About Us
Our business-savvy attorneys and breadth of experience have made us trusted counsel to hundreds of clients.
Established in 2010 by three acquaintances who, now nearly a decade and a half later, count themselves as close friends and trusted colleagues, Buhler Duggal & Henry has striven to take a more collegial path at every turn. The firm eschews hierarchy as reflected in its “one firm / one rate” blended billing structure and handpicks leading attorneys from the nation’s elite “white shoe” firms who seek a home to practice law at the highest levels of excellence, all the while nurturing their own humanity in service of their clients.
OUR People
Our attorneys have spent countless hours working at AMLAW 100 law firms and bring the same level of professionalism to their practice at Buhler Duggal & Henry.
Josh Buhler is a corporate and securities lawyer with extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and international transactions. Josh actively represents startup and development-stage companies, established businesses, and venture capital and private equity investors.
Josh regularly counsels company clients on the full range of their activities, from raising seed capital through exit. He also represents investors in structuring, managing and disposing of investments. He routinely represents clients engaging in complicated joint venture, licensing and other commercial transactions. His clients rely on him for sound commercial advice as well as his broad network of business advisors, specialist legal counsel and investors.
Josh’s experience reaches industries as diverse as the technology, media, entertainment, healthcare, education, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries. He has counselled clients engaged in transactions in many areas of the world, including Europe, Latin America and Asia. He formerly represented such clients as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Blackstone and KKR & Co. He now represents prominent venture capital investors as well as hundreds of technology companies headquartered in New York’s Silicon Alley, elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad.
Previously, Josh was associated with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York. He began his career in the New York office of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP.
Josh has served as an adjunct instructor at the Cornell Law School.
Josh received a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics and English from the University of Toronto, magna cum laude. He earned his J.D. from the Cornell Law School, where he was a member of the Cornell Law Review and Moot Court Board. He is admitted to practice in New York and California.
Raoul Duggal is a general corporate lawyer focusing on the representation of international and domestic small and mid-size companies and investors. He has extensive experience advising clients on a broad spectrum of domestic and international M&A transactions, including restructuring, cross-border and refinancing transactions. He frequently advises domestic and international businesses and investors on venture capital and angel investments and their exit transactions. In addition Raoul also has also worked with public companies and has advised on domestic and international IPOs.
Raoul represents a wide variety of U.S. and European small- and mid-size companies and advises them as their U.S. outside general counsel on a regular basis. Using the firm’s trusted network of experts in tax, intellectual property, employment, real estate and litigation Raoul’s clients can rely on legal services covering the full range of their activities in the United States. With an approach based on practical and economical solutions, Raoul helps domestic and international clients conduct and effectively manage their businesses in the United States.
Prior to co-founding Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP, Raoul was associated with the New York and London offices of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. and with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Germany.
Raoul passed his First State Examination with honors, and received a Doctor of Jurisprudence (Dr. iur.) from the Faculty of Law of the University of Cologne, summa cum laude. He holds an LL.M. degree with a concentration in corporate law from New York University School of Law.
Raoul is an active member of the New York City Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the German Bar Association, the German-American Lawyers Association, the International Association of Young Lawyers and the German-American Chamber of Commerce. He is fluent in German and is admitted to practice in New York and Germany.
Eric Henry is a general corporate lawyer focusing on the representation of emerging growth and mid-size companies. He has a general corporate practice with broad-based experience serving as outside general counsel to companies and investors, providing guidance and assistance in all aspects of their financing, organization, operation and exit.
Having worked as an in-house lawyer, Eric also has operational experience advising on a wide array of commercial matters including M&A, licensing and other technology agreements, joint ventures, reseller, and other bespoke collaboration agreements, employee-related matters, commercial disputes, IP portfolio management, and other matters.
Eric takes a business-first approach to counseling, providing efficient and practical legal advice to further our clients’ operational and strategic goals. Eric prioritizes a relationship based approach to the practice of law.
Prior to co-founding Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP, Eric was in-house legal counsel for Sapient Corporation (now Publicis Sapient), and previously worked in M&A and other corporate/transactional matters as a corporate associate in the Boston offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Proskauer Rose LLP.
Eric has been actively involved in various community organizations, including the Boston and New York City Bar Associations. His interests include sailing, historical nonfiction, travel, and gardening. Eric is fluent in Spanish.
Eric received a B.A. in History, cum laude, from Bowdoin College. He earned his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School, where he was also a member of the Transnational Law Review. He is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and New York.
Originally from Ireland, Jack specializes in the representation of emerging growth companies throughout their lifecycles, from formation to exit; and the venture funds that support them. He is broadly experienced in venture financing, SAFEs and convertible debt issuances, formation and capitalization of companies, governance complexities and later stage company issues, and secondary transactions and tender offers. Outside of his transactional work, he provides day-to-day guidance to companies on corporate governance, employment, and equity compensation matters.
Jack also has significant experience in mergers and acquisitions and has abundant experience in company side representation leading to successful exits: including HotelTonight and its acquisition by Airbnb, BetterCloud and its strategic investment by Vista Partners, Refinery29 and its acquisition by Vice, Caper and its acquisition by Instacart, Grailed and its acquisition by GOAT, SevenFifty Technologies and its acquisition by Provi among many others. Jack’s fund side representation includes multiple financings led by Imaginary Ventures, Tiger Global, Addition, Coatue, Shine, Lux Capital and Union Square Ventures.
Jack is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and holds an LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School. Before joining BDH, Jack was an associate at the New York office of Gunderson Dettmer.
Assaad Nasr is a general corporate lawyer with extensive experience in both domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, investments and commercial legal matters. He represents a broad spectrum of clients, ranging from startup and development-stage companies, private equity and real estate investment management firms and individual investors. His clients rely on him for his pragmatic legal and commercial advice, attention to detail and comprehensive network of specialist legal and business advisors.
Assaad has an extensive private practice and in-house work history, covering a range of industries including professional services, technology, real estate, financial services, telecommunications, media, and sports & entertainment. He has worked on numerous complex M&A and commercial transactions in many non-U.S. jurisdictions throughout the world, including Canada, India, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
During his time as an in-house lawyer, Assaad counseled internal clients—including business practitioners and risk management personnel—on legal, business and strategic matters with respect to commercial transactions and changes in applicable law and regulatory frameworks. He also developed extensive operational experience advising on matters such as master services agreements, consulting agreements, vendor contracts, leases, NDAs, IP licenses, employment-related matters and dispute resolution.
Prior to joining Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP, Assaad ran his own law firm where he advised companies and high-net-worth individuals on legal and investment matters. Prior to that, Assaad was an Assistant General Counsel at Deloitte LLP.
He started his career in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Shearman & Sterling LLP.Assaad received an A.B. in Economics from Duke University, summa cum laude, where he was also Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center. He is admitted to practice in New York.
Assaad is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Park Children’s Day School in New York.
Steve Zehden is a transactional lawyer who provides legal advice in various fields of Corporate Law, in particular Venture & Growth Capital, Private Equity and M&A. For many years, Steve has advised start-ups/scale-ups and VC investors on primary financing rounds, secondary transactions and exit transactions, including buyer-side and seller-side M&A deals. He has also represented mid-size and larger corporations and private companies on domestic and international M&A deals, private equity deals, group reorganizations, financial and strategic investments (equity and debt), and other corporate transactions, in numerous cases cross-border deals involving Europe and the U.S. (inbound and outbound), but also Asia and LatAm.
Steve’s client base includes, among others, U.S. and German/European companies and individuals, institutional investors (such as Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds) and non-institutional investors (such as family offices and high net-worth individuals). He has also acted, recurrently, as de facto (outside) general counsel for VC funds and VC builders/incubators. His pertinent corporate law experience, flanked by the firm’s expertise in securities, tax, intellectual property, employment, and other areas of law, serve as the ideal prerequisite to lead domestic and international transactions and provide counsel with regard to all relevant aspects of a corporate transaction.
Prior to joining Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP, Steve was Partner with the international and leading European law firm Noerr LLP and worked in their Berlin and New York offices, and, most recently, Steve had his own law firm in New York and Berlin, providing legal services in US and German Corporate law.
Steve pursued his law studies at Humboldt University Berlin, Université de Genève, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and New York University School of Law. He passed his First State Examination at Humboldt University (with honors) and his Second State Examination in the State of Berlin (with honors), and received an LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law. Steve is admitted to practice law in New York and Germany. He is fluent in English, German and French.
Jen Berrent has over 25 years of experience in some of the most intense corporate environments. She has led hundreds of negotiations, including venture capital financings, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. Jen continues to advise founders, companies and investors in complex and strategic matters. Her practice covers the full spectrum of corporate transactions.
In addition to serving as of counsel to BDH, Jen is also the founder of Covenant, which is focused on advising companies on a wide range of commercial agreements. Covenant marries sophisticated, strategic counsel with practical, scalable solutions.
Jen was an executive at WeWork for six years during the scaling of the business where she served in several roles, including Chief Legal Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining WeWork, Jen was a partner at WilmerHale, where she was the head of the New York emerging company practice.
Earlier in her career, Jen was an associate at Covington & Burling and associate general counsel at Longitude, a financial services company acquired by Goldman Sachs and International Securities Exchange. Prior to law school, Jen worked in the Strategic Planning Group at American Express and as an associate consultant at The Parthenon Group. Jen graduated from the New York University School of Law in May 2000 and from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in December 1993. Jen is admitted to practice in New York.
Jen currently serves as a director on HYPOTHEkids and is an active supporter of the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Appalachian Mountain Club.
Selected WeWork Negotiations
- Transactions with Softbank over several years, including initial structured deal resulting in separately funded joint ventures in Asian jurisdictions: China, Pacific (South Korea and Southeast Asian countries) and Japan
- Landmark deal with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) regarding cleaning staff
- Agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding scope of employee restrictive covenants
- Acquisition and disposition of multiple businesses
- Partnership for operations in India
- Multiple debt financing transactions with a variety of security packages
Selected Outside Counsel Negotiations
- Corporate counsel to over 100 startup companies, including Spark Therapeutics, Compass, Barkbox, Work Market, Celmatix and mParticle
- Representation of Emory University in its sale to Gilead Sciences and Royalty Pharma of a revenue interest for emtricitabine, a component of Truvada
- Representation of State Street Bank in the Troubled Asset Relief Program
- Representation of companies in numerous mergers and acquisitions, including Generation Health in its sale to CVS Caremark, Pixable in its sale to SingTel, Cellfish Media in its acquisition of Bandsintown, Temenos in its acquisition of TriNovus, BzzAgent in its sale to dunnhumby (a subsidiary of Tesco)
- Representations of companies in complex joint ventures, including Life Sciences Alternative Funding in its joint venture with Perella Weinberg and VIA Motors in its joint venture and exchangeable shares transaction with a Mexican company
- Representation of investors in equity, debt and structured financings, including Harris & Harris in equity investments in biotech companies and Paul Capital in purchases of revenue streams and equity interests
Carl Berry focuses primarily on tax, executive compensation and employee benefits law related advice. He also has significant experience with corporate legal work, including with respect to mergers and acquisitions, preparation of complex limited partnership and limited liability company operating agreements, and private equity fund related work.
Carl regularly assists with issues related to acquisitions, dispositions and reorganizations of businesses, tax partnership related issues, the qualified small business stock rules, inbound and outbound tax planning, and deferred compensation and other executive compensation related issues.
Carl is of counsel to Buhler Duggal and Henry through his professional association. Previously, Carl was an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and a shareholder at Trenam Law.
Carl is rated AV Preeminent (2018) by Martindale-Hubbell.
Carl received two bachelor’s degrees (summa cum laude) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign majoring in Economics, Finance and Political Science. He earned his J.D. (cum laude) from Cornell Law School. While at Cornell, Carl achieved the CALI Award for Excellence (i.e. the book award) in federal income taxation and served as an editor on the Journal of Law & Public Policy. He is admitted to practice New York and Florida.
Usman Javed practices general business and corporate law. He represents emerging companies and their investors in all stages of the business lifecycle, including entity formations, financings, mergers and acquisitions.
Prior to joining Buhler Duggal & Henry LLP, Usman clerked for the Supreme Court of Pakistan and worked at a Toronto based full-service firm.
Usman read MPhil Technology Policy at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. He earned his J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School where he was the associate editor for the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. He received his B.Sc (Hons), from the University of Toronto. He is admitted to practice in New York and Ontario, Canada.
George Seyffert is a corporate and securities lawyer. He represents investors, startup and development-stage companies in a variety of corporate matters throughout all stages of the corporate life cycle, including venture capital financings, corporate governance and commercial transactions.
George began his career as an associate at the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP, where he completed a secondment with Goldman Sachs.
George received his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, where he was the Business Manager for the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law. He also served as President of the Brooklyn Business Law Association. Before law school, he earned his B.A. in History & English from SUNY Binghamton University. He is admitted to practice in New York.
George is a member of the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the New York City Bar Association.
Maria de Dios is a general corporate attorney representing domestic and international startups, development-stage companies, and established businesses through all stages of their corporate life cycle. Serving as outside counsel to a variety of clients, Maria provides guidance on a range of day-to-day matters, and transactional support in connection with mergers and acquisitions, financings, corporate governance, and commercial transactions.
Maria began her career as an associate at the New York offices of Baker & Hostetler LLP and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP. Maria received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, where she was the Symposium Editor for the Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law. Maria earned her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College.
Maria is admitted to practice in New York.
Sophia Berger is a corporate and debt finance attorney, representing international and domestic companies and investors in a variety of corporate matters throughout all stages of the business’ life cycle.
Previously, Sophia was a debt finance attorney for White & Case LLP in Miami, where she worked on leveraged acquisition financings for investment banks, private equity sponsors, funds, and corporate borrowers. She began her career with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in New York.
Sophia received a B.A. in Philosophy with a minor in Art and Public Relations from the University of Miami, magna cum laude. She earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was the Executive Online Editor of the Journal of International Law and a child custody and family legal support advocate for Philadelphia Legal Assistance.
Sophia is admitted to practice in Florida and New York.
