Legal Services Transactions
Holland & Knight’s Legal Services Transactions Team is a market leader in advising lawyers, law firms, in-house legal departments, investors and legal service providers on structuring, executing and complying with legal industry management services organization (MSO) arrangements.
Our team combines award-winning transactional strength with deep regulatory insight to help clients navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of nonlawyer investment frameworks, state-specific ownership regulations and emerging business models across the legal sector.
We help clients design and implement MSO structures that maintain law firm independence, align incentives and support strategic growth while minimizing legal, ethical and operational risk. With a national footprint and dedicated focus on legal industry regulation, we partner with clients to understand the full scope of opportunities and challenges in legal service delivery created by new market entrants, private investment and innovation.
Key Services
• MSO Structuring for Law Firms and Legal Service Providers: Development of compliant MSO frameworks that separate professional judgment from operational management while supporting efficiency, scale and modernization
• Regulatory and Professional Responsibility Guidance: Practical, state-specific analysis of nonlawyer ownership restrictions, ethics rules, alternative business structures and emerging regulatory guidance, informed by continuous monitoring of legislative and regulatory developments
• Transactional Support for Growth and Investment: Advising on equity and debt financings, recapitalizations, rollups, bolt-on acquisitions and strategic investments involving law firms, MSOs, private equity sponsors, legal tech companies and alternative legal service providers
• Operational and Strategic Alignment: Support in designing MSO-law firm relationships that optimize governance, commercial terms, incentive structures, resource allocation and long-term scalability
• Integrated, Cross-Disciplinary Counsel: Coordination across corporate, finance, regulatory, ethics, technology and industry-specific teams to deliver comprehensive, end-to-end support that avoids the need to engage multiple firms
A Distinctive Market Advantage
Holland & Knight’s Legal Services Transactions Team offers a depth of institutional knowledge and level of practical experience that few firms can match. By combining regulatory fluency with hands-on transactional execution, we equip clients to pursue MSO and alternative-structure strategies with clarity, confidence and stability.
Our approach is grounded in rigorous analysis, market awareness and an understanding of how legal organizations operate in practice, enabling us to help clients capture opportunity, mitigate risk and execute strategic priorities in a complex and rapidly changing environment.
Contact Us
Trisha Rich Partner | Chicago and New York
+1.312.578.6514
+1.212.513.3545
trisha.rich@hklaw.com
Josh Porte Partner | Nashville
+1 615.850.8751
josh.porte@hklaw.com