Biography
Rob Lesan is co-leader of the firm’s Business Representation & Transactions Group. He has broad experience in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures encompassing both public and private acquisitions, dispositions, carve-outs, co-investments, joint ventures and general corporate matters. Rob also represents both franchisors and franchisees in complying with the FTC Franchise Rule and other applicable state franchise disclosure, termination, and related laws and regulations.
Rob has substantial experience in technology transactions, representing firm clients in matters ranging from traditional software licensing and development to structuring sophisticated cloud services offerings. Rob is a co-chair of the firm’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Team.
In addition to his M&A and technology focus, Rob also acts in a general counsel capacity for numerous firm clients. He has advised clients such as Cintas Corporation, AtriCure, Inc., American Financial Group, Inc., Belcan Corporation, 84.51 LLC, Orchard Holdings Group, LLC, Chiquita Brands International, Inc., Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Benchmark Digital Partners, LLC, Escort, Inc. and Aero Fulfillment Corporation.
Rob is a former member of the Board of Directors at Keating Muething & Klekamp and also serves on the firm's Diversity Committee.
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Blogs
Blogs
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Spotlight
Spotlight
What was your first job?
My parents owned Hallmark and American Greetings card and gift stores when I was growing up, and I started working there part-time when I was 12. It was a good experience in customer service and I can still hear my dad coaching me on the way to work with his favorite bit of wisdom: “the customer is always right.”
When I was 15 I somehow convinced my parents to help me start an Internet Service Provider Business. This was in the early days of the Internet, when the only way to get online was through a dial-up connection. We started with four phone lines in a basement office and grew to 120 phone lines in a small office. I was responsible for keeping the network running as well as customer support (after school, of course). We ended up with a few full time employees that were willing to report to a high school student and grew to several thousand customers. Needless to say it was a fantastic learning experience and certainly quite humbling to have parents willing to take that kind of risk on what started as a product of my overactive imagination.
How did you meet your significant other?
Holly and I met at BYU Law School. She had travelled the world and finished a graduate degree from Columbia in Medieval History. I had just returned from a two-year church mission to Hong Kong. We ended up in the same “small section” which just meant that we had every class together for the first year. It was fortuitous, as it gave me plenty of time to try to catch her eye! I’m not sure it was love at first sight for her (who can blame her?) but eventually I grew on her. I’m glad she was willing to follow me home to Cincinnati, and now we’ve got four kids that are all born and raised in Ohio.
Where would we find you on a typical Saturday/Sunday?
Saturday is the one day a week I have to get all of the home chores done. It generally starts with a long bike ride down the Loveland Trail, followed by some combination of house cleaning, yard work, or whatever project my wife has come up with for me.
Sunday may be the busiest day of the week, as for the last three years I have served in a volunteer leadership position in the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve got responsibility for seven congregations on the eastern side of Cincinnati all the way out to Maysville, Kentucky. It is something of a part-time job, as it can take anywhere from 30-40 hours a week, and typically all day on Sunday. I’ll often have some combination of meetings starting from early in the morning and ending in the early evening. It’s a labor of love, but it isn’t unusual to see me dragging a bit on Monday morning.
Services
- Business Representation & Transactions
- Start-Ups & Growth Companies
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Private Equity
- Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
- Healthcare
- Intellectual Property & Technology
- Administration of Settlement Trusts & Qualified Settlement Funds
- Commercial Contracts
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response Team
- Corporate Transparency Act Compliance
- Franchising Law
- Renewable Energy
- Technology Transactions
- Venture Capital