Bill Hanigan is a partner at Hanigan Law Group. He is the former Chair of the Agribusiness, Cooperatives and Renewable Fuels departments at Dentons Davis Brown Law Firm where he practiced law for a dozen years. He has a general practice including, but not limited to, the areas of business organizations and transactions, agribusiness and cooperatives, renewable fuels, mergers and acquisitions, finance, and securities.

Corporate Organization and Governance. Bill advises corporate officers, boards, and founders regarding corporate organization and governance. He designs governing documents and communications, navigates corporate finance opportunities, and assists with the application of federal and state securities laws.

Mergers and Acquisitions. Bill has effectively designed and help execute the mergers of public companies, private companies, and nonprofit corporations.

Agribusiness. Bill advises agricultural processors and supply chain participants about business development, financing, regulation, and reporting issues related to their industries.

Contracts. Bill has effectively negotiated financing, construction, management, marketing, and other commercial contracts to ensure organizations meet their short and long-term financial targets. In addition, he helps clients buy and sell important business assets.

Corporate Finance. Bill advises clients regarding private placement of equity and debt in the domestic and interstate marketplaces. He has effectively managed initial public offerings, going private transactions, and SEC reporting. He has advised both borrowers and financial institutions regarding conventional construction, revolving, and term financing commitments.

Bill is a leading renewable energy lawyer and acts as general counsel to biofuels manufacturing companies with more than 700 million gallons per year of ethanol and biodiesel production. As part of his extensive range of legal experience, Bill has closed financing transactions with the largest banks representing Midwestern agriculture processing.

Additional experience includes:

• Advised the financial institution financing a multi-state acquisition of active fuel ethanol manufacturing and local carbon sequestration assets.
• Advising the suppliers of carbon to prospective interstate carbon sequestration pipelines.
• Advised one of the first successful soybean processor start-ups in fifty years
• Advised a biotech company regarding deferred compensation and stock options
• Advised a start-up insurance master agency company about corporate organization, finance, capital raising, and securities law compliance
• Advised various commodity processors and cooperatives regarding the effects of new Internal Revenue Code § 199A and its repeal
• Represented the buyer of a biodiesel producer in California
• Advised a livestock processor regarding the enforceability of production contracts
• Represented the sellers of a majority interest in a fuel ethanol plant
• Represented a coalition of Iowa ethanol companies in a tax refund case
• Led the legal team acquiring a 55 mgpy ethanol manufacturing plant in Minnesota
• Provided legal services to 36 operating ethanol and biodiesel manufacturing companies in the United States
• Advised a producer cooperative regarding the protection of its investment in a start-up technology company
• Represented a manufacturing company in its arbitration with a vendor
• Provided advice and analysis to a joint venture between a manufacturer and a food products technology company
• Represented a privately owned soybean technology and processing company in its reorganization and refinancing
• Advised a start-up life sciences research and development company regarding capital raising and securities law compliance
• Represented a joint venture between two Fortune 100 companies in their commercialization of new biofuel technology
• Represented a custom beef producer in its contract negotiation with a beef marketing company
• Represented a group of Iowa landowners in their fight against Dakota Access, a company which had forcibly taken their land through eminent domain to lay in interstate pipeline

Bill is a frequent writer and speaker at various industry events. He has presented many times at the Land Investment Expo, a premier forum for businesses and individuals with an interest in farmland, investment real estate, commodities, economics, and rural development.

He has presented at continuing legal education seminars regarding the JOBS Act and how it changes the way companies raise and account for capital in the United States.

Bill previously practiced public accounting and was tax counsel to U.S. Senator Charles Grassley where he assisted the Senator in his role as a member of the Finance Committee. He has a CPA certificate. Bill and his wife have five children.