Strategic Counsel. Business Focus.
EM³ is a business law firm with offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and Fort Lauderdale. Our seasoned attorneys represent companies, founders, investors, private equity sponsors, and lenders across the full business lifecycle, from formation and venture financing through M&A, securities, structured finance, and exit. We handle litigation and disputes, including IP and employment matters. We also advise on technology, AI, data privacy, IP, real estate, and regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, and insurance, and we serve as outside general counsel to growing businesses.
Experienced, strategic, decisive, and effective.
EM³ (Maxson Mago & Macaulay, LLP), founded in 2017, was built to deliver sophisticated legal services at affordable business rates. Our name reflects our approach, which is innovative, client-focused, and aimed at exponential results for the businesses we serve. We keep the firm lean on purpose, with low overhead, so our effort goes into work that benefits clients. We invest in talent and technology that improve outcomes for clients without adding to their costs. One client at a time, we’re changing how legal services are delivered.
Overview & Expertise
Emerging Companies & Venture Capital
EM³ works with founders and investors from formation through exit. High-growth companies get full-service legal support as they scale, and venture investors get the transactional depth they require.
Corporate Governance
EM³ advises boards, owners, and management teams on the governance frameworks that closely held businesses, family enterprises, and PE-backed portfolio companies need to operate effectively, manage risk, and prepare for growth or transition.
Private Equity
EM³ advises middle market private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, providing M&A, financing, and operational support as one team through the life of each investment.
Structured Finance
EM³ structures and documents complex securitization transactions across asset classes, representing issuers, sponsors, investors, and intermediaries in private markets.
Mergers & Acquisitions
EM³’s M&A practice guides buyers, sellers, and their advisors through transactions ranging from $5 million to $500 million, giving middle market dealmakers both strategic advice and the capacity to execute.
Government Transactions
EM³ guides clients through the particular rules of government contracting and procurement, keeping them compliant while they pursue their business goals.
Financial Services
EM³ advises financial institutions, fintech companies, and market participants on both regulatory and transactional matters as the rules that govern them grow more complex.
Employment Consulting & Litigation
EM³ works with growing companies from their first hires through multi-state expansion, giving employment advice that scales with the business at every stage.
Lending
EM³ represents commercial banks, community banks, private lenders, credit funds, mezzanine lenders, and borrowers across the full range of lending transactions, from conventional credit facilities to complex structured financings.
Corporate & Transactional
EM³ represents clients across the full spectrum of corporate and transactional matters, guiding businesses from formation through growth, financing, governance, and strategic transactions, with the responsiveness, efficiency, and cross-disciplinary depth that middle market clients expect.
Outside General Counsel
EM³ acts as an extension of clients’ leadership teams, giving growing businesses responsive, commercially minded counsel on the full range of legal matters they face, without the cost of a full-time law department.
Litigation & Dispute Resolution
EM³’s litigators partner with clients to solve problems cost-effectively, using experience and an appropriate level of strategic aggression to help them resolve high-stakes disputes efficiently.
Technology & IP Transactions
EM³ advises clients at every stage of the IP lifecycle, from counseling and portfolio strategy through complex technology transactions to litigation, so that their intellectual property adds to the value of the business.
Healthcare & Life Sciences
EM³ brings deep sector knowledge and cross-disciplinary teams to healthcare and life sciences clients, from individual physicians and physician groups to Federally Qualified Health Centers, hospitals, and health systems, and handles complex regulatory and transactional work.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
EM³ has advised on artificial intelligence and machine learning matters since 2017. A multidisciplinary team of attorneys with deep subject-matter knowledge helps clients adopt AI responsibly, protect their innovations, and keep up with a body of law that is still changing.
Data Privacy & Cybersecurity
EM³ brings a multidisciplinary approach to data privacy and cybersecurity, combining regulatory depth with practical business judgment to help clients build resilient compliance programs and respond decisively when incidents occur.
IP Litigation
EM³’s IP Litigation practice handles patent, copyright, trademark, false advertising, unfair competition, and trade secret matters, bringing venue experience and trial-tested advocacy to high-stakes intellectual property disputes.
Intellectual Property Counseling
EM³ helps clients build, protect, and monetize their intellectual property portfolios in every major IP category, working with everyone from individual creators and startups to established market leaders.
Securities
EM³ guides issuers, underwriters, and investment banks through public and private capital raises for middle market companies, with deep knowledge of both the market and the regulations.
Insurance-Linked Securities and Life Settlements
EM³’s insurance-linked securities and life settlements practice represents institutional investors, investment funds, life settlement providers, and other market participants in every kind of transactional, regulatory, and litigation matter.
Real Estate
EM³ handles real estate transactions and disputes over the whole life of a property, from acquisition and development through leasing, management, and disposition, giving clients hands-on attention and cost efficiency.
Awards, Recognition and Associations
Independent rankings and peer ratings of the firm and its attorneys, plus the firm's Minority Business Enterprise certification and NAMWOLF membership.
Recognition
Super Lawyers
Attorney recognition
The National Black Lawyers
Attorney recognition
Best Law Firms 2026
Best Lawyers
AV Preeminent 2024
Martindale-Hubbell
Certification & membership
NAMWOLF
Law firm member
Minority Business Enterprise
Certified by NMSDC
Excellence Through Teamwork
Meet the people behind our work. They hold every matter to a high standard, focus on results, and aim to exceed what clients expect.
- Founded
- 2017
- Offices across the U.S.
- 5
- Attorneys and staff
- 21
James W. Maxson
Legal advisor in insurance and corporate law with more than 20 years of experience.
Ajay K. Mago
Strategic legal counsel in tech, M&A, and AI law for leading companies and investors worldwide.
Susan J. Macaulay
Experienced legal strategist guiding clients through transactions and regulatory matters.
Michelle W. Skinner
Skilled legal advocate in intellectual property, patent, and copyright infringement litigation.
Latest Insights & News
All articles
Celebrating the Joel Stern Pipeline Scholarship at NAMWOLF
EM3 is proud to be a dedicated sponsor of this scholarship, named in honor of Joel Stern, a leader in advancing diversity and inclusion through the legal process and within the profession.
Read article
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