Mr. Michael Horten:
Michael Horten is a US and European educated lawyer with over 35 years’ experience as a practicing
attorney. Mr. Horten began his legal career with Sullivan & Cromwell in New York and Paris. He then
spent 25 years with King & Spalding in Atlanta. At the end of 1999, he retired from the King &
Spalding partnership to launch Horten CC, a virtual law firm that focuses on the needs of small to
medium size companies, with particular emphasis on entrepreneurial growth companies.
Horten CC employs a non-traditional practice model that is based on two key philosophical
underpinnings: First, Mr. Horten founded the firm on the premise that top-rate legal services do not
have to be bundled with the “marble” and “mahogany” environment that typically is associated with
those services. The firm has no central offices, no paper files and it uses the latest technology to
create efficiencies. As a result, the firm’s fees are considerably lower, generally 40-50% less, than
those charged by firms of comparable ability and quality. Second, Horten CC bills its clients for the
value delivered and not for the time spent by the attorney. The firm does not keep track of every “six
minutes,” as is the norm in most law firms. The firm believes that its clients purchase its lawyers’
skill, not their time. The firm’s work is typically performed for a fixed fee.
Mr. Horten’s experience covers a wide variety of corporate, commercial, technology and financial
transactions, including domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, securities offerings, joint
ventures and strategic alliances. At King & Spalding, most of his clients were large public companies
like Coca-Cola, GE Capital, UPS, Georgia-Pacific, BellSouth, and Scientific-Atlanta. Most of his present
clients are private companies, primarily emerging growth companies.
Mr. Horten brings a unique perspective to early-stage financings. In addition to his extensive legal
work in this area, representing both investors and companies seeking capital, Mr. Horten has been an
active angel investor for the last 15 years and he is a member of several angel groups (including a
board member of the Atlanta Technology Angels) as well as the Angel Capital Association, the industry
trade organization for all US angel groups.
Mr. Horten has written numerous professional papers and articles and is a frequent speaker on
financial and legal issues. His publications include the following books: Joint Ventures in den USA:
Wirtschaftliche, Rechtliche and Steuerliche Aspekte (1996, Verlag C.H. Beck, Munich) (co-author with
Karl-Erbo Graf von Kageneck); Les Joint Ventures Franco-Americaines (1994, Larcier, Brussels, and
Forum Europeen de la Communication, Paris) (co-author with Philippe Sarrailhe); and Japanese-US
Joint Ventures (1992, Shogakusha, Tokyo).
Mr. Horten is actively involved in a number of business and civic organizations, including Association
for Corporate Growth, Angel Capital Association, Atlanta Technology Angels, Atlanta Venture Forum,
and Technology Association of Georgia.
Mr. Horten did his undergraduate studies at Washington State University. He received his law degree
from the University of Copenhagen in 1970 and his graduate law degree from Columbia University in
1971. In 1974, he completed the course work for a doctorate in EU law at the University of Paris.
A native of Copenhagen, Denmark, Mr. Horten speaks (at varying levels of fluency) Danish, French,
German, Norwegian and Swedish.
Mr. Gareth Young:
Gareth Young has extensive experience in business and corporate development, finance, and the nuts and bolts of running a small business.
In 2006, Mr. Young founded finanSight LLC, a professional services providing financial and operational services to start-ups and small businesses, including services such as training, organizational consulting, and assistance with state tax credits.
Prior to his experience with finanSight, Mr. Young was Executive Director of Corporate Development for BellSouth Corporation, a role in which he served in Atlanta for over ten years. In that position, he was responsible for developing and executing business expansion strategies for BellSouth through mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and other transactions. Working closely with BellSouth business units, Mr. Young identified strategic needs and alternative courses of action, and he helped business-unit executives establish priorities and execute on them in efficient, effective ways. Where alliances, acquisitions, or divestitures were required, he selected appropriate targeted candidates; staffed and led teams to negotiate, execute and close transactions that realized immediate improvement in operational and financial performance; and laid the foundation for financially responsible, sustainable growth. He previously worked in a BellSouth special-projects finance group, where he designed, staffed, and managed due diligence for acquisition and divestiture candidates; assisted with transaction strategy; and built operations models.
Mr. Young began his career at Deloitte, where he spent seven years serving diverse clients in industries including banking, retail, paper and printing, and light engineering. Other Deloitte duties included serving as a facilitator in Deloittes United Kingdom national training group before becoming regional training director in the United States. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the UK and worked as an audit manager in the UK and the US. He has received a number of awards, including the Elijah Watt Sells Award for the C.P.A. exam.
A graduate of Jesus College, Oxford, in the UK, with an M.A. in mathematics, Mr. Young is married and lives in Atlanta with his wife and two teenage children. His is also an author, and his first novel was published in 2009.
