Michelle S. Fitch

Michelle works hand-in-hand with businesses, founders, and investors, offering strategic guidance for their distinct legal and operational needs.

As outside general counsel, Michelle provides trusted, ongoing legal and strategic support to clients across their business lifecycle. Her transactional expertise spans buy- and sell-side asset and equity deals, overseeing due diligence, drafting, and negotiating key transaction documents as well as advising on business formation, corporate governance, financings, and long-term strategic planning and growth.

Michelle also specializes in aviation with a unique niche in historic aircraft transactions, including sales and purchases of P-51 Mustangs and other iconic warbirds. Her practice encompasses the full suite of aviation law from negotiating aircraft and hangar leases to structuring complex ownership transitions.

Aviation

• Advised on the acquisition of a controlling interest in a regional airline.
• Represented a private client’s estate in the sale of multiple historic aircraft.

Mergers & Acquisitions

• Represented a distributor of paper products, janitorial equipment, and cleaning supplies in its equity sale.
• Represented a private equity firm on the platform acquisition and subsequent add-on transactions of multiple companies in the fire suppression industry.
• Represented a propane distribution company in its asset sale.

Private Equity

• Represented a medical device manufacturing company in its sale of a controlling stake in its business to a private equity firm.

Pro Bono

• Assisted two Twin Cities-based nonprofit music schools in their strategic merger.
• Partnered with a local brewery to create a nonprofit fund used to support hospitality workers and their families in response to closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Advised small business owners in response to closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education

• University of St. Thomas School of Law, J.D., 2019
• University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, M.B.A., 2019
• University of Wisconsin – River Falls, B.A., 2011

Admissions

• Minnesota, 2020

• North Star Lawyer, Minnesota State Bar Association, 2022, 2024
• President’s Scholarship, University of St. Thomas School of Law

Professional Activities

• Minnesota State Bar Association, Member, 2020-present
• Minnesota Women Lawyers, Member, 2016-present
• LegalCORPS, Volunteer, 2018-present