Overview

Joel Farrar serves as outside general counsel for most of his clients. He is a business-focused lawyer with particular specialties in contract negotiation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), succession planning, financing and securities transactions, start-up law, and executive compensation planning. He is a shareholder with Foster Swift, where he has served as Secretary and Vice President of the firm's Executive Committee and leader of its Business and Tax Practice Group.

In every engagement, Joel seeks to deeply understand his client's business and objectives so that he can design solutions that drive growth. He regularly assists businesses with corporate governance, contract negotiation, dispute resolution, regulatory compliance, tax and succession planning, and problem solving. Joel has also helped many clients buy and sell their businesses, and is skilled at preparing businesses for sale, negotiating letters of intent, performing due diligence, preparing purchase documents, and closing the deal.

Joel particularly enjoys helping entrepreneurs with start-up businesses and fundraising. He assists start-ups with raising capital through private placements of securities; attracting talent using stock options, restricted stock and other incentive plans; developing relationships with vendors, customers, and partners; and addressing the many other challenges before them.

Through his work with executive teams, Joel has also developed particular expertise in the area of executive compensation and nonqualified deferred compensation plans. Joel helps clients design compensation programs that align executives’ incentives with the company’s goals, including stock option plans, restricted stock plans, phantom stock plans, stock appreciation rights (SAR) plans, elective deferral and excess benefit plans, split dollar life insurance, retiree medical plans, and bonus programs.

Joel received his juris doctorate from Michigan State University College of Law summa cum laude and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the Ingham County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association.

Affiliations

Memberships & Affiliations

Legal Affiliations:

State Bar of Michigan
Ingham County Bar Association

Industry & Professional Associations:

Entrepreneur Institute of Mid-Michigan, Board of Directors

Volunteer of the Year, 2015

Community Involvement:

Mid-Michigan Travel Coalition (2018-present)
The Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Board of Directors (2010-2012)

Experience

Representative Matters

Business Planning and Operation: Business entity selection and formation, closely-held and family businesses, corporate governance, owner disputes, executive compensation, employment law, regulatory compliance, E-commerce, commercial transactions, information technology, international business transactions, joint ventures, business and succession planning, dissolution and winding up.
Securities, Corporate Governance, Private and Public Finance: Private equity and venture capital transactions, securities reporting and compliance, debt and bond financing, investment adviser and broker-dealer regulation, tax credit financing, and government incentives, public-private partnerships.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Mergers, stock transactions, asset purchases, joint ventures, tender offers, proxy contests and divisional transactions, employee benefits in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
Employee Benefits: Executive compensation planning and agreements, for-profit and non-profit executive deferred compensation arrangements and plan funding, qualified benefit plan and trust design and administration, welfare benefit arrangements, fiduciary and regulatory compliance and reporting, IRS and DOL audits and appeals, plan mergers, spin-offs and transfers, plan termination.
Tax and Succession Planning: Succession planning, domestic and international corporate tax, partnership/LLC tax, tax exempt and charitable organizations, state and local tax, tax credit financing and transactions, tax examinations, estate and gift tax and planning, lifetime gifting, wills, trusts and family LLCs.