Cheryl Shaw is a business and contracts attorney who advises both private and public sector clients. She serves as outside general counsel or in a similar capacity to entrepreneurial companies in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and distribution, construction, commercial leasing, professional services, and governmental services. Cheryl advises on business transactions, contracts, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, commercial real estate, land development, commercial lending, finance, procurement, and corporate law. She has vast experience helping entrepreneurial businesses grow through mergers, acquisitions, business expansions, contracting, real property acquisitions, dispositions, and development.
Cheryl also advises public entities on operational issues, real estate transactions, contracting, procurement, and finance. She assists with the full range of real estate needs, such as acquisitions and dispositions of real property, as well as implementation of capital plans and public construction projects, including public construction procurement. Those projects include land acquisitions (cooperative and by eminent domain), public works solicitations, negotiation, and implementation guidance. She has drafted, negotiated, and implemented architect-owner agreements, program management agreements, general contractor agreements, and task-order construction contracts. She has also provided guidance when terms of the agreements were not met by the provider.
She has vast experience with education special purpose local option sales tax or ESPLOST (managing the referendum, including legal guidance on do’s and don’ts for school districts, as well as implementation and ensuing compliance requirements), tax allocation districts (TADs, also known as tax increment financing or TIF) analysis, intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), and other financing/funding sources for school real estate and transactions. She also reviews and advises school districts on the business and finance impacts of “bonds-for-title” (or “bond-lease”) projects proposed by development authorities.
In addition to advising on the intricate requirements of public construction procurement, Cheryl advises on general public procurement. She drafts, reviews, and negotiates contracts with vendors; drafts and negotiates memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and IGAs; and provides guidance on contract amendments, extensions, and sole/single source issues.
Across the board, clients appreciate how Cheryl always has the client’s business strategy in mind and can explain complex topics in simple ways. Clients value her responsiveness, as she shares her clients’ sense of urgency to get the deal done.