Krisanne Cunningham

Rice Reuther Sullivan & Carroll, LLP is a business law firm primarily focused on real estate and business transactions and commercial litigation. Our firm was organized in 2004 as a “boutique” transactional law firm dedicated to providing high quality, efficient service to business clients in Nevada. We seek to maintain close working relationships with our clients so that we can address their legal needs in the context of their broader business goals. Our clients include a wide variety of major real estate lenders, investors, developers and operators as well as non-real estate businesses in diverse areas ranging from life sciences to manufacturing to gaming. We understand that law is a service business. Quite simply, we strive to achieve practical and efficient results for our clients.

All of our attorneys are experienced in navigating highly complex transactions. All partners are “AV” rated and together have more than 100 years of legal experience, predominantly in the Las Vegas business and real estate development community. We are committed to a standard of excellence because our goal is to develop and maintain our reputation as one of Nevada’s premier business law firms.

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Krisanne S. Cunningham is a Managing Partner at Rice Reuther Sullivan & Carroll, LLP. Her broad-based transactional experience spans 20 years and includes mergers and acquisitions, business law, corporate governance, securities, tax planning and non-profit organizations. Krisanne regularly negotiates and manages sophisticated M&A transactions, including deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and advises on structuring those transactions in a tax-efficient manner. Krisanne has extensive experience drafting various contracts, including asset purchase agreements, merger agreements, stock purchase agreements, operating agreements, stockholders’ agreements and employment agreements. Krisanne regularly advises boards on corporate governance issues and is well-versed in Nevada LLCs and joint ventures. She also works with entrepreneurs and start-up companies, from the time they begin to raise capital and grant equity incentive compensation through the point of an eventual sale.  Krisanne is currently the Chair of the Tax Section of the Nevada Bar.

Krisanne spent her first years out of law school at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now, WilmerHale) at their Washington, DC headquarters. While there, Krisanne worked with Fortune 500 companies and some of the largest non-profit organizations in the Country.

Krisanne graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she received the Madeleine and Roger Traynor Award and was Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Tax Review. She also received an L.L.M. (masters of law) degree in Taxation from the Georgetown Law Center, where she was a Graduate Tax Scholar and graduated With Distinction.

Krisanne is an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated (5.0 out of 5.0) attorney by Martindale-Hubbell and has been named a Mountain States Super Lawyer (Mergers & Acquisitions), a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and one of Nevada’s Legal Elite by the Nevada Business Magazine (2013-2019), based on votes from her peers (she was the top vote-getter in Southern Nevada in 2016). She was also named one of the Valley’s Top Lawyers (Business Law) by Desert Companion Magazine and a Top Tax Attorney by Vegas, Inc. and has a 10.0 (out of 10.0) Avvo rating.

Krisanne is licensed to practice in Nevada, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Georgia.

Education

• Georgetown Law Center (LL.M., Taxation), with Distinction
• University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.)
• University of Notre Dame (B.B.A., Accounting), summa cum laude

Practice Areas

• Corporate
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• LLCs
• Corporate Governance
• Emerging Growth Business
• Securities
• Tax Planning
• Equity Incentive Compensation
• Non-Profit Organizations

Professional Recognition and Awards

• Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Rating (5.0 out of 5.0)
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation
• Mountain States Super Lawyers, Mergers and Acquisitions
• Nevada Legal Elite, Nevada Business Magazine (2013 through 2019)
  • Top Vote-getter in Southern Nevada (2016)
• Named one of the Valley’s Top Attorneys (Business Law), Desert Companion Magazine (2014)
• Named a Top Tax Attorney, Vegas, Inc. (2013)
• Avvo 10.0 Rating (out of 10.0)

Professional Memberships and Activities

• Chair of Tax Section, State of Nevada Bar
• Board of Directors (Executive Committee), Nellis Support Team
• Member, President’s Club (Metro Chamber of Commerce)
• Member, Executive Women’s Council (Metro Chamber of Commerce)
• Member, Military Affairs Committee (Metro Chamber of Commerce)
• Member, Women in Business Law Roundtable, ABA Business Law Section
• Pro Bono Attorney, Attorney General Office of Military Legal Assistance
• Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys (SNAWA)
• American Bar Association
  • Business Law Section, M & A Subcommittee
  • Taxation Section
• Clark County Bar Association

Representative Presentations and Publications

• Letters of Intent: The Foundation/Cornerstone of a Deal, Nevada Business Magazine (October 2019)
• Tax Considerations with Multi-Member LLCs, Nevada Lawyer
• Tax-Exempt Organizations and Joint Ventures, Nevada Lawyer
• “Nevada LLCs,” Co-Speaker, National Business Institute, Las Vegas, NV
• “Tax Planning and Section 1031 Exchanges” Co-Speaker, Nevada Society of CPAs

Bar Admissions

• Nevada
• Virginia
• District of Columbia
• Georgia

Court Admissions

• U.S. Tax Court
• Supreme Court of Nevada
• Supreme Court of Virginia
• Supreme Court of State of Georgia

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