helping clients accomplish their goals by listening first and then not only answering their questions but helping clients identify the key questions they're not asking. Whether guiding shareholders through a company split, managing a large merger/acquisition for a buyer or a seller, representing family members or business partners in the sale of a long-held business, or helping a company restructure to better align business and goals, Terri brings a time-tested sense of which approaches work and which do not. Terri works with clients in many industries, including manufacturing, technology, healthcare, consumer products, and professional services, bringing her experience in one area to inform her advice in others.
Mediation
Terri is a qualified neutral, and as such is included on the Minnesota State Court Administrator's roster of mediation providers under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice, Minnesota Supreme Court. As a deal lawyer, rather than a litigator, she is unique among mediators because she brings her many years of experience negotiating deals to the mediation table—along with her trademark high energy, active listening skills, creativity, and pragmatic approach.
(View separate mediation bio.)
In her capacity as a mediator, Terri draws upon her decades of experience spanning a wide array of industries, and deftly works with parties to help them resolve disputes with practical business solutions, enabling the parties to get beyond the dispute and move forward.
She revels in being "in the trenches" to mediate all manner of disputes, focusing primarily on conflicts regarding the following:
• Shareholder disputes
• Mergers & acquisitions
• Exit strategies
• Recapitalizations
• Earnouts
• Indemnifications
• Complex contracts
• General commercial disputes
Clients have frequently referred Terri to their business associates and friends, and, on occasion, even hired her after witnessing her skillful representation of an opponent. One client shared, "Her intuitive business sense together with her passion for helping clients achieve success permeates everything she does. She listens, sees the big picture and relies on her years of experience to provide practical and creative advice efficiently…Terri has provided strategic and tactical insight and been able to deploy her colleagues at Maslon where we need to create and lead a collaborative group of experts on whom we can rely."
Beyond her daily law practice and mediation work, Terri writes and speaks regularly on topics related to her practice. She also served for six years as an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. At Maslon, she served as the first female head of the firm from 2003 to 2007, and she chaired the firm's Corporate & Securities Group from 2009 through 2013. In those roles, Terri learned valuable lessons about the operation of a business which she applies to her practice still today.
Experience
- Represented Randy's Environmental Services, a mid-sized leading family owned and operated waste management company in the Midwest, in its acquisition by Republic Services.
- Represented QXMédical, LLC, a medical device manufacturing company, in its acquisition of Embomedics, LLC, a developer of resorbable embolization.
- Represented Crane Engineering, Inc., in its sale of its stock to Engineering Services, Inc.
- Represented Amano McGann, Inc., an off street parking manufacturer, in its acquisition of CVPS, a company that provides valet parking solutions.
- Represented The Burchfield Group, Inc., a company that provides pharmacy benefits consulting in its acquisition by Aon Consulting, Inc.
- Represented Stellar Technologies, Inc., a medical device manufacturer, in its sale to Cirtec Medical, LLC.
- Represented Amano Pioneer Eclipse Corporation in its acquisition of the floor sander division of Nilfisk-Advance, Inc.
- Represented a conference business in the oil and gas industry in connection with its sale to a private equity fund.
- Represented a public company in the acquisition and divestiture of more than 15 privately held companies over a three-year period.
- Represented multiple start-up businesses in a wide variety of industries assisting in their entity formation, raising funds, negotiation of licensing arrangements and development of growth strategies.
- Represented Iconoculture, Inc., in its sale to Corporate Executive Board.
- Represented a manufacturer of retail products in a joint venture with a Pacific Rim company.
- Represented a value-added reseller of information technology products and services in its acquisition of a strategic privately held company.
- Represented a national diversity consulting firm in connection with the sale of its stock to a national competitor.
- Represented a manufacturing company of automatic parking lot equipment in connection with its sale to a strategic buyer.
- Represented a personal care company in connection with its sale to a private equity firm and subsequent recapitalization.
- Represented a publisher in connection with its purchase, and later sale, of an audio publishing company.
- Represented a healthcare IT consulting company in connection with its sale to a large multinational corporation.
- Represented investors in Israeli companies and the companies themselves and has extensive knowledge of Israel, its language and culture, and thus serves as a valuable bridge in American-Israeli transactions.
Pro Bono
- Project N95: Provided pro bono counsel to a group of volunteers from across the country when they joined forces to create Project N95—a dynamic nonprofit organization serving as a national clearinghouse to source crucial suppliers in order to serve healthcare providers at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.
- Lake Street Speaks: Represented a local entrepreneur who collected poetry and photographs of street art that arose in the Lake Street area of Minneapolis in the summer of 2020. The entrepreneur published this collection in a book called Lake Street Speaks and established a nonprofit whose mission is to support schools and local nonprofits that promote the health, education, and creativity of BIPOC youth in schools.
Additional Qualifications
Qualified neutral under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice, Minnesota Supreme Court
Trained Mediator, American Arbitration Association
Honors
Sidney Barrows Lifetime Commitment Award, Twin Cities Cardozo Society, 2024. This award is given annually to one or two senior attorneys or judges in the Twin Cities who exemplify excellence in their practice, community service in the Jewish and general communities, and commitment to lifelong learning.
2021 Minnesota Icon Award, Finance & Commerce (The Minnesota Icon awards recognize individuals with proven success throughout a lengthy and accomplished career. These honorees are leaders in their field who have been active in their communities and in mentoring the next generation.)
Recognized on Minnesota Super Lawyers® list, 2015-2024 (Minnesota Super Lawyers® is a designation given to only 5% of Minnesota attorneys each year, based on a selection process that includes the recommendation of peers in the legal profession.)
Top Women Attorneys in Minnesota® list, 2016-2023 (The annual edition of the Top Women Attorneys in Minnesota list features attorneys selected for the previous year's Minnesota Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars lists.)
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2024-2025
2008 Woman of Vision, National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO)
2006 Women Industry Leader, Twin Cities Business Journal’s 9th Annual "Women in Business Awards"
AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell®