Tim Oliver is a Shareholder in the Business Practice Group. He serves as outside general counsel to closely-held and family-owned businesses, advising owners and executives on the contract, compliance, employment and governance questions that arise in the ordinary course, and acting as transactional and M&A counsel for their major deals and acquisitions. Tim counsels clients across the full business lifecycle, from entity selection and formation documents through growth and acquisition to ultimate transition of ownership.

A Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), Tim prepares business owners to move on from the companies they have built. He is a founding member and President of the Exit Planning Institute’s Chicago Chapter (EPIC), where he helps develop best practices for advising owners in advance of a sale or succession. Tim takes a collaborative approach to that work, coordinating with clients’ accountants, wealth advisors, valuation professionals and insurance representatives so that legal planning aligns with the owner’s broader financial and personal goals.

Tim also maintains an active trademark practice, filing and prosecuting applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, managing trademark portfolios, and prosecuting and defending infringement claims. That experience informs his advice to businesses at formation, where brand protection is often overlooked. He is regularly engaged in commercial real estate matters as well, representing buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants, and lenders and borrowers, frequently in connection with a larger corporate transaction.

Years spent litigating business disputes give Tim a heightened appreciation for the risks in a given venture. He is particularly adept at identifying latent issues in contracts, planning for contingencies in partnership and shareholder agreements, and protecting clients’ long-term interests at the negotiating table. Prior to entering private practice, Tim worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in derivatives and foreign exchange trading, where he reviewed new legislation and helped plan changes to the bank's trading platform to meet governing standards.

Tim is a frequent presenter to business owners and professional advisors on exit planning, business valuation and buy-sell agreements, including at the Exit Planning Institute’s national Exit Planning Summit. Tim lives in Westmont, Illinois, with his wife, Jana, and their two children. Outside of family time, he enjoys watching his hometown sports teams (Yankees, Giants and Knicks), reading fiction and playing video games.