Jay W. Freedman

Partner/Retired

Jay W. Freedman

Partner/Retired

Jay Freedman is a partner and business lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. Jay has a broad-based corporate practice, including mergers and acquisitions and securities regulation. He counsels clients on a variety of matters, including choice of entities upon formation, financing alternatives, employee matters, contracting, and leasing. He leads the Business Law Department in the Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the firm’s Transactional & Securities and Commercial Transactions & Business Counseling Practices. He served as the managing partner of the office from August 2007 to September 2010. He also has an active estate planning and administration practice and is a member of the firm’s Estates & Trusts Practice.

Jay has represented small business investment companies, venture capital firms, and privately owned and publicly held companies in all phases of their business activities. He also counsels public company boards on corporate governance issues. In addition, he has represented real estate clients in both their ongoing activities, as well as dispositions to REITs. His clients have been involved in a wide range of activities, including health care, manufacturing, distribution, retail and technology.

In addition to the traditional negotiation and documentation of mergers and acquisitions, he has been involved in a number of transactions involving pre-merger filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.

Prior to entering private practice in 1968, Jay served in the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission.

 

Awards and Recognition

Jay has been peer review rated as AV Preeminent®, the highest performance rating in Martindale-Hubbell’s Peer Review Rating™ system. He is also profiled in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© in the field of Securities / Capital Markets Law (2013-2016, 2019, 2022).

Affiliations

Jay has been active in a number of community activities, including having served as president of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, Woodmont Country Club and the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Jewish Committee. He has also previously served on the boards of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the Heifetz International Music Institute and The Kreeger Museum. He is currently the secretary and a board member of the Georgetown BID. He is a former secretary of the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School Alumni Association and is a member of The Economic Club of Washington and the Estate Planning Council of Washington, D.C.