Anne Marie Carson is a Member, and Co-Chair in the firm’s Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions practice group.  Her practice includes mergers and acquisitions, general business services, and family office counseling.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Ms. Carson has experience with mergers, stock and asset acquisitions, divestitures and leveraged buyouts.  She works with clients from a diverse group of industries including manufacturing, distribution, agriculture and renewable energy.  Ms. Carson also has extensive experience with private equity investments in platform initiatives and strategic acquisitions.

She is an integral part of the firm’s cross-section transaction team and works closely with the other professional advisors involved.

Business Services

Ms. Carson works with clients on their business strategies including entity formation, governance and succession planning. Her experience includes conducting thorough due diligence, reviewing and drafting contracts to manage risk and seize opportunity, analyzing terms and availability of funding sources and succession planning.  Ms. Carson completed a four month secondment in the quality and operations legal team of a major medical device and equipment manufacturing company supporting international contract negotiations, product development and license arrangements and formal legal responses to federal regulatory agencies.

Family Office Counseling

Ms. Carson works with high net worth clients and related office entities regarding investment strategy and execution, and governance and succession planning, while coordinating closely with Miller Johnson’s Probate and Estate Planning practice group.

Professional Experience

Following graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Ms. Carson was an Associate in a Washington, D.C., firm, where she focused on equity and debt infrastructure and development transactions.  She worked with lenders on their project finance needs in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East.  During her legal studies, Ms. Carson was an intern, with government security clearance, for the Bureau of Consular Affairs with the U.S. State Department and provided legal services for overseas citizens.  Prior to attending law school, Ms. Carson taught English to pre-school through fifth grade students in Alençon, France and World History and Geography in Vienna, Virginia.

Ms. Carson is fluent in French and proficient in each of Spanish and Portuguese.

Education

Ms. Carson obtained her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2014.  In law school, she was a Global Law Scholar, a Greenhalgh Trial Advocacy Competition finalist, editor for the International Law Journal, a member of the Barristers’ Council Trial Advocacy Division and represented a client through the Innocence Project.  She earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Grand Valley State University in 2009.  Ms. Carson is admitted to practice in the state of New York and the District of Columbia.

Personal and Community Activities

Ms. Carson is an involved board member of the Grand Rapids Public Schools Foundation.  She remains involved with Grand Valley State University and was a 2016 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Distinguished Alumni-in-Residence.  Ms. Carson and her husband enjoy life with their daughter, son, dog and two cats.

Professional Recognition

• Crain’s Grand Rapids Business named Ms. Carson a member of the 2024 class of Notable Women In Law.
• Ms. Carson was recognized as one of Best Lawyers®: Ones to Watch in America in 2024 and 2025 for her exceptional work in Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions law.
• MiBiz named Ms. Carson the Young Dealmaker of the Year in 2022 after being recognized by her peers for her outstanding transactional work.
• In 2021 Ms. Carson was recognized as a Women in the Law honoree; an award that recognizes women who have a commitment to excellence in the practice of law and are inspiring and accomplished leaders, serve as mentors to others, and contribute significant time and effort to volunteerism and/or pro bono initiatives.