Ryan W. Coffield

Ryan W. Coffield is a founding Principal at Coffield Heedy Kilgore PLLC, where he serves as the senior attorney in the firm’s business practice. Ryan focuses his work on complex mergers and acquisitions transactions and providing general corporate counsel to firm clients. His experience in the areas of corporate and pass-through taxation allows him to provide a valuable, unique perspective on his clients’ legal concerns.

Most of Ryan’s day-to-day work consists of counseling business owners on various legal aspects of running their business. In his work for transactional clients, Ryan routinely serves as lead counsel on mergers, asset purchases, equity transactions, syndicated real estate offerings, private equity investments, private securities offerings and joint ventures, domestically and abroad. His work often includes designing tax-advantaged transaction structures, advising clients in the negotiation of deal documents, drafting private securities offering documents, making federal and state Reg D filings, and providing tax and secured lending opinions. Ryan’s practice stretches across the pond to Scotland, where Ryan is a licensed solicitor.

Practice Areas:

• Business Law
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Securities
• Taxation

Notable Transactions:

• Serving as lead counsel to a national medical technology company in a sale of its equity for $60MM+
• Providing counsel to commercial real estate developers and investors on $50MM+ of qualified opportunity zone fund projects
• Advising a local investment group on a multi-stage sale of its holdings of $50MM+
• Representing a regional agricultural business in a private equity transaction exceeding $25MM
• Advising minority shareholders of a health services company in an equity sale of $25MM+
• Providing counsel to a regional investment company in a two-step merger acquisition valued at $20MM+
• Representing a local manufacturing company in the sale of its assets for $20MM+
• Providing counsel to a regional building materials company in the structure and design of a joint venture transaction exceeding $18MM in enterprise value
• Advising multiple local area service providers and professionals in various acquisitions involving tax-advantaged equity rollovers
• Providing legal counsel in the acquisition of a regional food industry company’s key assets out of bankruptcy proceedings
• Serving as lead counsel to a regional communications company on a tax-free reorganization and related change-of-control investment transactions
• Advising local manufacturers on tax-advantaged growth strategies, including IC-DISCs

Awards & Recognition:

• Best Lawyers, 2020, 2022-2025
• Business North Carolina Magazine, Legal Elite, 2017, 2022-2025
• Super Lawyers, 2020 & 2024
• North Carolina Bar Association, Co-Chairperson and Planner, The NCBA Business Law Section and International Law Section Annual Meeting, 2017
• Biltmore Beacon “40 Under Forty,” Class of 2014
  North Carolina Bar Association, Co-Chairperson and Planner, The NCBA Basics of Business Law CLE, 2014

Education:

• Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, JD and LL.M. in Taxation
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bachelor’s Degree in Economics

‍Professional Affiliations:‍

• North Carolina State Bar
• South Carolina State Bar
• Law Society of Scotland (UK)
• Buncombe County Bar
• American Bar Association
• North Carolina Bar Association
• Notary Public

Professional Involvement:

• North Carolina Bar Association, Business Law Section Council Member 2025-2028
• Navigating Business Compliance Under CTA: Reporting, Exemptions, and Best Practices CLE (2024)
• It’s Just Tax, The NCBA Basics of Business Law CLE (2020)
• North Carolina Bar Association, Co-Chairperson and Planner, The NCBA Business Law Section and International Law Section Annual Meeting, 2017
• 2016 Tax Law Update, NC Bar Association Business Law Institute (Feb 2016)
• Unemployment Tax: Duke Certificate in Nonprofit Management Program, Employment Course (2015)
• North Carolina Bar Association, Co-Chairperson and Planner, The NCBA Basics of Business Law CLE, 2014
• Keeping It Legal: The Ins and Outs of Nonprofit Law, The Western North Carolina Association of Fundraising Professionals, Philanthropy Institute (2014)
• Nonprofit Organizations: An Introduction for New Practitioners, The NCBA Basics of Business Law CLE (2014)

Personal Interests:

Ryan was born and raised in North Carolina, living in Sanford, Matthews and the Triangle before making Asheville his home. Ryan is married to Jessica Coffield, with whom he has two dogs. When he is not working, you might find Ryan (if he is not traveling) in the gym, venturing offroad, climbing rocks, shooting hoops or casting a line.