Daniel P. Stokes

Dan concentrates his practice on business law, corporate transactions and counseling. He advises entrepreneurs, boards of directors, inventors, angel & venture capital investors, service providers, innovative startups and early-stage & emerging-growth companies in a variety of industries, including technology, digital, medical device, food, beverage and agriculture.

Between 2009 and 2014, Dan co-taught a course on entrepreneurship law and medical innovation with Professor Clinton W. Francis at Northwestern University School of Law. He has also served as a judicial extern at the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, San Diego for the Honorable Dana M. Sabraw and at the Illinois Appellate Court, Chicago for the Honorable Joy V. Cunningham.

With more than 15 years of experience in law and business as well as experiences spanning from work on his family’s grain and livestock farm in Central Illinois to work at the U.S. Embassy in Slovenia, Dan brings significant and diverse real world experience to his clients. Dan especially enjoys helping clients achieve their business goals in the face of challenging legal circumstances. In addition, he devotes significant time to his pro bono practice, representing clients through the Lawyers for the Creative Arts and has served as a volunteer tax preparer through Ladder Up. Dan lives in Chicago, where he enjoys comedy, woodworking, technology, and building and fixing things.

• Negotiated and drafted restated operating agreement and built detailed capitalization scenarios in ownership dispute resolution for software company.
• Sale by stock purchase of a regulated medical waste disposal company to a publicly traded strategic buyer.
• Equity buyout by executives of a food manufacturer in a buyout transaction, following a previous asset purchase deal with a large international grain processor.
• Negotiated international trademark co-existence agreement for China-based fitness company in connection with its strategic acquisition of a worldwide gym franchisor and the rights to franchise its operational system in Asia.
• Drafted intellectual property assignment agreement for medical innovations
• Oversaw multi-state litigation defense team and led negotiations to secure settlement and trademark co-existence agreement for beverage client involved in complex trademark infringement litigation against multi-national corporation.

Practices

• Corporate & Securities
• Intellectual Property

Industries

• Food, Beverage & Agriculture
• Technology