Akerman LLP has expanded its national Corporate Practice Group with partners Jonathan Beckham in Atlanta and Michael Fulks in Winston-Salem. They are the fifth and sixth partners to join Akerman's national corporate team this year after New York partner Cristina Gonzalez, Atlanta partner Bryan Reese, Winston-Salem partner Steven "Will" Walker and Los Angeles partner Peter Hurm.
Beckham, who will also work as a member of the firm's Data Center and Digital Infrastructure Group, becomes the 31st lawyer to join the Atlanta team since the office opened in 2018 with just three lawyers, led by office managing partner Sidney Welch. With Fulks' arrival, headcount in Winston-Salem has grown to 11 lawyers since the office opened with three lawyers, led by office managing partner Paul Foley, in 2019. Beckham joins from Greenberg Traurig LLP and previously served as senior corporate counsel for Tata Communications International. Fulks joins from Michael Best & Friedrich LLP and previously was with Kilpatrick Townsend.
"Jonathan and Michael are talented lawyers with stellar records of advising on a diverse mix of complex transactions," said Jonathan Awner, Corporate Practice Group co-chair. "Jonathan's extensive experience representing clients with on complex technology transactions in industries as diverse as financial services, health care, manufacturing, retail and telecommunications adds bench strength to our cutting-edge Technology Transactions Practice and our Data Center and Digital Infrastructure Group. Michael's experience representing both established and emerging companies from formation to sale will strengthen the transactional backbone of our Winston-Salem office and be instrumental in expanding our capabilities nationwide."
Jonathan Beckham
Beckham is a seasoned corporate and technology transactions lawyer who is intimately involved in counseling clients on transactions and other matters that relate to the ongoing digital transformation of industry. He advises leading technology and data center providers, enterprise customers (and their operations, procurement, and technology teams), investors, landlords and other institutions and entrepreneurs on a variety of sophisticated commercial, technology, and corporate matters.
In the technology space, Beckham counsels clients on all aspects of cloud and telecommunications infrastructure transactions worldwide, including data center and colocation leases, subsea cable systems, dark fiber builds and leases, and other infrastructure transactions, in addition to license transactions for cloud enterprise platforms and applications for leading enterprise customers in retail, manufacturing, chemicals, hospitality, real estate operations and government contracting, and in regulated industries such as financial services, payment processing, and healthcare.
Beckham has served as lead and special counsel for a variety of M&A and corporate finance transactions that include seed investment rounds, with an emphasis on impact investment transactions.
Michael Fulks
Fulks focuses his practice on corporate and business law matters, with a focus on representing buyers and sellers of businesses in the negotiation of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and other strategic transactions. He frequently counsels investment funds and other investors on fund formation and general operational and securities law matters, as well as the negotiation of their portfolio investments.
Fulks also represents entrepreneurs, startups, investors, and businesses of all sizes, both at key points in their lifecycles and on day-to-day business matters. He assists startups and other emerging growth companies with entity selection and formation, capital raising, corporate governance, and restructuring matters, and has deep experience negotiating venture capital financings on behalf of startups and their investors.