Overview
Mike Kuzma advises companies on a diverse range of corporate transactions, developing agile solutions to assist with critical business elements ranging from entity setup and governance issues to asset and equity transactions. He also maintains a robust real estate practice in which he counsels banks, owners, developers, syndicators, landlords, and commercial tenants on all aspects of complex commercial real estate transactions, including corporate structuring, leasing, purchase, debt financing, equity financing, and sale of real property. As part of his corporate practice, he represents foreign and domestic insurance companies and other regulated financial institutions before the Nebraska Department of Insurance and Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, serving as local counsel in complying with applicable state and federal regulatory laws and corporate governance laws.
In addition to his primary transactional focus areas, Mike has deep experience in antitrust, spending years working on the sprawling In Re Auto Parts Antitrust litigation. With an extensive background in Japanese eDiscovery forged early in his career, he works with a diverse client base across both the U.S. and Japan. He is a valuable asset when conducting due diligence or investigations involving Japanese language data and documents, having earned an Advanced Japanese Linguistics Certificate from the prestigious Japanese Ministry of Education’s Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program prior to his legal career.
Before entering private practice, Mike helped lead the State of Nebraska Department of Economic Development’s trade office in Tokyo, Japan, and worked to establish another trade office in Shanghai, China. During this time, he gained experience in a wide range of industries, public-private partnerships, and complex international transactions.
Credentials
Education
- University of Nebraska College of Law (J.D.), with distinction
- Temple University Beasley School of Law, visiting NSEP Fellow
- Nebraska Wesleyan University (B.A.), summa cum laude
- Kwansei Gakuin University, visiting NSEP Scholar
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska
- Represented a private equity buyer in the acquisition of a regional property management company overseeing more than 12,000 single-family homes across seven Midwestern states, coordinating regulatory and employment diligence as part of the transaction.
- Represented a de novo domestic life insurance company before the Nebraska Department of Insurance as local counsel for a $50 million equity investment. Working with regulatory counsel, helped structure and execute holding company structure under Nebraska Insurance Holding Company System Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 44-2120 et. seq.).
- Acted as lead counsel to a real estate developer of $100 million multi-phase mixed use development in central Nebraska, including complex joint ventures, private placement securities offering, and traditional equity financing.
- Represented the founders of a multi-location optometry practice in the sale of their clinics to a private equity platform in the health care services sector.
- Counseled a leading Midwest venture capital fund in the formation of a $10 million seed investment fund and related follow-on investment vehicles for tech industry.
- Represented the buyer of a private aviation services company headquarters building in a sale-leaseback transaction, structuring the real estate and corporate components of the deal.
- Structured complex joint venture for the development of a 124-unit mixed-use project in Omaha, including governance, capital structure, and development rights representing developer.
- Formed a series of Midwest workforce housing acquisition funds, including fund formation, investor structuring, and acquisition strategy representing fund sponsors.
- Represented the principals of a $100 million Texas real estate investment fund in a large-scale corporate restructuring involving more than 125 holding entities and joint ventures.
- Structured and led $15 million private jet exchange transaction, coordinating aviation regulatory compliance and asset transfer documentation for real estate fund owner.
- Served as outside counsel to Nebraska Department of Insurance with cross-border supervisory college meetings with the Japanese Financial Services Administration (JFSA) and Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA).
- Conducted comparative analysis of state insurance laws dealing with insurance Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and Own Self Risk Assessment (ORSA) against Japanese ERM and ORSA laws and regulations published by the Japanese Financial Services Administration.
- Served as outside Japanese language ediscovery counsel, leading a team of 20 bilingual ediscovery attorneys for the direct purchaser plaintiffs in a long-running, multi-district class action lawsuit alleging price-fixing and bid-rigging by numerous automotive parts suppliers which emerged from the largest criminal antitrust investigation in U.S. history. This included 41 separate actions against more than 160 defendants, each involving different auto parts, different anticompetitive agreements, different conspirators, and different timelines, and resulted in the recovery of more than $1.2 billion in settlements for victims.
- Lamp of Learning Foundation, President, 2024-present
- Matters On Tomorrow, Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board, 2008-present
- Nebraska Wesleyan University, Business Law I and II, Adjunct Professor, 2014-2018
- David L. Boren National Security and Exchange Program (NSEP), Scholar, 2003-2004; Fellow, 2008-2009
- Japanese Ministry of Education, Japanese Exchange and Teaching Program (JET), 2005-2007
- Advanced Japanese Linguistics Certificate
- Nebraska Bar Association
- Nebraska Insurance Federation
- Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Nebraska Chapter
- “Insurance Considerations for Transactional Attorneys,” Nebraska Bar Association
- “Cross-Border Insurance Regulations: An Introduction to the Japanese Financial Services Administration,” Bermuda Monetary Authority
- “Buying or Building a Business: The Case for Buying Existing Concerns,” Prairie Founders Club Podcast
- “Complexities of 1031 Exchange Equity Stacks,” Lincoln REIA
- “M&A for American Small Businesses,” Senshu University, January 2016