Dorothy Swagler

Dorothy focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and venture capital transactions. She represents private equity sponsors, venture capital funds, their portfolio companies, and privately held businesses in acquisitions, divestitures, and equity and debt financings. Dorothy counsels both buyers and sellers on all aspects of the deal process, including due diligence, deal structuring, negotiations, and documentation from letter of intent through closing. She also collaborates with founders, investors, and companies of all sizes on corporate organization, governance, and day-to-day legal matters. Dorothy is a member of Taft’s Gender Advancement Committee and Associate Advisory Group, where she helps support firm initiatives related to inclusion, professional development, and associate engagement.

Dorothy earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Cleveland State University College of Law and her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in political science from John Carroll University. She gained practical transactional experience during law school through the Transactional Clinic, where she assisted nonprofit organizations in obtaining forgiveness of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, and served as an Academic Excellence Program Fellow, mentoring first-year law students. She was also the Business & Technology Executive Editor of the Global Business Law Review, which published her note, “Force Majeure Clauses at the Age of COVID-19: How Should Courts Interpret Them and Why a Conservative Application is Necessary.”

Prior to joining Taft, Dorothy was an associate at a regional corporate law firm in Cleveland.