Practice
What he does
A full-spectrum business practice — representing companies, founders, investors, lenders, software developers, licensors and licensees, and the lawyers who advise them — from a first financing through commercialization and exit.
01Corporate & M&A
Mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and the organization and sale of businesses; entity formation and corporate governance; executive compensation and employment agreements; and the day-to-day general-counsel questions that companies live with between deals.
02Securities & Capital Markets
Debt and equity financings, private placements, and venture-capital and private-equity transactions, representing companies and investors alike. Counsel on Blue Sky and the New York Martin Act, syndicated term loans and the securities laws, the M&A broker exemption, and board-observer and Section 11 questions.
03Technology, Software & AI Transactions
A technology practice that predates the internet and remains current. Software, SaaS, IaaS, and cloud agreements; data-analytics and data-science solutions; artificial-intelligence and internet-related transactions; licensing, outsourcing, and IT and management-consulting agreements — representing developers, licensors, licensees, users, and service providers.
04Commercial & Cross-Border Transactions
Domestic and cross-border sales of goods, agency arrangements, and distributorships; trademark and service-mark licensing; secured and asset-based lending, representing borrowers; letters of credit; and the practical mechanics of international trade, including INCOTERMS and the U.N. Convention on the International Sale of Goods.
05Third-Party Legal Opinions
A signature niche. Mr. Bendes gives, reviews, and negotiates third-party closing opinions, and helps define the customary practice that governs them — questions of enforceability, the power and authority of corporations, partnerships, limited-liability companies, statutory and common-law trusts, not-for-profit associations, and condominiums, and opinions in the bankruptcy and Section 363 context. He chairs and serves on legal-opinions committees of two state bars, the in-house bar, and the national Working Group on Legal Opinions.
06Regulatory: Corporate Transparency Act, FinCEN, FTC & Privacy
Plain-English, current guidance on the federal regulation that just changed. Corporate Transparency Act and FinCEN beneficial-ownership reporting; anti-money-laundering rules, including their reach into art and antiquities; FTC endorsement, testimonial, consumer-review, and Made-in-USA rules; and website privacy, tracking, and data-protection compliance.
07Arbitration & Alternative Dispute Resolution
Mr. Bendes serves as an arbitrator and neutral, drawing on a transactional lawyer's command of the deals that disputes arise from. He has completed extensive arbitrator training with the American Arbitration Association, FINRA Dispute Resolution (including chairperson training), the New York State Bar Association's comprehensive commercial-arbitration program, and the Practising Law Institute's securities and international-arbitration programs, and is a member of the NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section.
Engagements are accepted selectively and subject to conflicts clearance. Descriptions of practice areas are illustrative and do not constitute legal advice or a guarantee of any result.