Ken Lewis

Ken Lewis is a mergers & acquisition and business attorney with over three decades of experience in a wide range of corporate, transactional, and securities matters. 

He represents clients in mergers, acquisitions, and sales of businesses and in the formation of strategic alliances.  Ken is also well-versed in domestic and international commercial transactions and has advised clients in all aspects of corporate and real estate finance, including representing lenders, borrowers, and investors in negotiating and documenting debt and equity transactions. 

His clients have included businesses in the financial services, technology, life sciences, health care, insurance, sports and entertainment, manufacturing, and distribution sectors. 

A few representative matters include:

• Representation of an acquirer of a privately held commercial construction company
• Representation of the acquirer of a regional hospital
• Representation of the acquire of a foreign military sales defense contractor
• Representation of a super-regional bank in the sale and lease-back of multiple branches
• Representation of seller in the disposition of a furniture manufacturer
• Negotiation and documentation of telecommunications equipment distribution agreements with distributors in South America, including Brazil, Venezuela, and Chile
• Outside general counsel to a foreign-based company developing an online electronic funds transfer business.
• Representation of an investment advisory firm in equity private placements and formations of strategic alliances

In 2010, he was a candidate in North Carolina for the United States Senate.  Before that, Ken was a partner at two large law firms in North Carolina and the co-founder of a boutique law firm in Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina.  He began his legal career as a law clerk for Associate Justice Henry E. Frye of the North Carolina Supreme Court.  

Community & Professional

• Co-Chair, North Carolina Museum of Life and Science Capital Campaign
• Member, Jamie Kirk Hahn Foundation
• Member, North Carolina Bar Association, Business Section
• Past Chair, Subcommittee on Emerging Business, North Carolina Bar Association, Business Section
• Member, American Bar Association, Business Section
• Member, National Bar Association, Commercial Law Section
• Board Member, Bull City Forward
• Former Member, Board of Trustees, North Carolina Baptist Hospital
• Former Fellow, North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership
• Former Board Member, Council for Entrepreneurial Development
• Former Treasurer, Harvard Law School Alumni Association of North Carolina
• Former Member, Governor’s Efficiency Commission

Outside Maynard Nexsen

Ken enjoys watching sports, particularly Duke basketball and football, and reading, especially biographies.  While he rarely watches sports and reads at the same time, he is known to keep a book (or e-book) handy so that he can make productive use of time-outs and half-times.

• Listed in Best Lawyers in America® for Corporate Law (2014-Present)
• Listed in Lawyers of Color's inaugural Nation's Best List, 2019 
• Martindale-Hubbell AV Peer Rated for Highest Level of Professional Excellence

• Panelist, "Flashpoints in M&A Purchase Agreements," CLE - North Carolina Bar Association's 2015 Business Law and International Law and Practice Sections Joint Annual Meeting, Pinehurst, NC, February 20, 2015
• Panelist, "How Lean and Clean is  Your Practice:  A Professional Duty to Adapt?" Ethics CLE - North Carolina Bar Association, Cary, NC, December 5, 2014