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  3. Robert F. Henkle, Jr.

Robert Henkle, Jr. is a shareholder and former co-chair of Reinhart's Corporate Law Practice where he provides legal counsel to clients ranging from large, national-public companies to closely held, mid-sized businesses. He has substantial experience assisting clients with business related concerns from startup through acquisition, operation, financing, and the sale of a business and frequently works with food industry, transportation industry, and financial institution clients. Bob regularly advises family and other closely held businesses and their owners on business transition strategies and ownership disputes. He has significant experience in the formation, funding and governance of community banks and their holding companies. In addition, he regularly advises clients on understanding, communicating, and managing multi-employer pension plan withdrawal liability risks.

With over three decades of legal experience, Bob has the knowledge, skill, and expertise to provide customized solutions to complex legal matters. Clients appreciate his practical, goal-driven approach as he helps them identify their most important enterprise opportunities and risks, establishes plans to manage those matters effectively, and appreciates the need to provide service at a cost proportionate to the client’s value objective. In other words, Bob offers focused, quality and efficient advice from a business and legal perspective.

In addition to his client practice, Bob heads the firm’s professional development program which supports all practice groups in developing attorneys to meet ever-changing client needs. In this role, Bob conceived and spearheaded Reinhart University, an in-house training platform, to efficiently train attorneys in their respective disciplines while also promoting a multidisciplinary understanding of the legal issues and challenges their clients face.

Bob primarily serves clients in the following areas:

  • Business Counseling

  • Succession Planning and Exit Strategies

  • Financial Institutions

  • Food and Beverage Law

  • Transportation

  • Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Capital raising and investment

Education

  • J.D., cum laude, University of Wisconsin Law School; Order of the Coif
  • B.B.A., with highest distinction, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Personnel and Industrial Relations)

Bar Admissions

Wisconsin

Matters

  • Regularly counseling large national companies on management of multiemployer pension plan withdrawal liability exposure totaling in the $100s of millions

  • Assisting clients in complex multiparty, multitranche corporate financings and restructuring

  • Advising a large national branded food products company on product development, marketing and distribution issues

  • Counseling organizers and directors in the formation and funding of community banks and their holding companies

  • Assisting family owned businesses in transferring ownership through multiple generations while assuring management continuity and saving millions of dollars in taxes while avoiding business disruptions.

  • Counseling closely held business owners on strategies to gain control of or exit from the business.

Honors & Affiliations

Honors

  • Best Lawyers in America - Corporate Law

  • Wisconsin Top Rated Lawyer Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rated

Affiliations

  • State Bar of Wisconsin (former director and chair of the Business Law Section)

  • American Bar Association

  • Milwaukee Bar Association

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