“My purpose is to help my clients achieve their goals, but in particular help clients navigate through their concerns and seek positive results.”

Laura practices in the areas of general corporate law, private equity and corporate finance, securities, mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate, secured lending, technology licensing and franchise law.

Representative Transactions History (Partial)

• Represented developer in acquisition, construction, financing and development of various hotels with attendant restaurant and retail in Atlanta, Beaver Creek, Taos, Asheville, Savannah and St. Petersburg.
• Represented seller in $40,000,000 auction sale of sixteen subsidiaries in eight states in HVAC industry.
• Represented issuer in $3,500,000 preferred stock purchase by strategic investor.
• Represented lead investor in $3,000,000 preferred stock issuance by technology company.
• Represented purchaser in various acquisitions targeting local competitors in erosion control services industry.
• Represented purchaser in acquisition and financing of multiple mobile home communities.
• Represented franchisee in start-up of multiple store locations, including structuring of corporate form, financing and lease negotiations.

Laura advises both individuals and privately held businesses in a wide variety of operational, strategic, restructuring, sale and acquisition matters.

“I have some clients who are very savvy and established and those representations are enjoyable because they need my help with the highly technical legal aspects of their transaction - and that's exciting because everybody is participating and collaborating to solve a particular issue.”

“But I also truly enjoy when a client with a new enterprise comes in and they need my help to get started as they are unsure of where even to start. Often, they are feeling overwhelmed and my approach is to make it as simple as possible - as user-friendly as possible. They may leave with an action item list to accomplish but it's achievable and they have clear expectations about what it is going to take to do what they are looking to do.”  

Ms. Hester received her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University, cum laude, and earned her law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law, cum laude. While at UGA, Laura served on the editorial board of the Georgia Law Review.