Adjunct Faculty

Andrew J. Sherman, Esq. is a corporate and transactional attorney and an internationally-recognized authority on the legal and strategic aspects of business growth and intellectual property leveraging strategies.  A summary of his accomplishments include:

Mr. Sherman is a partner with Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP (Dickstein), a law firm with 350 lawyers nationwide, where he manages a significant corporate and transactional practice representing Fortune 500 corporations as well as entrepreneurs, emerging growth companies and government contractors.  He also has written and lectured extensively on intellectual property protection and leveraging.  Mr. Sherman is also the founder of Grow Fast Grow Right, an education and training company for executives of middle market companies.

Mr. Sherman is one of the leaders of the Firm's regional Emerging Business and Technology practice group as well the chair of the Firm's international Franchising, Licensing and Distribution group.  His current and previous clients include Intel, Apple Computer, America Online (AOL), Texaco, Panasonic, Chevron-Phillips, Revlon, Beatrice Foods, Caterpillar, Ikea, Invensys, Yum Brands (parent company of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and other casual dining brands), the Scott-Fetzer Companies (a division of Berkshire Hathaway), Paul Mitchell Systems, the EasyGroup of Companies, IDT/Winstar Communications, the Edison Preservation Foundation, Bell & Howell, Rogers Communications (Canada), Sanyo, Tower Records, Bell & Howell, Indian Motorcycles, GAF, Caterpillar, Owens-Corning, Shell Oil, Sears, Metrocall, Bankers Trust, Household Finance Corporation, Pritzker Organization (Hyatt Hotels) and the Western Professional Hockey League. 

He is the author of fourteen (14) books on business growth, capital formation and the leveraging of intellectual property, including the best-selling and critically-acclaimed Raising Capital (Kiplingers, 2000), and Raising Capital, (Second Edition), published by AMACOM Books, February 2005, Mergers and Acquisitions from A to Z, (AMACOM Books, 1998) and the second edition is soon to be published in 2005, The Complete Guide to Running and Growing Your Business, (Random House, 1997), Franchising and Licensing:  Two Ways to Build Your Business, (2^nd edition) (AMACOM Books, 1999) and the third edition was released in December 2003, and Fast Track Growth Strategies (Kiplinger, 2002). 

He has appeared as a guest and a commentator on all of the major television networks as well as CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” CNN’s “Day Watch,” CNNfn’s "StreetSmarts" and  “For Entrepreneurs Only,” USA Network's "First Business," and Bloomberg’s “Small Business Weekly” and various other regional and local television broadcasts as well as national and local radio interviews for National Public Radio (NPR), Business News Network (BNN), Bloomberg Radio, AP Radio Network, Voice of America, Talk America Radio Network and the USA Radio Network, as a resource on business growth strategies, capital formation, entrepreneurship and technology development. 

He has served as a top-rated Adjunct Professor in the Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programs at the University of Maryland for sixteen (16) years, and has won various teaching awards including the Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000.

He serves as General Counsel to several of the nation and region’s leading entrepreneurship organizations, including the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO), the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), the Let’s Talk Business Network (LTBN) and the Morino Institute’s Netpreneur program, since the inception of these organizations.  He was one of the co-founders of the Washington, D.C. regional chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth and serves on the Inner Circle and as a key advisor to the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland.  He is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF), an education and networking resource headquartered in Washington, D.C. to support small and mid-sized government and defense contractors.

Mr. Sherman is a frequent author, serves as a resource and has been quoted for articles in a wide variety of the nation’s leading magazines, newspapers and websites including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, Inc., Nation’s Business, Success, the Washington Post, Forbes, My Business, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, Money, Chicago Tribune, Venture Capital Journal, Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance, Drug Discovery magazine, The Technology Dealmaker newsletter, Legal Times, Washington Business Journal, Crain’s, Entrepreneur, Reuters News Service, AP News Wire, CNNfn.com, Inc.com, Fortune.com, Office.com, MSNBC.com, and the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership’s EntreWorld.org websites.  In the December/January 2002 issue of Fortune Small Business, he was recognized as one of the nation's top ten (10) gurus and thought leaders on entrepreneurship and the legal and strategic issues facing small and growing companies. 

Mr. Sherman is the Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board and a frequent contributor to ExecutiveBiz a publication of the Potomac Officers Club.  He also serves as Chairman of the Professional Advisory Board of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE), the Chairman of the Technology and Innovation Committee for the Washington Board of Trade's Potomac Conference, serves on the Board of Directors of Youth Services America, the Editorial Advisory Board of Inc. magazine's latest publication, International Franchising, the Board of Advisors to the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Businesses (RISE Business), NFTE (Former Chairman 1993-1995), YEO, the Washington Business Journal's Editorial Advisory Board, Inc. magazine's Business Consulting Services Advisory Board, Florida Atlantic University (FAU's) Biotech and Emerging Business Advisory Board, the Opportunity International Board of Governors, the Gazelles/Masters of Business Dynamics Advisory Board and serves on the advisory boards of several business incubators and early-stage and rapidly-growing technology companies.

Mr. Sherman serves as an on-line columnist for two of the internet's leading sites for small and emerging growth companies.  He writes the "Can This Business Be Saved?" column for FortuneSmallBusiness.com as well as the "View from The Trenches" column for AOL's Netbusiness.com and serves as a key member of the AOL Small and Emerging Business Champions Team.  He serves as one of the Answer Men, a weekly column that answers questions for entrepreneurs and small business owners which is published on Fortune.com and nationally syndicated in 1500 newspapers by Knight-Ridder.  He is also a frequent contributor to the "Leading Advisors" section of the Kaufman Center for Entrepeneurial Leadership's website, EntreWorld.org.

He is a frequent national and international lecturer at business conferences where he has delivered speeches and lead seminars on entrepreneurship, capital formation, mergers and acquisitions, the protection and leveraging of intellectual property and business planning for organizations such as Inc. magazine (Growing Your Company, Capital Formation, ThINC.Out Loud and CEO Symposium Conferences), the MIT/Inc./YEO "Birthing of Giants" programs, the Association of Financial Professionals, the American Electronics Association, the Turnaround Management Association, Institutional Investor magazine, the Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors (AMAA), National Small Business United, the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (international meetings and local chapter presentations), the National Restaurant Association, iBreakfast.com, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the New York Venture Group, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Netpreneur.org, the Baltimore-Washington Venture Group, the National Association of Credit Managers, PC Expo, the International Franchise Association, Microsoft’s Small Business Crossing Seminar Series, the Regional Investment Bankers Association, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization, the Association for Corporate Growth, the American Management Association, the Council for Growing Companies, and a wide range of other international and regional business organizations and conference management companies.

He is the developer and lecturer for several different business growth courses and seminar series, including serving as the author of two workbooks and videos for Kiplinger’s, entitled Growing Your Business and Corporate Transition Management and Exit Strategies, as well as a four-part cyber-conference and workbook on Mergers and Acquisitions for the Association of Financial Professionals, a seminar series on Strategies for Protecting Your Intellectual Property for Padgett-Thompson, a series of conferences on Growth-Oriented Distribution Strategies for the American Management Association and a series of conferences on Strategies for Doing Business Abroad for the International Franchise Association.

Mr. Sherman can be reached at 202-833-5000 or e-mail ShermanA@dsmo.com.