Key Takeaways
- Selling a veterinary practice requires legal experience that’s different from day-to-day business law.
- Attorneys who regularly handle veterinary M&A transactions understand industry norms and common deal structures.
- Experienced M&A attorneys know which contract provisions are worth negotiating and which are unlikely to change.
- Keeping the transaction moving is just as important as reviewing legal documents.
- Choosing advisors with veterinary transaction experience can help reduce delays and support a smoother closing.
When you decide to sell your veterinary practice, it’s best practice to build a team of professionals to help guide you through the process. That team may include a broker or M&A advisor, a CPA, a financial advisor, and an attorney.
One question many practice owners ask is whether they really need a veterinary-specific mergers and acquisitions (M&A) attorney. After all, they’ve worked with the same attorney for years. That attorney knows their business, has handled contracts and legal questions in the past, and has earned their trust.
The short answer is that your longtime attorney may still be an important advisor, but selling a practice is a very different type of legal transaction. It often makes sense to bring in someone whose primary focus is buying and selling businesses, particularly veterinary practices.
Not Every Attorney Handles Business Sales
Attorneys often specialize, just like veterinarians do. You wouldn’t expect a small animal veterinarian to perform equine surgery every day, even though both are highly trained professionals. The same idea applies to attorneys.
Some focus on estate planning. Others specialize in employment law, real estate, or business contracts. M&A attorneys help business owners buy and sell companies. They understand the documents, timelines, negotiations, and legal requirements involved in taking a deal from a signed letter of intent to a successful closing.
That experience can make the process smoother for everyone involved.
Why Veterinary Experience Makes a Difference
Even among M&A attorneys, industry experience matters. Veterinary practice sales have become increasingly specialized over the past several years. Corporate buyers, private equity groups, and other acquirers often use similar transaction structures and contract language because they’ve completed hundreds of acquisitions.
An attorney who regularly works on veterinary practice sales understands what’s typical, what can often be negotiated, and which issues deserve the most attention. That doesn’t mean they’ll agree with everything in the contract. It means they know where to focus their efforts to best protect your interests without slowing the transaction unnecessarily.
An attorney who doesn’t regularly work in veterinary M&A may spend valuable time negotiating provisions that are unlikely to change while overlooking opportunities that someone with industry experience has seen negotiated successfully in other deals.
The Right Attorney Helps Keep the Deal Moving
One of the biggest risks in any transaction is delay. Every additional week between signing an agreement and closing creates opportunities for something to change. A key employee could leave. Production could decline. Financing could be delayed. Events like these could lead buyers to postpone a purchase, renegotiate terms, or even reconsider the transaction altogether.
Experienced M&A attorneys help keep the process moving by anticipating questions, preparing documents efficiently, and focusing negotiations on the issues that matter most. Their goal isn’t simply to review legal documents. It’s to help move the transaction toward a successful closing while protecting your interests along the way.
Questions to Ask Before You Hire an Attorney
If you’re interviewing attorneys, don’t worry about asking technical legal questions. Instead, focus on their experience and how they work with clients.
Here are a few good questions to start with:
- How many veterinary practice sales have you handled?
- Have you worked with the type of buyer I’m considering?
- Who will be my primary point of contact during the transaction?
- How do you keep transactions moving and avoid unnecessary delays?
- How do you approach negotiations?
- Can you provide references from clients who have sold veterinary practices?
Their answers will give you a much better sense of whether they regularly handle transactions like yours.
Build the Right Team from the Beginning
Selling your practice is likely one of the largest financial transactions of your career. Choosing advisors based on experience, not just familiarity, can make the process less stressful and help avoid unnecessary delays.
Your attorney doesn’t work alone. They become part of a larger team that includes your M&A advisor, CPA, financial advisor, and tax professionals. When each member of that team understands veterinary practice transactions and works well together, the process is generally smoother from beginning to end.
If you’re preparing to sell your practice and aren’t sure where to start, 360 Vet Sales can help you assemble an experienced team of professionals who understand the veterinary market and have guided practice owners through successful transactions across the country.