Michael E. High

Michael High is Drummond Woodsum’s Practice Group Leader for Business and Commercial Services. He has extensive experience in representing businesses, investors, lenders and borrowers active in Maine and throughout New England in a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, shareholder matters, private placements, venture capital financing (representing both investors and targets), technology licensing and transfers, and the protection of intellectual property. Michael represents a number of the state's largest financial institutions in complex commercial transactions and also represents several Maine colleges in debt issuances and commercial transactions.

Recent representative transactions include serving as lead counsel in connection with the sale of several technology companies (biotechnology and software), the purchase and financing of resorts, the purchase and sale of a wide range of manufacturing and distribution businesses, the purchase of transportation businesses, the purchase and sale of water utilities, investments in insurance companies (including two change in control proceedings), investments in biotechnology companies, software development and licensing transactions, website development contracts, e-commerce transactions, asset based loans with collateral in multiple states and overseas, and numerous other licensing and distribution transactions involving parties in Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada. After graduating from Cornell, he practiced at Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston, Massachusetts for several years before moving to Maine.

Michael has been listed for over 15 years in Best Lawyers in America, a guide to leading lawyers in the U.S., and is currently listed in five categories: Banking and Finance Law, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Securities/Capital Markets Law and Securities Regulation. He was named as Maine's "Corporate Lawyer of the Year for 2009" by Best Lawyers in the first year that Best Lawyers made such a designation, was again recognized by Best Lawyers in 2010 and for a third time as Maine's "Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer of the Year" for 2012. But it keeps going: Best Lawyers named Michael Maine's "Securities-Capital Markets Law 2013 Lawyer of the Year" and has just named him Maine's "Banking and Finance Lawyer of the Year" for 2014. In addition, he has been listed in each edition of Chambers USA, an independent guide to the top business lawyers in the U.S., at the highest level, in recognition of his expertise in mergers and acquisitions and corporate law, and in the New England Super Lawyers Directory.