Harter Secrest & Emery LLP, a full-service business law firm with offices throughout New York, is pleased to announce that Edward J. Pelta has joined the firm as counsel in the Private Equity and Venture Capital practice group. He will focus his practice on counseling clients on a wide range of transactional and other corporate law matters.
“We are honored to have Ed rejoin the HSE family,” said Harter Secrest & Emery LLP Managing Partner, Craig S. Wittlin. “With more than 25 years of experience serving as a general counsel, Ed is uniquely positioned to advise clients on day-to-day corporate matters and transactions, and he is a great asset to any organization that needs an outside lawyer with deep experience to help guide it through complicated risk assessment and decision-making. That is a role that is very familiar to many HSE attorneys who often serve as ‘outside general counsel’, and one that suits Ed perfectly.”
In his new role with HSE, Pelta will advise clients on matters such as board and shareholder governance, mergers and acquisitions, financing, and commercial contracts, among other areas.
“Since my early days as an associate at Harter Secrest & Emery, and throughout my time as general counsel at two remarkable companies in Rochester, I have worked with and admired the firm’s attorneys,” Pelta said. “I have seen first-hand their collaborative team approach to client service, and the sophistication of their counsel, and I look forward to building similar relationships with clients and my new colleagues.”
Prior to joining HSE, Pelta was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary at Gleason Corporation, a leading developer and manufacturer of technologically advanced gear production machinery and related products and services. In 23 years at the company, he oversaw and was responsible for all of the company’s legal matters ranging from board governance, contracts and transactions, to intellectual property protection, acquisitions and strategic alliances, international trade, ethical conduct and product liability. From 1992 to 1998, Pelta was an attorney with ALSTOM Signaling, Inc., including several years as its Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary where he was responsible for all U.S. corporate legal matters. He began his career as an associate with Harter Secrest & Emery in Rochester, New York (1988 to 1992) and Hill & Barlow in Boston, Massachusetts (1986 to 1988).
Pelta received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, cum laude, and a B.S. with High Honors from the University of California, Berkeley.