The work this practice was built for.
Norris Lozano spent eighteen years as a partner at Short, How, Lozano & Frels, one of Dallas's established commercial law firms, representing the largest financial institutions in Texas across commercial finance, tax, and regulatory matters. As CEO and General Counsel of the Portland Family of Funds, he raised and managed over $750 million, secured $180 million in New Markets Tax Credits from the U.S. Treasury, and orchestrated more than $1.1 billion in transactions. His career has been substantially about the complex matters that sit at the intersection of tax, finance, governance, and regulation.
Lozano Legal Advisors makes this depth of experience available to clients whose matters are too important for a form-based service but whose engagement economics do not justify a large-firm retainer. The practice is built to handle serious matters with the rigor they require, at the fees a solo firm's cost structure permits.
What this practice covers.
Corporate governance
Board structure, committee charters, governance policies, officer and director duties, fiduciary compliance, and decisions requiring formal board or shareholder action. Where governance has grown organically and needs to be formalized — a common situation as companies approach a capital event or institutional relationship — the work is in reconstructing a coherent record and building forward from there.
Partnership agreements
Operating agreements and partnership agreements for sophisticated structures: waterfall distributions, catch-up provisions, promoted interests, preferred returns, capital accounts with complex allocation rules, and the tax-sensitive provisions that follow. This work is drafted with specific attention to how partnerships actually behave in practice — where disputes concentrate, which provisions matter in exits, and which drafting conventions save years of argument later.
Mergers and acquisitions
Sell-side and buy-side representation for lower-middle-market transactions. Letters of intent, due diligence coordination, purchase agreements, earnout structures, representations and warranties insurance, escrow arrangements, closing mechanics, and post-closing integration. Asset sales, stock sales, and reverse triangular mergers each carry different tax and liability consequences; the choice of structure is often more consequential than the purchase price.
Commercial finance and lending documentation
Credit agreements, security agreements, guaranty documents, intercreditor agreements, subordination arrangements, and workout negotiations. This is the area where Norris's 18 years representing Texas financial institutions translates directly: the conventions, the customary provisions, and the negotiating positions that move a term sheet to executed documents are familiar ground.
Regulatory compliance
Regulatory matters across federal tax (where this firm has deep capability), Texas business regulation, and industry-specific regimes where the client's counsel benefits from an attorney with regulated-finance experience.
Complex contracts and commercial agreements
Joint venture agreements, strategic alliance structures, licensing agreements, supply and distribution contracts, master services agreements, and any commercial document whose drafting materially affects the business's economics over multi-year horizons.
General counsel relationships
For businesses that need ongoing legal counsel but do not need (or cannot justify) a full-time in-house attorney, Lozano Legal Advisors offers ongoing general counsel engagements at predictable monthly fees. The scope covers routine operational questions, contract review, regulatory guidance, and the kinds of strategic decisions where good counsel from a familiar attorney is worth more than an ad-hoc hourly relationship.