Samuel Ashton Mills

Sam’s vast experience in twenty years of practice spans the gamut from important business litigation matters to major business transactions.  Sam began his career as a clerk for a federal judge in Manhattan before joining a major Wall Street firm where he drafted the first settlement agreement in the history of the tobacco industry.  Since that time, he has worked on significant business transactions across the spectrum, including the sale of a multi-billion dollar electronics business and the representation of the purchaser of an NBA franchise.  He has also represented owners and developers of various kinds of commercial real estate projects, including the financing of more than one billion dollars of multifamily housing projects financed with tax-exempt bonds.

Sam represents clients in corporate and business transactions of virtually every variety.  In addition to counseling clients on a day-to-day basis in connection with the ongoing operation of their businesses, Sam is routinely called to upon to handle the most important business transactions of the firm’s clients. His practice includes mergers, acquisitions and dispositions of various asset classes, private equity and financing transactions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, as well as the formation and structuring of companies and partnerships, and the negotiation of business deals and entity agreements.

Sam also represents owners, developers, and investors in sophisticated and complex real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions; development and construction; leasing; lending and finance; partnerships, joint ventures and funds; and land use. He has substantial experience in financing projects with tax-exempt bonds, having represented clients in dozens of such transactions.  He is often called upon by clients for creative and practical advice in connection with restructuring existing deals and financings and resolving difficult loan, partnership, and guaranty issues.

Sam’s extensive experience extends beyond the courtroom to the boardroom.  As a former general counsel and executive vice president to a group of privately-held companies in the insurance, financial services, and benefit enrollment industries, he possesses unique insight into the concerns and priorities his clients face on a daily basis.  Sam takes these concerns into account when developing deal  strategies and advising his clients.

Samuel Mills received his Juris Doctor degree in 1995 from the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and served as Notes Editor of the Columbia Law Review. He is the author of “Toward an Equitable After-Acquired Evidence Rule,” 94 Columbia Law Review 1525-57 (1994), which was a 1994 recipient of the Negroni Prize.  Graduating 4th in his class, Sam received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history and religion magna cum laude in 1988 from Baylor University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Mills also received his Master of Arts degree in history from Baylor University in 1990, where he served as a Francis G. Guittard Fellow.

From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Mills served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Summit Alliance Companies in Dallas, Texas.  Prior to joining the Summit Alliance Companies, Mr. Mills practiced with the international law firms of Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Dallas. From 1995 through 1996, Mr. Mills served as a law clerk to the Honorable Denise Cote, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York in 1995-96.  Mr. Mills is admitted to practice in New York and Texas. He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1965.

Sam’s clients  have included publicly-traded companies,  individual entrepreneurs, investors, lenders, borrowers, private business owners, and executives in a variety of industries.