Andrew J. Sherman is a Partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, a Washington, D.C. based law firm with nearly 400 attorneys nationwide.  Mr. Sherman is a recognized corporate and transactional attorney and is an international authority on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, capital formation, franchising, and other types of intellectual property leveraging and growth strategies.  Mr. Sherman is also the founder of Grow Fast Grow Right, an education and training company (http://www.growfastgrowright.com) with operations in the United States, Canada, India and Europe. 
Mr. Sherman serves as a legal and strategic advisor to both Fortune 500 as well as emerging growth companies in the areas of business planning, public and private capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, technology transfer, joint ventures and strategic alliances.  He has worked on a wide variety of public and private securities offerings, acquisitions and related business transactions, intellectual property leveraging, channel partner building and general corporate counsel and strategic support to clients which include Wal-Mart, Intel, Texaco, Shell Oil, Owens Corning, Lockheed Martin, Apple Computer, Panasonic, GAF, ULLICO, Exxon Mobil, IBM, Revlon, Sears, Caterpillar, Bell & Howell, TLC Beatrice Foods International, Indian Motorcycles, Tower Records, Chevron Phillips, Magic Johnson Travel Group, Pritikin Health and Longevity Centers (a Harbor Group portfolio company), Ikea, the Pritzker Organization (Hyatt Hotels), U.S. Office Products, Subway/Franchise Brands LLC, Western Professional Hockey League, Rogers Communications (Canada), Invensys, Yum Brands (parent company of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and other casual dining brands), the Scott Fetzer Companies (a division of Berkshire Hathaway), Paul Mitchell Systems, the EasyGroup of Companies, IDT/Winstar Communications, the Edison Preservation Foundation, Mayne Nickless/Loomis Courier, Travel Services International, Household Finance Corporation, America Online (AOL) Select, Metrocall, Sunglass Hut, Perfumania, Miracle Ear, Platinum Technologies (sold to Computer Associates), Sanyo, Bankers Trust, Ernst & Young Technologies, The Water Channel, Cruiseship Centers International, 800-GOT-JUNK?, Geeks on Call, and Bernecker & Ranier Industrial Automation Products. 
Mr. Sherman has extensive experience in general corporate matters, complex commercial transactions and capital formation.  He has served as securities counsel on a wide range of private and public offerings of securities; as transactional counsel to both buyers and sellers in mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, leveraged buy-outs, acquisitions of Chapter 11 companies (and development of the plans of reorganization) and management buy-outs; has negotiated on behalf of borrowers in large commercial loan transactions and assisted in the preparation and review of loan proposals; has represented both investors and entrepreneurs in scores of venture capital transactions; has assisted dozens of companies at various stages of growth in diversified industries in the preparation of business and strategic development plans; and routinely prepare and negotiates general corporate and business agreements such as shareholders agreements, executive employment contracts, distribution and sales agency agreements, joint venture agreements, technology transfer agreements and related corporate documentation.
One of Mr. Sherman’s areas of expertise is in the strategic management of business growth as well as in the design and analysis of efficient and profitable distribution channels, the structuring of interdependent and synergistic business relationships and in the development of brand-leveraging and licensing strategies and marketing systems to meet a company’s domestic and international growth objectives.  His goals are to always develop pragmatic and cost-effective solutions to the challenges facing established and high-growth companies.  His passion for business growth, creative problem-solving and a total commitment to his clients have been recognized by various business groups, the media Fortune 500 companies, and hundreds of growing businesses both in the United States and abroad.

BOOKS

Mr. Sherman is the author of seventeen (17) books on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and the leveraging and licensing of intellectual property including the recent three-part Kaplan business growth series, Grow Fast Grow Right (November 2006), as well as Build Fast Build Right and Start Fast Start Right, to be published by Kaplan in the Spring of 2007.  Other recent titles include the best-selling Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z, which was published by AMACOM in April of 1998 and has received a wide variety of industry praise and positive reviews, the second edition was published in November 2005.  One Step Ahead:  The Legal Aspects of Business Growth, published by AMACOM Books, a division of the American Management Association, in November of 1989 and Franchising & Licensing: Two Ways to Build Your Business, one of the top-selling books on franchising and business growth, was originally published by AMACOM Books in April of 1991, an updated second edition was published January of 1999 and the third edition was released in December of 2003, as well as The Complete Guide to Running and Growing Your Business, published by Random House in November of 1997, and which was selected as a recommended business book by Amazon.com and by Netscape’s Netcenter for Small Business.  Parting Company, was published by Kiplinger’s Books in October of 1999, Raising Capital, was originally published by Kiplinger’s Books in Spring of 2000 and the second edition was published by AMACOM in February of 2005.  One of his most popular books, Fast Track Business Growth, was published by Kiplinger's in January of 2002. 
UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS
Mr. Sherman has served as a top-rated Adjunct Professor in the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Executive MBA (EMBA) programs for eighteen (18) years at the University of Maryland since 1989.  He serves as part of a team of adjunct professors who teach in the fields of business planning, strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, which has been annually named among the top 25 MBA programs for entrepreneurs by Business Week and Success magazines since 1994.  Since 1996, he has been voted by the students and faculty as being among the top 15% ranking of the professors in the College of Business and Management at the University of Maryland and in Spring 2000 won the Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence.  He has also taught in the University of Maryland’s Executive MBA program, were he teaches courses on strategy, business growth, leadership, ethics, diversity and governance.  Mr. Sherman also serves as an Adjunct Professor in the MBA program at Georgetown University for twelve (12) years where he has taught full and half-semester courses on “Entrepreneurship and Business Planning” as well as “Growth Strategies for Emerging Companies.”

MEDIA INTERVIEWS

Mr. Sherman is regularly interviewed and has been quoted as an authority on legal and strategic issues affecting business growth, capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, technology development, licensing and the leveraging of intellectual property by The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, Daily Deal, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Miami Herald, The Orlando Sentinel, Legal Times, The San Francisco Examiner, The Washington Times, Forbes magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Money magazine, Inc. magazine, CNNMoney.com, Business Weekonline.com, Investor's Business Daily, Dun & Bradstreet Reports, Your Company magazine (an American Express publication), Franchise Update, Boardroom Reports, Nation’s Business, Kiplinger’s Changing Times magazine, Success magazine, Mergers and Acquisitions Report, World Trade magazine, Franchising World, Independent Business (a publication of the NFIB), Global Franchise Alert (CCH), Franchise Times, Small Business Update (published by Bell Atlantic), The Sarasota Business Journal, Investor’s Daily, The Journal of Small Business Management, Entrepreneur magazine, Reuters News Service, AP News Wire, Crain's, Venture Capital Journal, Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, Drug Discovery magazine, The Technology Dealmaker newsletter, China Business Daily (a Taiwanese newspaper), The Calgary Herald, Inc. magazine, Millionaire (an Italian Business Journal), The Asian Business Journal, Defis and L’essentiel du Management, (two leading French entrepreneurial and business publications), Apertura (one of Argentina’s leading business publications), Global Franchise magazine, Income Opportunities magazine, Successful Franchising magazine, Black Enterprise magazine, Minority Entrepreneur magazine, Travel & Trade magazine, Washington Business Journal, Baltimore Business Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis Small Business Monthly, Sacramento Bee, as well as columns in Dow Jones and Associated Press syndicated publications, newsletters and magazines published by the IFA and the Center for Entrepreneurial Management.  He was profiled as a leading industry advisor specializing in franchising, licensing and distribution matters in the January/February 1994 issue of M&A Today published for merger and acquisition professionals.  He is regularly interviewed for articles on mergers and acquisition, capital formation and related issues published in Trendwatch, an on-line business newsletter which is a section of the American Management Association’s web site.  He was profiled as one of five Who’s Who in the Franchising Community in a special edition of the Washington Business Times in November of 1996. 
In the December/January 2002 issues of Fortune Small Business, he was recognized as one of the nation’s top ten (10) gurus and thought leaders on entrepreneurship and the legal and strategic issues facing small and growing companies.  In February of 2006 Inc. magazine recognized him as one of the 19 leading resources and advocates for growing companies in the nation.  He was also recently profiled as a champion of entrepreneurship by the Kauffman Foundation and has Profiles in Giving biography on the Foundations’ website.  Mr. Sherman’s life story and accomplishments were recently featured in a cover story of the Premiere Trade magazine, published in April 2006 which discussed his outlook and approaches to business growth, strategic challenges and problem-solving.  In May of 2007, his proprietary approach to the leveraging and management of intellectual assets was published as the cover story article in Inc. magazine.
Mr. Sherman has been a guest on a variety of television and radio programs including the national cable shows, Power Lunch, produced by CNBC, Street Sweep, produced by the Cable News Network Financial News (CNNFN), CNNFN's Street Smarts, The American Entrepreneur, produced by the Financial News Network (FNN), Managing (with Jan Hopkins) produced by Cable News Network (CNN), For Entrepreneurs Only, produced by CNNFN, DayWatch, produced by CNN, Small Business Reports, produced by Bloomberg Television, Business Report, webcast on Webfn.com, Asian Business News (produced by Dow Jones and broadcast throughout Southern Asia), and has had multiple appearances on First Business, a show produced by the USA cable channel and on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Nation’s Business Today.  He is the co-host of a monthly webcast on business growth and entrepreneurship topics sponsored by AT&T and produced by the Small Business Entrepreneurs Council (SBEC), Women Entrepreneurs (WE-INC) and Grow Fast Grow Right.  He was selected as one of the fifty (50) leading business minds in the world for the “50 Lessons From 50 Leaders” webcast series, which included business leaders such as JW Marriott, Richard Branson, Earl Graves and William Harrison.  He was interviewed on the 2006 Inc.tv feature for the INC. 500 winners, where his insights on human capital and growth are frequently broadcast. 
He has been interviewed on national and regional radio programs, including National Public Radio’s Talk of The Nation, CBS News Radio, Associated Press (AP) Radio Network’s Business Minute, multiple appearances in various shows broadcast over The Business Radio Network (simultaneously broadcast in over 100 cities), the Financial and Business News Radio (FBNR) network, the Armed Forces Radio Network, Voice of America, the Expert Radio Network, the “Business Day” and “Working From Home Shows” on the Business News Network (BNW), is a regular guest on the “Small Business Advocate” radio show on the Talk America Radio Network, and the Let’s Talk Business Radio Network (broadcast in over 50 cities), Newsline (Singapore and the Philippines), WGN Radio Network (Chicago and affiliates), has appeared several times on the Equinexus show (with Elizabeth Campbell Paige) on the Voice of America network and on the Entrepreneur’s Lifestyle show (with Donna Maria Coles) on the Global Talk Radio network, Wisconsin Public Radio and on local television and radio stations in Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Orlando, Denver, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Lansing.  He also appears regularly on the “Great Ideas” radio show on Business Radio 570 which focuses on intellectual property issues for technology entrepreneurs.  He has appeared as a regular guest on the WTEM 570 Smart Business show (with John Hrastar) and the Taking Care of Business show on WMAL (with Brian Roberts).  Since 2005, he has regularly produced and appeared as a moderator and guest on a series of Kiplinger audiocasts on business growth, capital formation, diversity strategies, succession planning and the leveraging of intellectual capital.  From 1987 to 1988, he served as the co-host of a regional cable television show for small business owners.  His television and radio interviews have been re-broadcast on the special in-flight business segments for USAir and Pan Am Airlines.  In February of 1996, Mr. Sherman was taped for a series of television shows which were broadcast on The Peoples Network (TPN) in Spring of 1996.  The television programs were designed for entrepreneurs and growing companies and are entitled “Entrepreneurial Insights with Verne Harnish.”  Mr. Sherman was the host of a series of “Legal Briefs” special features which included discussions of franchising, licensing, capital formation and protection of intellectual property.  He has been interviewed on international franchising for an instructional videotape on international marketing (hosted by Professor Philip Kotler), which was published and distributed by Simon and Schuster in 1996. 
PUBLICATIONS AND EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARDS
Mr. Sherman has written well over seven hundred (700) articles on legal and management issues affecting business growth, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation, and licensing and the protection of intellectual property, which have been published in national and international magazines and journals such as Inc. magazine, Dun & Bradstreet Reports, Nation’s Business, Success Magazine, Journal of Corporate Renewal (a publication of the Turnaround Management Association), My Business magazine, Management Review, the M&A Lawyer, the Merger and Acquisition Advisor, The International Journal of Entrepreneurship, Profit, The Potomac Tech Journal, Washington Techway, Franchising World (a publication of the IFA), The Licensing Journal, Today’s Business Owner, Inside Minority Business, and Business Age, as well as in various publications of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the International Association of Mergers and Acquisitions Professionals (IMAP), National Small Business United, Capital Growth Interactive (Annual Venture Guides 2000 through 2003), the American Management Association, the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (YEO), the IFA, the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs (CEO), the editorial advisory board of Inc. magazine's publication, International Franchising and in the publications of a variety of regional and local business groups. 
Mr. Sherman has served as an on-line columnist for many of the Internet's leading sites for emerging growth companies.  He writes the "Can This Business Be Saved?" column for FortuneSmall Business.com as well as the "View from The Trenches" column for AOL's Netbusiness.com and served as a key member of the AOL Small and Emerging Business Champions Team.  He also authors the Legal Expert column for the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurship's EntreWorld.org.  He is also a regular columnist on the protection and leveraging of intellectual property for CCH's Business Strategies Bulletin.  He is also a frequent contributor on the legal and strategic trends affecting mergers and acquisitions for Webmergers.com, a leading industry web site and publisher of special reports on technology transactions.  From 2001 to 2004, he served as one of the Answer Men, a weekly column that answers questions for entrepreneurs and small business owners which was published on Fortune.com and nationally syndicated in 1500 newspapers by Knight-Ridder.
Mr. Sherman has contributed for the past five (5) years an annual column to the Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance (JCAF) annual edition on Mergers and Acquisitions, where his articles have addressed topics such as post-closing integration, structuring the transaction, keeping deals on track and related topics.  He is a frequent contributor to the Kauffman Foundation’s eVenturing collections on entrepreneurship and business growth strategies, where he has authored articles and tools on co-founder relationships, leveraging intellectual capital and dispute management.  He has been the author since 2005 of a monthly column for SmartCEO magazine where his “From the Trenches” column covers topics such as business growth, planning and strategy, mergers and acquisitions, capital formation and the leveraging of intellectual capital.  He has also been a speaker at several CEO events hosted by SmartCEO for its readers as leaders of emerging growth and established companies, and served as the keynote speaker for its Smart-CEO-Live event in Baltimore in March of 2007.
Mr. Sherman has served on editorial advisory boards and as a contributing editor to a wide variety of magazines and journals for owners and managers of rapidly-growing businesses published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Management Association, Dun and Bradstreet, IBM/New York Times Publishing, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, American University’s Business Law Journal, Franchise Update Publications, World Trade/Global Franchise Publications, Business Age Magazine, and The Blenheim Group.  Mr. Sherman served on the editorial advisory board and was a frequent contributor to Profit, a magazine and resource for small business owners jointly published by IBM and the New York Times from 1990 to 1994.  He is currently a contributor on legal and strategic planning issues to Catalyst, a newsletter for emerging growth companies published by IBM.  He was a frequent contributor and also served on the editorial advisory board of Small Business Reports, a publication of the American Management Association from 1990 to 1993.  Since 1988, he has served on the Advisory Board of the Journal of Business Venturing, a publication of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Center for Entrepreneurship.  Prior to the cessation of its publication in 1994, he was a frequent contributor to Dun & Bradstreet Reports, served on its editorial board, and from 1990 to 1992, authored a regular column entitled “Legal Briefs.”  From 1997 to 2001, he served on the Florida Atlantic University (FAU)'s Biotech and Emerging Business Advisory Board.  Mr. Sherman is also the author of four (4) special reports and monographs on business growth and the protection of intellectual property, published by the IFA and the Michael D. Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland.  He is also the author of Financial Management, Business Planning and Capital Formation Strategies for the Growing Franchisor, a special report published by the IFA in late 1995.  He was the author of the guidebook and served as a special consultant to the video tape series entitled “Financial and Succession Planning Strategies for Small and Growing Businesses,” published and produced by Kiplinger’s Books in 1998 and to a workbook and videotape series on Growth Strategies produced and published in 1999.
In 2006, Mr. Sherman was named as one of the top corporate and transactional lawyers in the mid-Atlantic region by SmartCEO Magazine and in 2007 was included in the very prestigious Chambers international listing of America’s leading business attorneys.  Mr. Sherman was named in 1998 and in 1999 as one of the 10 Best Attorneys for entrepreneurs and growing companies in the Washington, DC-Baltimore region by the Morino Institute’s Netpreneur Program as well as by Washington Business Forward in 1999 and 2000.  He is also the author of several articles on capital formation, the protection of intellectual property, and business management issues for the Netpreneur program’s on-line newsletter, NET-INVEST, including the highly-searched “Anatomy of A Venture Capital Term Sheet.”  Mr. Sherman regularly writes articles and has been interviewed for a wide variety of websites on topics such as capital formation, the protection and leveraging of intellectual property, mergers  and acquisitions and other legal and strategic issues of interests to high-tech companies and entrepreneurs.  His articles have appeared on various business-oriented web sites such as Inc.com (hosted by Inc. magazine), CNNfn.com (Jane Applegate's column), Fortune.com, the American Management Association (amanet.com), CompanyValue.com, YourCompany.com, Netscape’s Netcenter, the Let’s Talk Business Network (ltbn.com), the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (yeo.org), MSNBC.com, Office.com, the Morino Institute (netpreneur.org), and IFX International (centercourt.com).
He has served as a contributor to the Business Law column of The Washington Business Journal, and several of his articles have been consecutively reprinted in The Washington Business Journal’s “Annual Small Business Survival Guide” since 1990.  From 1997 to 2004, he served on the Washington Business Journal’s board of experts and industry advisors for editorial issues relating to small and growing companies.  He served as the Washington Bureau Chief of Business Age magazine from 1986 to 1989, for which he published a monthly column entitled “Washington Watch,” a survey of legal and regulatory issues and developments affecting growing companies.  Many of his articles and speeches over the years have appeared or have been reprinted in several international academic business journals published by universities in India, Japan, China, Malaysia, Brazil, Canada, United States, and throughout Europe.
SEMINARS AND PUBLIC SPEAKING
Mr. Sherman is one of the nations' leading speakers on the legal, strategic and structural aspects of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances and related growth strategies.  He has addressed many of the most widely recognized business and trade groups in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and business growth as a keynote or featured speaker, including recent presentations for the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) (3 national InterGrowth events and multiple local chapter and regional events), American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA), the New York Times Summit on Small Business, the Council for Growing Companies (national conferences and local chapter events) the Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors (AMAA) (multiple AMAA National Conferences and the AMAA recently adopted Sherman’s book on M&A as its member training textbook), the Association of Financial Professionals (AFP National Conference), Inc. magazine (various national conferences), the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (various international conferences and local chapter events), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), the CXO Forum, the Potomac Officers Club/ExecutiveBiz Roundtable series, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2006 International Congress (where he lead a series of sessions on Innovation and Intrapreneurship), he served as the 2005 keynote speaker and a featured 2006 speaker at the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC) annual conferences and serves as a regular contributor to the ASBDC website, the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (KCEL), the American Management Association (various national conferences and CEO round tables), ALI-ABA, the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC), the International Franchise Association (international and regional events), the Regional Investment Bankers Association (RIBA), the Morino Institute in Northern Virginia, and the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland.
Mr. Sherman was a featured speaker and panel moderator at the annual M&A in Life Sciences conference in New York City in March of 2007 and was a keynote speaker on financing and growth strategies for biotech and life sciences companies at the American Society of Microbiology annual conferences and at several BIO Florida industry conferences.  He was a featured speaker on leveraging intellectual capital at the prestigious Inc. 500 conference in 2006, hosted by Inc. magazine in Savannah.  He was a speaker on “Current Trends in Mergers and Acquisitions for Emerging Growth Companies,” at various conferences organized by the Council of Growing Companies (CGC) and was a keynote luncheon speaker at CGC’s annual conference hosted by IBM at their headquarters in Palisades.  He was a featured speaker on "Structuring Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances," at the Georgetown Capital Technology Summit in January 2001 and was the Co-Chair and key speaker at the Fulcrum Institute's Symposiums on Mergers and Acquisitions in February 2001 and June 2001.  He served as a featured speaker at the Association For Corporate Growth's 30th Annual InterGrowth Conference in Colorado where he delivered a presentation "The Keys To An Effective Acquisition Agreement," which was later published as an article in the ACG International magazine.  He was a speaker at the American Management Association’s Executive Forum on Mergers and Acquisitions: Strategies for Creating Shareholder Value, where he gave a speech in June of 1997 on “The Legal and Strategic Aspects of International Mergers and Acquisitions.”
Mr. Sherman is an active speaker and strong supporter of organizations which support diversity and minority business development.  He is the founder of the annual Diversity and Business Growth Summit hosted and sponsored by Federal Express and Inc. magazine in 2006 in Memphis and by Fannie Mae, Merrill Lynch, Huron Consulting and Inc. magazine in 2007 in Washington, D.C. as both a keynote speaker and conference organizer which has featured some of the leading minds on diversity and business growth, including Stedman Graham, Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Carl Rogers, Luke Visconti and many others.  He is the program organizer, speaker and moderator of the joint TiE/SECAF series for growing 8(a) government contractors.  He has written dozens of articles and given many presentations at national, regional and local conferences devoted to the development of minority and women-owned businesses and has served on an Advisory Board of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) on international growth and business model replication.  He co-hosted and co-produced with Joe Watson, a Kiplinger national audiocast on the role and importance of diversity in the board room and in the workplace in April of 2007.  He has hosted or been a participant as a thought leader in the roundtable discussions with multiple international delegations of policy and economic leaders from France, Brazil, United Kingdom, China, Africa, India and a variety of other countries, which have focused on minority and microenterprise development in established as well as emerging nations.  He has served as a keynote speaker at multiple conferences as a mentor for several small business and minority business development seminars sponsored by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Office of Economic Development, the Prince Georges County (Maryland) Minority Business Development Agency, the Garrett County (Maryland) Economic Development Agency,
Mr. Sherman was the developer and lecturer for the Association of Financial Professional's four-part cyber-series and workbook on "Structuring and Negotiating Mergers and Acquisitions" and the Padgett-Thompson course on “Strategies for Protecting Trademarks, Copyrights and Trade Secrets” as well as for the American Management Association’s Council on Growing Companies courses on “Growth-Oriented Distribution Strategies” and “How to Grow Your Company in Cash-Tight Times.”  In 1991, he was selected to serve as part of a nationwide panel of six (6) experts by Money magazine to discuss the future and growth of small businesses in the United States.
Over the past few years, Mr. Sherman has been a frequent keynote speaker and panelist on the role and strategic importance of intellectual property and intangible assets in turnaround, distressed lending and restructuring transactions.  He has made presentations on this topic for conferences organized by the Turnaround Management Association, Institutional Investor magazine, the Strategic Research Institute, the Institute for International Research, the Association for Corporate Growth, Bio Florida and other business organizations and financial institutions.  He has also been a frequent speaker and author on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation on the corporate governance and management practices of both publicly-traded as well as its indirect effect on privately-held companies and foundations.  He has made presentations on governance and leadership in a post-Sarbox world and written articles for conferences and publications of the American Electronics Association, the Morino Institute, the Dingman Center on Entrepreneurship, M&A Today, the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT), the Active Angels Club, and various other business organizations.
Mr. Sherman is also a frequent international lecturer on legal issues affecting business growth, capital formation and franchising and has been featured as a guest speaker at the International Symposium on Entrepreneurship in Santiago, Chile, The China IT Service Summit, served as a featured guest lecturer on business growth at the Great Lakes Institute of Management L’Attitude in Chennai, India, the European Entrepreneurs Summit in Barcelona, the Northern European Summit on Entrepreneurship in Copenhagen, Venture Capital and Angel Summit in Stockholm, the international growth conference at the China Productivity Center, and at various business growth and economic development events in Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mexico.
Mr. Sherman is also a frequent national and international lecturer on legal issues affecting business growth, capital formation and the protection and leveraging of intellectual property and has been a featured speaker at Inc. magazine’s first and second annual conferences on “Capital Formation,” fifteen (15) consecutive annual meetings of the IFA’s International Franchise Exhibition (IFE) (the world’s largest annual international franchising event since 1992), the American Management Association’s “President’s Council” meetings, twenty (20) consecutive annual conferences of the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (where he has served as General Counsel since 1987), five consecutive annual and regional conferences of the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs from 1989 to 1993, Microsoft’s Small Business Crossings series of seminars, the IFA/Management 2000 program on “Franchisee Recruitment and Selection Strategies,” an annual meeting of the Licensing Executive Society, multiple conferences on capital formation, intellectual property and franchising hosted by The Michael Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, the Connecticut Venture Group, the New York Venture Group, the Tennessee Venture Group, the Route 128 (Boston) Venture Group, the Virginia Governor’s Conference on Small Business, the General Services Administration, the 1991 and 1992 international student conferences of Junior Achievement International as well as various conferences on capital formation, the protection and leveraging of intellectual property and small business development sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the National Association of Credit Managers, the Association for Corporate Growth, the Association of Financial Professionals, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Jaycees, the Sales and Marketing Executives Association, the sixtieth (60th) annual conference of the National Cooperative Business Association, the Hellenic Board of Trade (Montreal), Deloitte & Touche’s executive compensation and stock options seminar, the State of Maryland’s Franchise Opportunity series and the small business development centers of George Mason University and Howard University.  He has served as a keynote speaker at five consecutive annual conferences of The Entrepreneurship Institute, the American Electronics Association, the Turnaround Management Association, Institutional Investor magazine, the Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors (AMAA), and National Small Business United.. 
Mr. Sherman has served as one of the top-rated annual speakers for seventeen (17) consecutive years at the “Birthing of Giants,” an annual management leadership and strategic conference for rapidly growing companies which is co-sponsored by Inc. magazine, MIT Enterprise Forum and YEO, and held on the campus of MIT in Boston since 1990.  He was a speaker at the 1995 KeyCorp Small Business Conference held at the U.S. Senate’s Russell Building on Capitol Hill, which featured the nation’s leading policymakers on small business issues.  He was a featured speaker on “Alternative Sources of Growth Financing” for small and growing companies at the CBS/WTOP Small Business World Exposition and Conferences in 1996, and 1997, held in Washington, D.C. and sponsored by Wells Fargo Bank, IBM, FedEx, and Bell Atlantic.  He was a featured panelist on business growth and capital formation at The New York Venture Group forum on developing growth strategies in troubled times in June of 2001 and at Small Business World at PC EXPO in New York City in 2000 and has been a regular speaker for iBreakfast.com's series for technology entrepreneurs.  He has served as a multiple speaker for the Morino Institute's Distinguished Author Lecture Series where he gave presentations on capital formation and on the protection and leveraging of intellectual property.
Mr. Sherman served as a keynote speaker on “Capital Formation Strategies for Emerging Companies,” at Inc. magazine’s Annual Growing Your Company Conferences in 1997 through 1999, where he was one of the top-rated speakers at all three conferences.  As a result, Mr. Sherman was a key speaker on "Strategies for Protecting and Leveraging Intellectual Property" at Inc. magazine's CEO Symposium in October of 2000 and was a speaker at Inc.'s ThInc.OutLoud symposium on the same topic in November 2001.  He has been one of the key speakers at ten (10) recent conferences on mergers and acquisitions for emerging growth companies sponsored by The Geneva Companies, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Georgetown University, where he delivered a presentation entitled “Key Legal and Strategic Issues In Preparing To Sell Your Business” at various locations from 1996 to 2001.  In the Fall of 1998, he was a keynote speaker on “Capital Formation Strategies for High-Tech and Emerging Growth Businesses,” for the annual conference of the Council of Growing Companies at IBM’s conference center and has since spoken at a variety of local and regional events for the Council of Growing Companies.  In January of 1998, he served on a special advisory task force to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide legal and strategic input on a series of proposed changes to Regulation D and related aspects of the Securities Act of 1933.  As a follow-up to this meeting, he also served on a panel of experts which provided input on related issues to the SEC at a forum hosted by the University of Southern California (USC).  He has also attended, by invitation, several annual meetings of the SEC's Small Business Capital Formation Forum, where he provided input on the legal aspects of various capital formation strategies and was an invited roundtable expert at the International Entrepreneurship Forum organized by the Kauffman Foundation and hosted by Georgetown University in March of 2007.
Mr. Sherman has served as the Chief Judge and awards event moderator for the Fortune Small Business magazine’s Annual Business Plan “Slam Down” competition, which features some of the top MBA teams in the country and has mentored MBA teams competing in the regional and national Venture Capital Investment Conference (VCIC) competition.  He also served as a judge for the 2007 regional and national Global Student Entrepreneurship Award (GSEA) program, which was underwritten nationwide by Mercedes-Benz.  He has served for sixteen (16) consecutive years since 1989 as a guest lecturer at the Dickinson School of Law, (now part of the Penn State University system since 1997), on the legal aspects of various growth strategies and has been a guest lecturer at Louisiana State University and at the University of Albany Law School.  He has served as a guest lecturer on business law at George Mason University, as a speaker for the Business Law Society at American University, as an annual speaker for various courses taught at the Washington College of Law, as well as a guest lecturer for several undergraduate and MBA classes on entrepreneurship at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland.  He has been selected on multiple occasions to serve as part of a special panel to evaluate and analyze business plans at both Georgetown University and George Washington University.
Mr. Sherman is a frequent speaker at annual meetings and channel partner and dealer conferences organized by established corporations and organizations for their employees, franchisees and dealers and has been a keynote or featured presenter at conferences organized by IBM, Owens Corning, Century 21, State Farm, Allstate, Texaco, SAIC, Aetrex, Case, Aloette, AeA, NAHU, NAPAA, and many other companies and industry associations.  He has also authored columns for the corporate and organizational publications produced by these entities for their members and stakeholders, including IBM, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, SAP, AICPA, AMA, CED (NC Research Triangle), ACG, AAAE, ASME, and many others.
  
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND EDUCATION

Mr. Sherman is active in several local and national business organizations.  From 1989 to 1991, he served as a co-founder, the first president, and until June of 1992, served as a founding board member and chairman of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.  He has served as General Counsel to the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO) since its inception in 1987, an international organization made up of the founders or chief executives of over 6000 rapidly-growing companies in 40 countries and which maintains synergistic strategic alliances with the Young President’s Organization and The Kauffman Foundation and was recently honored for his twenty (20) years of service to this growing organization.  He also served as legal counsel to the Association of Collegiate Entrepreneurs from 1989 until it ceased operations in 1993.  He served as a director of The Venture Clinic from 1986 to 1990, and as a director of The Entrepreneurship Institute  (TEI) from 1987 to 1990 and has rejoined the board of TEI in 2000.  Mr. Sherman was the founder of the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF) in 2001 and served as its Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2006.  He currently serves as a Board Member and as the General Counsel to SECAF.  He was recently appointed to the Advisory Board of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Strategic Ventures, where he will assist in the developments of programs and initiatives on intrapreneurship, innovation and the leveraging of intellectual capital.
Mr. Sherman is the Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board and a frequent contributor to ExecutiveBiz (a publication of the Potomac Officers Club) and has served as a speaker at a variety of their events.  He also served as Chairman of the Professional Advisory Board of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE), the Chairman of the Technology and Innovation Committee for the Washington Board of Trade's Potomac Conference, serves on the Board of Directors of the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Businesses (RISE Business), the SmallBusinessAdvocate.com Brain Trust, the Board of Advisors to the Let's Talk Business Network, the International Committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization's Advisory Board, the Washington Business Journal's Editorial Advisory Board, the Inc. magazine's Business Consulting Services Advisory Board, the Gazelles/Masters of Business Dynamics Advisory Board and serves on the advisory boards of several business incubators and early-stage and rapidly-growing technology companies.
Mr. Sherman is also an active member of several professional associations, including the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Forum Committee on Franchising, the Society of Franchising, the ABA’s section on Business Law, the ABA’s Subcommittee on Domestic and International Business Structures and Agreements of the International Business Law Committee, and the District of Columbia Bar section on Corporations and Business Law.  He has served for the past fifteen (15) years as the sole U.S. legal affiliate to EF*LAW, an association of business and corporate lawyers representing twelve (12) different European countries.  He has been a member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) since 1988.  He was selected by the White House to serve as a key advisor and participant in a series of strategic planning meetings relating to the development and promotion of the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business.
Mr. Sherman is deeply committed to the education and development of children.  He served on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Chapter of the Special Olympics from 1990 to 1992, the Board of Directors of The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship to Disadvantaged and Handicapped Youth (NFTE) since 1990, and as a speaker and author for Junior Achievement (JA) International.  He has also served as General Counsel to NFTE since 1991 and served as its Chairman of the Board from December of 1993 until January of 1996.  Through NFTE, and as general counsel to one of the nation’s first socially-responsible venture capital funds, Mr. Sherman has developed a strong interest in the legal and strategic issues affecting socially responsible investment trends and management practices, as well as the activities of groups such as the Social Venture Network (SVN), the Private Investor’s Network, the Investor’s Circle, Businesses for Social Responsibility (BSR) and the Students for Responsible Business (SRB).  From 1995 to 1999, he served on the International Board of Governors of Opportunity International, a non-profit foundation which fosters international micro-enterprise development in over thirty (30) countries worldwide.  He served on the Board of Directors of Youth Services America (YSA) for four (4) years, which is a national non-profit umbrella organization which supports a variety of youth volunteer activities and programs, and also served on the Advisory Board of YSA’s Fund for Social Entrepreneurs.  He has also been a member of the Inner Circle at the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship since 1995, a regional non-profit resource center which manages a wide variety of support and training programs and services for small and emerging growth companies.
Mr. Sherman received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Maryland and his law degree from American University.  He has also successfully completed course work in finance and marketing towards a Masters in Business Administration at Virginia Tech and at American University.