Ron Schuler

About Ron Schuler

A three-time Best Lawyers’ Pittsburgh “Lawyer of the Year” for Mergers and Acquisitions, Ron Schuler is the Member in Charge of the Pittsburgh office of Spilman Thomas & Battle, and has been practicing corporate, technology, and securities law in Pittsburgh for more than 35 years. A native Southern Californian and a graduate of Pomona College and Cornell Law, Schuler was a lead member of the City of Pittsburgh\'s legal team for the planning and construction of PNC Park, home to Major League Baseball\'s Pittsburgh Pirates, and was the author of the FORBES FIELD II TASK FORCE FINAL REPORT(1996), the urban planning justification for PNC Park\'s location. Schuler has also served as a senior operating officer of a $100 million oil and gas company and is the founding chairman of Pittsburgh Public Media, which owns Pittsburgh’s community-supported jazz radio station, WZUM-FM/AM. Significant industry experiences include crypto/blockchain, software, IT outsourcing, biotechnology, education, private equity, oil & gas. Schuler was elected as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2021.Schuler is the author of a history of the legal profession in Pittsburgh, THE STEEL BAR: PITTSBURGH LAWYERS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA (Marquez Press 2019). From the constitutional crisis of the Whiskey Rebellion through the bloody Homestead Strike, to the Johnstown Flood, the creation of the world’s largest corporation, and the witch hunts against anarchists in the 1910s and Communists in the 1950s, to a seminal constitutional battle over the rights of workers, the prejudices against women and African Americans in the profession, a 20-year long federal antitrust prosecution, the suspicious suicide of a district attorney accused of graft, and the renaissance of the city after the decline of the steel industry, Schuler\'s STEEL BAR is an epic story of the rise and fall and rebirth of the Pittsburgh lawyer.His first novel, ANGELEÑOS (Marquez Press 2020), focuses on the interconnected tales of a Mexican American immigrant family and a Midwestern Anglo migrant family in Los Angeles during the 1920s, 30s and 40s.For books, see linktr.ee/rwschuler

Experience

1. Managing Member, Pittsburgh Office

   Spilman Thomas & Battle, Pllc

   Jan 2009 — Present

   Named Best Lawyers\' Pittsburgh M&A Lawyer of the Year three times. A corporate, securities and commercial transactions lawyer with extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, private placement financings, and numerous types of contracts for clients within the cryptocurrency, IT outsourcing, oil & gas, software, biotechnology, and higher education sectors.As member-in-charge of the Pittsburgh office:* Presided over the three highest revenue years of the Pittsburgh office since inception;* Successfully recruited senior level attorneys from AMLAW 100 and 200 law firms; and* Improved diversity within the office through recruiting.Served as outside North American division counsel for division of a global, billion-dollar conglomerate.Represented buyers and sellers in middle market private equity transactions. Represented a roll-up acquiror in a series of acquisitions, followed by a private equity sale, that were collectively named \"Private Equity Deal of the Year\" by ACG Columbus.Served as outside general counsel for a university.Worked closely with in-house corporate, regulatory and securities teams for a global cryptocurrency company: 5+ years experience leading M&A projects; advising on the development of new trading products; reviewing client terms and conditions; drafting and negotiating digital asset loan documents and other financial transactions; advising on market maker and liquidity programs; making presentations on blockchain/digital asset issues to regulators; representing client in investment in a digital asset investment fund.Served as corporate/securities counsel to entertainment-industry DAOs (one centered on music; the other, film), and an Ethereum scaling project.Served as panel chair in an arbitration regarding an oil & gas dispute.Chair of firm\'s Securities Law Practice Group and co-chair of the firm\'s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group.

Education

• Cornell Law School

  Juris doctor

  1985 — 1988

• University of Oxford

  Foreign Student - English Language and Literature

• Pomona College

  BA, cum laude, English

  1981 — 1985

Skills

• Joint Ventures
• Corporate Finance
• Mergers
• Start-Ups
• Energy Law
• Corporate Law
• Writing
• Private Equity
• Securities Regulation
• Venture Capital
• Energy Industry
• Business Transactions
• Energy
• Corporate Governance
• Acquisitions
• Ipo
• Private Placements
• Restructuring
• Pittsburgh Legal History
• Corporate Development
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Entrepreneurship