Kristen Centre
Senior Counsel
Overview
Kristen Centre is a business attorney in Holland & Knight's Stamford office. Ms. Centre represents private companies and private equity firms in a wide variety of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, including acquisitions and investments, carve-outs and dispositions. She represents financial institutions, private equity firms and funds and corporate borrowers in finance transactions, including secured and unsecured lending and acquisition financings.
As part of her venture capital practice, Ms. Centre represents high-potential, growth companies and lead investors in venture capital financings, including series seed and Series A preferred stock financings and convertible note financings. She also regularly advises startups and emerging companies throughout all stages of their life cycles and assists executives of small, mid-size and large companies in the nonprofit and private sectors with general corporate and governance matters.
In addition to her corporate practice, Ms. Centre has extensive experience representing charitable organizations and private foundations on a variety of transactional matters, including assistance with incorporation and obtaining 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, negotiating fiscal sponsorship and other complex arrangements with partnering nonprofits, and counseling board members and senior management on compliance issues and charitable registration and reporting requirements.
Ms. Centre also has experience advising debtors, creditors, equity holders and other interested parties in all aspects of distressed situations, including bankruptcy and restructuring matters.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Centre was an attorney at a global law firm's New York City office and a boutique corporate law firm based in Westport, Connecticut.
Representative Experience
- Serves as outside general counsel to Charon Labs LLC, a startup financial technology (FinTech) company that engineers and provides software powered by artificial intelligence and related services to private consumers and businesses
- Represented a private equity-backed clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on ocular drug development in its sale to a publicly traded ophthalmic pharmaceutical and medical technology company focused on developing and commercializing novel therapies for rare ophthalmic diseases
- Represented a private equity-backed insurance brokerage client as a buyer in multiple platform and bolt-on acquisitions of insurance brokerage, payment processing and/or insurance marketing companies, including the acquisition of 1) all the equity of IPA 18 LLC, and 2) a majority of the equity of Florida One Insurance Agency LLC, a Delaware limited liability company; the transaction involved a sophisticated pre- and post-closing reorganization
- Represented a client as the buyer in the acquisition of all the equity of The Benefits Group of Haudenschield, Harrison and Blachek LLC, an insurance brokerage company, and substantially all the assets of, and the equity of certain entities affiliated with, Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty
- Represented AQUALIS, a private equity-backed client, in the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Northern Pipe Inc., a wastewater and stormwater collection services and hydro-excavation company, and Stormwater Solutions Engineering Inc., a sustainable water engineering firm
- Represented North American Bancard LLC (d/b/a North), a U.S.-based FinTech and payment processing independent sales organization, as the buyer in multiple acquisitions of gateway providers, software developers, ISOs and other companies in the payment processing industry, including the acquisition of all of the equity of IPA 18 LLC, an insurance brokerage company
- Represented CKC Holdings Inc. (d/b/a buyer in the acquisition of Signature Payments) in acquiring substantially all of the equity of an insurance brokerage company
- Represented a client as a buyer in the acquisition of all the assets of CardWorks Acquiring LLC and all the equity of an insurance and payment processing company
- Represented a client as a buyer in PayTrace LLC, in the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of an insurance brokerage company assets of DinerIQ Inc. and the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Salido Inc.
- Represented a software company that makes Salesforce-native apps as the company's counsel in the issuance of series seed preferred stock in the principal amount of $100,000 to an angel investor and, in tandem, as borrower's counsel in negotiating a $15 million secured term loan made to two national private investment firms
- Represented a global executive search firm in the strategic acquisition of the assets of a corporate culture consulting firm; the purchase price was approximately $30 million
- Represented a global private equity firm as lender's counsel in negotiating a $20 million secured term loan made to a leading technology and infrastructure cannabis company
- Represented a juice franchise based on the U.S. West Coast in a merger with another juice and wellness company, making the newly branded business one the largest certified organic, locally sourced, cold-pressed juice companies in California
- Represented a premier art media company in the sale of its art magazine publishing business to a leading digital media corporation
- Represented an aerobics dance company in the offering, sale and issuance of convertible promissory notes in the aggregate principal amount of approximately $2.5 million
- Regularly represents one of the largest distributors of automotive and truck parts to the aftermarket auto parts industry in the purchase of add-on businesses
- Represented a developer of customer outcome management software solutions in the $100 million sale of its company to a financial sponsor
- Represented a gambling casino in a Chapter 11 proceeding; restructured claims and liabilities were approximately $1.5 billion
- Represented a leading provider of portable sanitation services in the acquisition of four subsidiaries in less than two years
- Represented a luxury specialty retailer with flagship stores in New York City in a fully consensual out-of-court restructuring that reduced the company's long-term outstanding indebtedness from more than $590 million to $50 million
- Represented a leading retailer of trend-right women's fashions that operated more than 400 retail stores nationwide in a Section 363 bankruptcy sale, allowing the company to exit unprofitable store locations
- Represented a direct-sales marketing company in the health and wellness industry with aggregate indebtedness of approximately $295 million in a successful out-of-court restructuring
- Represented a large brewery in negotiating a note purchase agreement with the company's founders and equity owners
- Represented a charitable organization that provides therapy services to children in negotiating a partnership agreement with another nonprofit that offers music programs to children in hospitals
- Assisted numerous startup nonprofits, including a modern ballet company and an organization that offers therapeutic horsemanship services to disabled individuals, in incorporating, drafting bylaws and other core corporate governance documents and obtaining federal tax-exempt status
Credentials
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D., cum laude
- Cornell University, B.S.
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- New York
- Association of Corporate Growth (ACG), New York Chapter, Women of Leadership Committee, 2023-Present
- Exponent, 2022-Present
- Holland & Knight Women's Initiative, 2023-Present
- Holland & Knight Diversity and Equity Inclusion Committee, 2023-Present
- Ellevate Network, Fairfield/Westchester County Chapter, Former Co-President and Current Chapter Advisor, 2020-Present
- The Fourth Effect, Executive Member, 2024
- Cornell ILRAA Alumni Finance Committee, 2024
- East Coast Contemporary Ballet Company, Founding Board Member, 2019-Present
- Holland & Knight Pro Bono All-Star, 2023
- National Association of Women Lawyers Leadership Program, Class of 2024
- Top 25 Women in M&A, Opus Connect, 2023