Brent has a broad range of experience advising clients on the business and tax aspects of structuring their investments for maximum profitability.   He primarily serves private equity funds, public companies and privately held businesses which focus on the technology, apparel and real estate industries.

Brent held various roles at Ernst & Young LLP and Reed Smith LLP and worked on some of the largest and most complex acquisitions in the United States.   He continues to bring that same level of expertise to Thomas and luna Law Firm while advising parties engaging in mergers and acquisitions (both tax-free and taxable), joint ventures and partnerships, and multi-jurisdictional acquisitions and dispositions.

David represents privately held businesses and tech start-ups, successfully guiding them toward strategic solutions, from the start-up phase to financing and growth through to succession or disposition.  He has represented or mentored several start ups that have been selected for top accelerators, including Y Combinator, TechStars, Alchemist, Capital Innovators, and the Ameren Energy Accelerator.

In addition to his legal practice, David led development and brought to market innovative financial solutions and strategies, in particular related to retirement and, employer-sponsored plans and owner financial planning, for a top-5 broker/dealer, where he also consulted with hundreds of business owners, helping them identify their needs, goals, and a range of solutions beyond financial products. The combination of these experiences led David to appreciate how the strategic, economic goals of his clients must inform and guide technical implementation, and how legal, accounting, financial, and strategic guidance work together.

Octavia Powell is a versatile corporate attorney with extensive experience advising both startup companies and established enterprises across a broad range of industries.  Her practice focuses on providing innovative corporate strategy as outside counsel and legal consulting services to emerging companies in various industries, including tech. She is regularly retained to advise companies on a full range of corporate, technology, strategy, and compliance initiatives, including corporate contracts, technology-based contracts and provisions, and strategic transactions and investments.

Octavia’s practice also focuses on cross border data privacy. She advises domestic and global clients on the many growing and evolving obligations companies have to protect personal data. Over the years Octavia has helped company founders, leaders, and investors build global compliance strategies that keep their companies’ activities within the bounds of international privacy rules, regulations, and protocols, including EU/GDPR, CCPA, and others. 

Octavia is available to lead comprehensive privacy audits as well as spearhead the development of customized internal and external company IT data privacy and security policies, practices and procedures. 

Steve has more than 25 years of experience counseling clients on mergers and acquisitions, securities law, corporate transactions, private equityand more.  In his previous role at Skadden Arps, he represented companies acting as acquirers or sellers in negotiated acquisitions, hostile transactions and contests for corporate control, provided transactional and general corporate advice to portfolio companies during acquisitions, mergers and exit transactions, advised issuers and financial institutions in a broad range of capital raising transaction and managed a team of associates in the Civil Litigation/Corporate Group. At Skadden, his goal was to help clients expertly move through difficult acquisitions, corporate restructurings, mergers, capital raises and more.