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ZachForward

Partner

"I always admired my father's dedication to his legal clients, and I find joy in helping my own clients solve problems and pursue their dreams."

Overview

Biography

With an MBA and BS in business, working as a business attorney is a natural extension of Zach’s passion for collaborating with visionary leaders.

Zach has served businesses ranging from sole proprietorships and start-ups to multinational corporations, helping them navigate legal issues from formation through growth to eventual exit. He routinely provides business and corporate advice and drafts and negotiates agreements; manages mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, restructurings, and dissolutions; and handles diverse corporate transactions, entity formations, and general corporate entity maintenance for both privately and publicly held companies.

While providing legal counsel for various mergers and acquisitions, Zach acts as a liaison between his clients and the firm’s tax, real estate, environmental, regulatory, and labor and employment attorneys to provide comprehensive advice. Zach also represents both growing and established businesses in a number of regulated industries, including energy, health care, and cannabis.

In addition to his practice, Zach is a member of the firm's Diversity Partner Committee and serves as the diversity partner in the Syracuse office.

Bar Associations

  • New York State Bar Association
Experience

Representative Experience

  • Represented numerous business clients in various stock and asset transactions regarding the sale of their company, including initial legal due diligence and drafting purchase agreements, employment agreements, escrow agreements, and other related documents.
  • Represented a licensed medical professional during a restructuring and eventual sale of his multi-million practice to a nationwide aggregator of managed service providers.
  • Provides day-to-day legal counsel for many closely held businesses, including general corporate maintenance, transition planning, and other contractual relationships.
  • Assisted a renewable energy client in buying and selling various solar projects located throughout the Northeast.
  • Serves as counsel for a provider of a portable electric-car-charging technology company, handling day-to-day legal needs that include employment agreements, contracts, and general legal questions.
  • Counseled a start-up in connection with obtaining its Series A financing. This work involved using the NVCA model terms and drafting founder contracts, employee confidentiality and invention assignments (EIAAs), and an equity incentive plan among other agreements.
  • Successfully obtained tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code for various not-for-profit corporations, including assisting with completing Form 1023 and drafting the by-laws and conflict-of-interest policy.
  • Drafted an agreement to purchase industrial hemp biomass for a cannabinoid-products company.
  • Served as general outside counsel in financing a transaction that included equity rights to Orion Energy Partners, LP, a specialized venture capital group that provides financial assistance to energy-related industries. Relevant issues included real property title, environmental, and intercreditor agreements.
  • Represented a company in its financing and acquisition of a major pasta company.

Prior Experience

  • Hiscock & Barclay, LLP, Associate
  • Hiscock & Barclay, LLP, Summer Associate
  • US Attorney’s Office, Northern District of New York, Summer Law Clerk

Selected Honors

  • The Best Lawyers in America®: Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships), 2025; Corporate Law, 2025
  • Central New York Business Journal, 40 Under Forty, 2023
  • Selected to Super Lawyers Upstate New York Rising Stars: Business/Corporate, 2021
  • New York State Bar Association, Empire State Counsel Honoree, 2013

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