Sean Kearney, Fredrikson & Byron P.A.

Co-Chair Private Equity Group, Fredrikson & Byron P.A.

Sean Kearney is chairman of Fredrikson & Byron P.A. and co-chair of the firm’s Private Equity Group. He primarily represents private equity funds, strategic buyers, entrepreneurial sellers and management teams on mergers and acquisitions transactions.

He has served as lead counsel on hundreds of M&A transactions in a wide variety of industries as well as outside general counsel to privately held entities in which he provides advice over their life cycle from formation to capital raising and joint ventures to exit.

Kearney’s experience has led him to represent more than 150 sellers with transaction sizes from $5 million to $1.5 billion and leading strategic and financial buyers for mid-market and lower mid-market companies.

Sean is consistently recognized as a market leading M&A lawyer in Minnesota with a top ranking in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. He was also named a BTI Client Service All-Star among other recognitions.

What are the biggest challenges you currently see in the M&A world?

The M&A world has challenges with uncertainty (for example, what tariffs will or won’t come into play) and interest rates remaining high.

Without revealing the names of a client, what is the most interesting transaction you’ve worked on lately?

The most interesting recent transaction was a complicated seven country transaction. We had a big team of lawyers that we’ve come to know well across the globe, and it was professionally satisfying to see how everyone worked together to achieve the client’s goal.

How do you manage work/life balance?

It helps to now be an empty nester!

What is one thing you would change about Minnesota if you could?

I’d like to see downtown Minneapolis come back to life as soon as possible.