Brian Tannenbaum

The Practitioner’s Lens

Brian Tannenbaum is a corporate and transactional attorney who has spent more than fifteen years as his own boss, building and running his practice and counseling business owners through the decisions that define a company’s future. A Denver native, he is drawn to transactional work for the reason the best deal lawyers are: he enjoys sitting shoulder to shoulder with a client, working through complexity, and finding the creative path that gets a deal closed.

Clients describe Brian as competent, accessible, and comprehensive, the kind of lawyer they can lean on through major business and personal transitions. He is personable and direct, and he puts real effort into breaking down barriers and building trust while setting the clear expectations that keep an engagement on track. He takes pride in keeping things straightforward and making sure the people he represents come away satisfied.

Where He Adds the Most Value

Brian is at his best helping business owners identify and resolve the issues that stand between them and their goals. That often means clearing operational obstacles, settling lawsuits, negotiating debt, and resolving regulatory or employment questions, all with an eye toward positioning a company for a clean and successful sale. He thinks like a problem solver first and turns to litigation only when he must, and he gives clients options rather than dictating a single path.

His transactional range spans entity formation and governance, capitalization and financing, mergers and acquisitions, and exit planning, alongside substantial work in real estate and regulatory and land use matters. He is equally comfortable advising founders and closely held companies and structuring the complex, multi-party transactions that regulated industries demand.

Complex and Regulated Transactions

Two engagements capture how Brian works. In one, he structured the financing and construction of a ten million dollar regulated cultivation and processing facility, deploying an early purchase and leaseback structure supported by out-of-state financing to satisfy strict regulatory constraints while securing the capital the operator needed. In another, he negotiated a founder’s buyout when a processing and distribution business was acquired by a public company. In both, the throughline was the same: a difficult, highly regulated problem solved with a structure that worked for everyone at the table.

A Cross-Border Perspective

Brian’s connection to Latin America runs deep and predates his transactional practice. He spent a year in Buenos Aires as a research assistant with the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Universidad de Palermo, conducting international human rights research alongside the Argentine federal government’s human rights prosecution unit and teaching classes on the fundamentals of United States law. Fluent in Spanish, he brings genuine cultural fluency to his work, and he sees real opportunity in helping foreign nationals, particularly from Latin America, invest and do business in the United States. For cross-border matters, he is a natural and comfortable first call.

Academic Foundation and Community

Education: J.D., University of Colorado School of Law, where he
received the Bernard J. Seeman Scholarship and a Pro Bono Legal Service Award and competed in moot court. B.A. in Geography and Political Science, summa cum laude, University of Colorado Boulder, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with High Distinction.

Bar Admissions: Admitted to practice in Colorado.

Languages: Fluent in Spanish.

Beyond the Office: Born and raised in Denver, Brian is an avid extreme skier and a well-traveled explorer who has spent meaningful time abroad.