By expertly shaping the company’s financial story and managing high-stakes negotiations, Marks Baughan guided Leopard Solutions through a seamless, successful transaction.
Leopard Solutions’ co-founders, Laura Leopard and MaryEllen Cozza, had spent two decades building one of the legal industry’s most trusted market intelligence and benchmarking data services. Along the way, they occasionally received interest from potential buyers, but it often amounted to little more than tire-kicking. Confident in their company’s growth and fundamentals, they chose to set those inquiries aside and focus on the business.
That changed when Surepoint came knocking. The interest was clearly more serious than what they’d seen before. At the same time, another potential buyer emerged. Recognizing the opportunity, Leopard and Cozza decided it was time to approach the process with greater intention — and with the right expertise at their side. On the emphatic recommendation of a trusted advisor and board member, they turned to Marks Baughan.
Overcoming Roadblocks With the Right Guidance
After an unfavorable early experience with a different firm, Leopard and Cozza had been hesitant to involve an M&A advisor in negotiations with previously interested buyers. But without an experienced advocate’s perspective, the duo found themselves internalizing questionable advice from those buyers — always disguised as a friendly warning.
“The buyers all say, ‘Whatever you do, don’t get a banker,’” Leopard recalled. “But for anyone selling their company, I would say: whatever you do, definitely get a banker. They can really smooth the road for you. They were absolutely essential to our success.”
For Leopard and Cozza, a successful sale started with addressing issues that had held Leopard Solutions back at the negotiating table. Though the company had a strong financial story, the two-person team — facing savvy, experienced pros who buy companies for a living — sometimes struggled to present it in the most compelling way.
Marks Baughan showed Leopard and Cozza how to change that dynamic. The firm helped dovetail company projections and long-term plans into a cohesive narrative pitch, highlighting its journey from startup to $8 million enterprise.
“It was all truthful, all verifiable” Leopard says, “but Marks Baughan told it in a much better way than we ever had. While we could tell the company story, they made the financial story just as compelling.”
Putting Leopard Solutions’ Best Face Forward
In its initial analysis, Marks Baughan identified another key opportunity to strengthen Leopard’s position; the team coached Leopard and Cozza on giving different moments in company history the proper context.
“They showed us how to discuss the big financial decisions we had made along the way,” Leopard says. “And they helped us anticipate other questions that might have bubbled up.”
With stronger framing in place, it wasn’t long before talks with Leopard’s most serious prospective buyer to date, SurePoint Technologies, began to deepen. Leaning on its industry expertise, Marks Baughan assumed the role of lead negotiator — keeping the founders informed at every turn.
Having received a very hands-off experience from a previous banker, Leopard and Cozza could immediately tell the difference a highly communicative, involved partner made. And when an eleventh-hour hiccup threatened to derail the transaction, Marks Baughan’s steady counsel — reinforced by a wealth of legal tech-specific acquisitions experience — calmed nerves and kept negotiations on track.
“At the last moment, Friday night, there was a misunderstanding of a document,” Leopard said. “They thought it was saying one thing, but it was really saying something else — that sort of thing. At that moment, it really looked like it could end the deal.
“Marks Baughan calmed our nerves over the weekend. And by Monday morning, everything was resolved with no issue. They saved the situation just by explaining it calmly and looking to see what might have been misinterpreted.”
Beyond the Deal: Positioning Leadership and Employees for the Next Chapter
Leopard and Cozza had motivations for the SurePoint sale beyond securing a deal — they wanted to leave behind a company that encouraged employees to continue growing.
That commitment shaped every decision Marks Baughan made along the way. To ensure a smooth transition, Leopard stayed on for nearly a year after the close — helping guide integration and smoothing the handoff to SurePoint Technologies’ leadership.
“I wanted to make sure my people were good,” she said. “It’s nice to see them growing within the company now — taking on new titles and responsibilities.”
Today, the combination of Leopard Solution’s legal data and analytics with SurePoint’s practice management and financial software has unlocked opportunities that simply weren’t possible before. For Leopard herself, seeing the enterprise she co-founded thrive under new ownership represents the clean, successful exit she had always envisioned. And today, she takes pride in watching team members she once managed step into bigger roles and responsibilities.
A Quick Acquisition, Expertly Handled
The deal closed in just under three months — a pace few two-person leadership teams could manage alone. By bringing deep industry expertise to the negotiating table and making its deal team available at every stage, Marks Baughan laid the groundwork for a seamless transaction.
“The high stakes, tight-rope negotiations were really not our strong suit,” Leopard said. “Having somebody there that does this day in and day out was extremely helpful and comforting.”
Marks Baughan is a global investment banking firm specializing in legal and compliance. We have completed +125 transactions with an aggregate value of +$10 billion. Get in touch with us here.