Christopher S.W. Blake

Christopher S.W. Blake focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations, and financings for a wide range of industries, including food and beverage, gaming, and real estate. As co-chair of Hahn Loeser’s International Practice Group and Corporate Transactions Group, Chris’ practice spans domestic and international transactional matters. Chris has worked with clients in countries in Eastern Europe, Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia.

Chris regularly uses his in-depth understanding of the complexities of joint ventures, distributorships and sales agreements to counsel public and private companies through determining the best approach to enter into a new market. Chris has extensive experience identifying cross-border issues and creating detailed plans for his clients.

Additionally, Chris represents foreign and domestic public and private companies as buyers and sellers of divisions, “going concern” businesses, equity stakes and discrete assets, and the financing of such purchases and sales.

On the financing side, Chris focuses on negotiating commercial lending, including senior, subordinated and mezzanine debt arrangements. Chris has represented governmental, institutional, and private lenders and borrowers in sophisticated transactions involving several traditional and nontraditional collateral.

Chris’ gaming law practice focuses on regulatory compliance, licensing, ownership structures and operations of gaming establishments in seven states. He has assisted with the diligence, acquisition and financing of more than 25 gaming operations, and has helped the acquiring parties become licensed by the applicable gaming authorities in each instance. He has also interacted with charitable and for-profit gaming regulators to coordinate on-going licensing reviews and completion of suitability investigations of key owners or employees of gaming operations.

Chris also has an extensive real estate law practice. With a wealth of experience completing surveys, environmental audits and other due diligence, Chris is skilled in facilitating the negotiation of purchases, sales and leases of commercial and residential real estate and mortgages, and other liens on such properties.

Outside of the office, Chris is likely to be found traveling internationally or taste testing exotic fare (often at his spouse’s urging), including a recent dinner featuring the Asian Forest Scorpion, generously doused with a spicy ponzu sauce. Chris emerged unscathed from the experience and claimed the scorpion was better than a Cambodian beetle. We will take his word on these culinary experiences.

Accolades

• Representation of growing manufacturer of steel drums in all corporate matters, including corporate governance issues and negotiations of customer contracts and other third-party agreements; Completion of a year-long negotiation of the buyout of a 25% shareholder of this closely held company.
• Represented Chemical Bank in its capacity as lender and agent related to the issuance by a port authority of $8 million in taxable lease bonds and $3.6 million in taxable development revenue bonds, the proceeds of which funded a significant Northeast Ohio lakefront development project.
• Represented sports technology company in a $2 million bridge financing raise, contemporaneous with a sophisticated corporate reorganization to allow the client to better position itself for subsequent rounds of capital raises; secured all lender and investor consents and negotiated new governing documents for company and its subsidiary.
• Represented lead lender and agent in the negotiation of its participation in an $85 million syndicated credit facility for large banking client.
• Negotiation of purchase of substantially all assets and business of The Ridgefield’s Brand Corporation by Ohio Pure Foods, Inc., a subsidiary of Country Pure Foods, in a four-month period.
• Lead counsel to Country Pure Foods in the sale of 100% of its equity to Silver Springs Citrus, Inc., a joint venture of Sapporo and Toyota Tsusho; completed tuck-in acquisition of portion juice and juice concentrate business of competitor Fruitbud Juice, LLC during same timeframe.
• Spinoff of a $20 million real-estate leasing and development business and completion of eight related third-party sales of associated assets and real property of an ongoing family business valued at more than $40 million.
• Divestiture through various third-party sales of multimillion-dollar sets of operating assets of an auto supplier in “wind-down” mode.
• Completion of diligence and negotiation of a 25-property real-estate portion of a complex refinancing of the publicly traded and private debt of a privately held client, totaling more than $300 million.
• Restructuring of one of the top independent juice processors in the United States, including the financing of the acquisition of two significant competitors.
• Buyout of a shareholder of a closely held manufacturer of steel drums valued at more than $25 million.
• Management of the economic development arms of various governmental entities in more than 12 research and development-related loan transactions with start-up companies.

• The M&A Advisor Recognizes Hahn Loeser as Professional Services Deal Winner 
  October 29, 2024
• Hahn Loeser Team Assists Institutional Lender with ESOP Financing Transaction
  October 09, 2024
• Hahn Loeser Celebrates 48th Cleveland International Film Festival
  April 15, 2024
• Crain’s Selects Three Hahn Loeser Partners as 2023 Notable Nonprofit Board Leaders
  December 12, 2023
• Best Lawyers Recognizes 87 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Across 53 Specialties
  August 17, 2023
• Best Lawyers Recognizes 75 Hahn Loeser Attorneys Across 45 Specialties
  August 18, 2022
• Seventy-One Hahn Loeser Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers Across Forty-Seven Specialties
  August 19, 2021
• Seventy-Four Hahn Loeser Lawyers Recognized by Best Lawyers Across Forty-Six Specialties
  August 20, 2020
• Christopher S.W. Blake Elected as President of the Board of Directors for Cleveland International Film Festival
  July 08, 2019
• Hahn Loeser Attorneys Selected for Leadership Opportunities in Cleveland
  August 10, 2017
• Blake and Lucci Named Co-Chairs of Hahn Loeser’s Corporate Transactions Group
  September 22, 2015

• Speaker

  Practitioner Pity Party – U.S. Corporate Transparency Act Huddle, Part 2 (Alliott Global Alliance)

  September 17, 2024
• Speaker

  Clause and Effect: Attorney Well-Being in the World of Contracts (International Bar Association)

  March 21, 2024
• Speaker

  Artificial Intelligence and Data Privacy Best Practices (Alliott Global Alliance)

  January 11, 2024
• Author

  The Corporate Transparency Act to Take Effect: What Business Owners Need to Know

  October 20, 2023
• Author

  Strategies to Ensure a Gratifying Business Sale (Crain’s Cleveland Business)

  January 17, 2023
• Speaker

  Developing and Retaining the Next Generation of Firm Leaders

  January 09, 2023
• Speaker

  Lessons Learned from COVID-19

  October 27, 2021
• Speaker

  The Future of International Sales: Smart Contracts, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

  October 10, 2018
• Speaker

  International Sales Contracts: Boot Camp in the Outback

  October 08, 2017
• Speaker

  Seminar on International Sales for Cuban Lawyers

  February 01, 2016
• Speaker

  Hot topics in the International Sales, Franchising and Product Law Section

  October 05, 2015
• Speaker

  Targeting the Asian Market: Setting Up or Taking Over a Sales and Distribution Network in Asia

  October 22, 2014
• Speaker

  Hot Topics in the International Sales, Franchising and Product Law Section | 2014

  October 20, 2014
• Speaker

  Hot Topics in the International Sales, Franchising and Product Law Section | 2012

  September 30, 2012
• Speaker

  Getting the Most for Your Money in an International Acquisition

  November 21, 2011