Steve Suneson has practiced for about two decades in the areas of business law and commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cross-border and international transactions, commercial contracts, secured transactions, private equity, along with corporate structure and governance.
Steve began practice in corporate law and private equity at a large international corporate law firm in New York City. He expanded his practice to commercial transactions, M&A, and international-U.S. cross-border and Canada practice for over a decade as an attorney at a boutique corporate law firm in Buffalo, New York. Steve continued as an international transactions, corporate and M&A attorney at another Colorado-based law firm. Steve is rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale-Hubbell’s Peer Review Ratings. He was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, and is fluent in Swedish.
In addition to his general corporate and business practice, Steve has substantial cross-border and international experience assisting foreign companies, particularly Canadian, Australian, British, Swedish and other European companies, who are doing business in the U.S. His international transactions practice focuses on the following sectors: technology, software development and licensing, manufacturing, distribution, retail, apparel, energy, services and construction.
Steve routinely deals with complex cross-border issues such as U.S.-foreign nation income tax treaties, U.S. withholding tax on payments to foreign ownership, intercompany cross-border agreements, and transfer pricing agreements as well as other complex cross-border legal and tax issues. He provides comprehensive and sophisticated U.S. corporate legal services to Canadian, Australian, British, Swedish, and other foreign and international companies and individuals who operate in the U.S. Steve has lectured on various U.S. legal issues in Canada, Sweden, and other parts of Europe pertaining to foreign companies doing business in the U.S.
Steve also works with Colorado and U.S. business owners who want to sell or buy their businesses, need financing, want to expand abroad, or complete other complex business transactions abroad. His experience in this regard includes export control review, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), country of origin marking, technology transfer, foreign corporate structure and other U.S.-foreign legal matters.
Steve has extensive experience in both domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and corporate reorganizations. This experience includes a variety of M&A transactions, such as contested and negotiated acquisitions and tender offers, takeover defenses, leveraged buyouts, corporate spin-offs, corporate auctions, international M&A transactions, and strategic acquisition and divestiture transactions.
Steve represents clients in the managed services, software, and telecommunications businesses. His technology practice includes agreements for telecommunications and information technology (IT) services, internet and mobile-app content creation, hosting and access, technology licensing, e-commerce, broadband and streaming media, cyber-center operations, managed services, ASP, xSP, and SaaS businesses, on-line collaboration, and interactive media services. He assists his clients in identification, realization and protection of intellectual property. Steve also counsels clients on protection and registration of U.S. trademarks.
Steve drafts and negotiates employment agreements, independent contractor agreements, executive compensation arrangements, U.S. employment handbooks and policies, severance packages, and other employment matters. Executive compensation is a complex area of law because it encompasses a broad range of legal issues that impact non-qualified deferred compensation, stock options, restricted stock, phantom stock, and other equity or synthetic equity as well as shareholder and corporate governance issues. Steve counsels and assists foreign-owned U.S. companies on U.S. employment laws, drafting U.S. employment agreements, and crafting U.S. employment handbooks.