Practical Solutions Informed by Real World Experience

Erik Bergman spent four years in the U.S. Navy before earning his bachelor's degree. Going into college, he anticipated having a career in investment banking. Ultimately, though, Erik found his true interests were in philosophy and law.

After practicing at another firm for two decades, focusing on private equity and investment management work, Erik was ready to try something new in his career. He joined Day Pitney, where he has found the breadth of the firm's platform and the depth of its talent to be wonderfully supportive of both clients' needs and his practice.

Today, Erik represents investment advisors, investment funds, individual and institutional investors, startups, and established businesses of all types. Investment management clients rely on him for guidance on fund structuring and formation matters, agreements with investors, and compliance matters. Private equity clients rely on his experience in mergers and acquisitions and transactional matters. And all benefit from his broad experience in general corporate and business matters.

Erik likes working in the private equity and investment management spaces. He enjoys taking on interesting problems and working with smart and driven clients who know what they want to achieve and look to him to help them accomplish their goals.

Erik appreciates the opportunity to get to know individual clients and develop an understanding of their true priorities. "When you represent someone over time, you learn what their hot-button issues are. If it's a corporate client, you get to know people in the legal department as well as the business team, so you can propose solutions that make sense for the business context as a whole," he says.

With substantial transactional experience, Erik finds that his skill set applies well to his work on the investment management side, where practitioners often tend to focus more intently on regulatory aspects. His transactional background prepares him to be sensitive to the business issues. He can help a client anticipate the rhythm and the process required to complete a transaction while being responsive to their needs and timing requirements. He has developed reliable instincts for dealing with the other parties to a transaction that help him negotiate successfully with buyers, sellers, significant investors and their counsel.

Erik welcomes access to insight from other Day Pitney professionals across a range of different practice areas. Being able to tap people for their extensive knowledge and experience in tax, ERISA, energy, real estate matters—almost anything you can think of—provides the support and infrastructure he needs without having to go outside the firm. He finds it helpful to be able to seek a fresh perspective on a matter or see a new approach to an issue. It helps him provide better service to clients and grow as a lawyer.

In his career, Erik has had the privilege of working with and for people—lawyers and clients both—who had extraordinarily high expectations and made those expectations clear. "I learned from all of them and would not be the lawyer I am today without their example. I am proud to be a partner at Day Pitney."

Longtime client David Nightingale of Drum Hill Capital values Erik's contributions to the company's success. "For almost as long as we've been in business, we have had the good fortune to have Erik as our trusted counsel with respect to the firm's compliance program. His knowledge of a complex regulatory environment allows us to focus on our business. When a question arises about how a new regulation might affect us, or how it might introduce the need to change prior legal filings, we call Erik first. He knows our business very well and can help us navigate the path forward very quickly."

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT AND PRIVATE FUNDS

Yale Law School, J.D.

Rutgers University, College Honors, Highest Honors, B.A.

Admissions: Connecticut