“I truly enjoy assisting someone with the sale of their business…it involves not only working alongside them to navigate toward closing a successful transaction, but to help them understand and deal with the challenges that typically arise during the process, and ultimately share in their celebration of recognizing the financial reward for which they have worked for many years. I also enjoy working with clients to create strategic business relationships – initially by understanding what the client wishes to achieve and then helping design a strategy to accomplish that. I probably function more like the maestro conducting the symphony than the lead violinist,” Mark Bluhm said. One client said, “Mark Bluhm’s assistance is an important and effective part of our business,” and further noted that Mark is exceptional in a number of areas, including helpfulness, responsiveness, quality, budget and value.

Mark Bluhm, a business lawyer with a long history of facilitating successful transactions for clients, is a partner in Lathrop GPM’s Business Transaction group. Clients rely on Mark’s business experience and legal advice to help them grow and sell their businesses. He represents public and private companies of all sizes, helping them achieve strategic business transaction goals – initially by understanding what the client wishes to achieve and then helping design a strategy to accomplish that.

With a unique background as a business professional across multiple sectors, notably in banking, venture capital, start-ups, and law firm leadership, Mark empowers clients with insights that are commercially astute and legally sound. He provides strategic legal guidance across a spectrum of corporate issues for an array of clients. With a distinguished history in facilitating successful acquisitions and divestitures, Mark is a go-to adviser for businesses seeking to navigate complex transactions with confidence. During the three years before becoming legacy firm Lathrop Gage’s managing partner, he represented clients in acquisitions and divestitures with an aggregate value in excess of $1 billion.

When asked…

Why did you become a lawyer?

I enjoy working with clients to achieve a strategic business goal – whether it’s to buy a company, sell a company, or develop a strategic relationship with another company. It is an honor to be asked to handle a client’s most important business matters and celebrate their success – all while working with extremely bright, talented individuals – the business executives, the attorneys, the accountants, and the investment bankers.

What do you do outside of work?

If I could play golf, hunt, go to sporting events, drink good wine, scotch and tequila, and smoke a cigar ever so often, I’d believe I’m in heaven! All with my wife, of course!

Areas of Focus

Services

Experience

Acquisitions / Dispositions

  • Represented Silpada Designs, Inc. in the sale of its business to Avon Products, Inc. for $650 million in cash, and the subsequent repurchase of the company.
  • Represented the stockholders of Ivy Animal Health, Inc. in their sale of the company to Eli Lilly and Company.
  • Represented the shareholders of Russell Stover Candies, Inc. in their acquisition of Whitman's Candies from Pet Incorporated.
  • Supervised and handled the sale, liquidation or other disposition of 17 subsidiaries of Franklin Savings Association during the three-year period after the Resolution Trust Corporation was appointed Franklin's conservator.
  • Represented BlueScope Steel North America Corporation in several acquisitions.

Strategic Initiatives

  • Represented CryptoSlam, a leading aggregator of non-fungible token (NFT) data, in its combination with Forkast.News, a digital media platform. The combination created a web3 data intelligence and media platform called Forkast Labs.
  • Represented a Missouri-based accounting firm in its combination with another accounting firm. Upon completion the combined firm is now one of the 10 largest accounting firms in the United States.
  • Represented Sprint PCS in structuring its PCS Affiliate Program and negotiating management, services and license agreements with companies to build-out and operate Sprint PCS networks in specific geographic regions.
  • Represented Sprint PCS in obtaining financing for its PCS Affiliates, including syndicated senior secured financing, subordinated debt and public offerings of equity and high yield bonds, aggregating more than $3 billion.
  • Represented Sprint PCS in its swaps of FCC spectrum licenses with AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile.
  • Represented Sprint Spectrum Holding Company, L.P. in its acquisition of a partnership that holds a broadband personal communications services license for the Washington, D.C./Baltimore major trading area, and in the subsequent sale of the GSM System owned by that partnership to Omnipoint Corporation (a predecessor of T-Mobile).
  • Created and executed all aspects of the sales process of a bank and bank holding company. This included drafting the disclosure material, identifying and contacting the potential buyers, managing the potential buyers' diligence process, selecting the final purchase candidates, negotiating the price, business terms and purchase agreements and closing the transaction successfully.

Start-Ups / Business Investments

  • Represented several companies and individuals in their investments in unaffiliated businesses.
  • Represented several companies in raising venture capital at various stages of capitalization.
  • Co-founded a healthcare start-up. The company successfully completed a multimillion-dollar capital raise and negotiated several strategic alliances to enhance solutions.
  • Represented CyrptoSlam on closing an oversubscribed $9 million funding round.

Credentials

Education

  • Washington University School of Law (J.D., 1980)
    • Washington University Law Quarterly, Executive Editor, 1979-80; Staff Member, 1978-79
  • Washington University (M.B.A., 1980)
    • Master of Business Administration Scholar Award (awarded annually to two students by the Washington University MBA Faculty), 1978
  • Stanford University (A.B., 1976)

Admissions

Bar Admissions

  • Missouri

Recognitions

  • Missouri Lawyers Weekly, "The POWER List - Mergers & Acquisitions," 2024
  • Selected among The Best Lawyers in America®, 2010-2025
  • Ingram's 250 Honoree, 2016-2020
  • Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Missouri Corporate/M&A, 2010 - 2018, Eminent Practitioner
  • Super Lawyers, Missouri & Kansas, 2005-2013
  • Martindale-Hubbell® "AV" Rating

Professional Activities

  • Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Former Member of the Board of Directors
  • Kansas City Tomorrow, Year VIII Member
  • Norbank, Former Member of the Board of Directors
  • The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, Former Member

Community Involvement

  • Children's Center for the Visually Impaired, Former Member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors
  • The Bacchus Foundation, Past President and Former Member of the Board of Directors
  • The Children's Place, Former Member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors
  • Economic Club of Kansas City, Board of Directors, 2019-2023