Chris Gilmore
Private Equity, Corporate Finance & Commercial Real Estate
Chris Gilmore is a corporate and transactional partner at Townsend & Lockett, LLC, where he chairs the firm’s Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice Group. He advises fund managers, institutional investors, founders, and portfolio companies across the full arc of the deal lifecycle from entity formation and seed-stage financings through complex M&A and strategic exits.
Chris structures and negotiates equity and debt financings, joint ventures, and fund formations, and counsels clients on corporate governance, management incentive arrangements, and growth-stage commercial contracts spanning software, SaaS, and professional services. His transactional judgment is shaped by decades of work across multiple asset classes and industry verticals, giving him an unusually commercial perspective on how legal structure drives enterprise value.
That cross-sector fluency is particularly evident in real estate, where Chris also chairs the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group. He represents developers, operators, investors, and landowners across the full scope of real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions of land, commercial, industrial, multifamily, and mixed-use properties, ground-up development, commercial leasing, and real estate joint venture and fund
structuring. For clients operating at the intersection of institutional capital and the built environment, Chris offers a rare single point of counsel who can move seamlessly between a capital raise and a ground lease.
Beyond his practice, Chris is deeply engaged in Atlanta’s civic and business community. He serves on the Board of Directors of Quest Communities and as General Counsel and Board Member of the nsoro Foundation. He previously served as Vice Chair of the City of Atlanta’s Governing Board of the Office of the Inspector General and as a member of Citizen Trust Bank’s Next Generation Advisory Board. Chris is a past President of the Emerging 100 of Atlanta, the young professional auxiliary of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Inc., and remains an active member of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Inc.
- U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Georgia
- Georgia Supreme Court
- Georgia
- 2011
- J.D. and Law & Business Certificate, Vanderbilt University Law School
- 2009
- Study Abroad, Vanderbilt in Venice
- 2008
- B.A., Political Science and Minor, Accounting, North Carolina State University
Start-Up and Venture Transactions
- Representation of and counsel to tens of start-up technology and technology-enabled companies in matters concerning incorporation, corporate governance, legal strategy and structuring, licensing, employee benefits and incentives, restrictive covenants, and general employment.
- Representation of real estate fund in its creation and offering of $50,000,000.
- Representation of venture capital firm in Series A financing of $20,000,000 in Canadian tech company.
- Representation of electric car company in initial corporate structuring, friends and family financing of $10,000,000, and subsequent merger transaction.
- Representation of supply chain and inventory management software company in Series A-2 and Series B financings of $1,500,000 and $3,500,000 respectively.
- Representation of technology company in recapitalization, reorganization, debt offering of approximately $1,000,000, and Series A financing of approximately $5,250,000.
- Representation of health IT company in Series A financing of approximately $2,666,667; the purchase of certain assets out of bankruptcy; and the sale of its Series B financing of approximately $3,000,000.
- Representation of portfolio company in Series D financing of $3,500,000.
- Representation of health IT company in bridge financing of approximately $2,800,000.
- Representation of medical device company in Series A financing of approximately $2,000,000.
- Representation of communications technology company in Series G financing of approximately $2,500,000.
- Representation of virtual workspace company in Series B financing of approximately $1,000,000.
- Representation of a number of software companies and small businesses in convertible note financings in amounts of $100,000 – $500,000.
M&A and Other Disposition Transactions
- Representation of application performance management software company in stock sale to Fortune 10 for $750,000,000.
- Representation of REIT in structuring disposition of portfolio of 15 data centers in asset sale for $1.065 billion.
- Representation of benefits company in connection with a shareholder offering to partially fund two acquisitions with aggregate purchase price of $60,000,000.
- Representation of conglomerate in its acquisition through merger of manufacturing software company for approximately $55,000,000.
- Representation of master data management technology company in stock sale for $45,000,000.
- Representation of private equity fund in purchase of bowling manufacturing business for $45,000,000 consisting of the purchase of all of the stock of its US and Hungarian subsidiaries and all of the assets of its Mexican subsidiary.
- Representation of insurance subsidiary of regional bank in its acquisition of all of the stock of a regional insurance company for approximately $23,000,000.
- Representation of industrial automation company in its acquisition of all of the assets of a competitor for approximately $20 million.
- Representation of family business in stock sale for $20,000,000.
- Representation of company in connection with sale of all of its stock to Fortune 500 company for approximately $14,000,000.
- Representation of development company in connection with the purchase of a loan portfolio and workout transfer of over 20,000 acres for approximately $21,000,000.
Commercial Contracts and Consultation
- Representation of regional grocer in connection with its expansion into Virginia and Mississippi.
- Representation of payroll systems company, in roll out of SAAS platform.
- Representation of international media company in connection with drafting and negotiating its commercial contracts.
- Representation of RTLS company in connection with drafting and negotiating its commercial contracts, licensing, maintenance, reseller, and service agreements.
- Representation of national health insurance company in connection with regulatory compliance and statewide legal strategy for payments.
Capital Market Transactions
- Representation of private equity fund in connection with a $25,000,000 revolving credit facility, and a $30,500,000 term loan and equity investment.
- Representation of company, including a U.K. subsidiary, in connection with securing a $15,000,000 revolving credit facility.
- Emerging 100 of Atlanta, President
- Founder Institute – Atlanta, Mentor
- TI:GER Program, Emory University School of Law, Guest Lecturer
- Operation Hope – Entrepreneur Classes, Guest Lecturer
- Urban League of Greater Atlanta – Young Professionals, Member
- Honor Council, Vanderbilt University Law School, President 2010-2011
- Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP – 2016-2018
- Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice, LLP – 2014-2016
- James-Bates-Brannan-Groover LLP – 2011-2014
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