Charles R. “Chuck” Kraus

Strategic counsel for Texas businesses and cross-border counsel for Canadian companies in the U.S.

Chuck Kraus is a corporate partner with more than 25 years of experience and co-head of Scale’s Corporate & Securities practice group. He advises Texas-based companies, their owners and their boards on the strategic transactions that shape a business, including mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, governance and succession planning, and serves as outside general counsel to companies that want senior judgment without a full-time legal department. He also serves as U.S. counsel to Canadian businesses, guiding them through U.S. capital markets and securities compliance, cross-border acquisitions and investments, expansion into the United States, and the governance questions that come with operating on both sides of the border.

Much of his Texas work today centers on business succession. Chuck works with founders and family owners deciding between a sale to a third party and a transition to the next generation and then helps them carry out whichever path they choose, from valuation and deal structure to governance, buy-sell arrangements and the handoff itself. He also advises Texas companies on M&A, capital raises and the governance decisions that come with growth, from his office on the Historic Square in Granbury and across the communities west of Fort Worth.

On the cross-border side, Chuck advises Canadian companies, foreign private issuers and dual-listed issuers on U.S. capital markets, SEC compliance, M&A and governance. Admitted in Texas, Alberta and Minnesota, he practices on both sides of the border and works alongside Canadian counsel to implement cross-border transactions seamlessly. He serves as Outside General Counsel and Corporate Secretary to Greenfire Resources (NYSE/TSX: GFR), which he guided through its US$950 million de-SPAC and NYSE listing, its subsequent listing on the TSX, and two oversubscribed rights offerings for C$300 million and C$775 million, respectively.

Both practices draw on the years Chuck spent in-house. He has served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of three public companies, Lone Pine Resources, Bellatrix Exploration and DIRTT Environmental Solutions, building each legal function from the ground up and reporting to boards through financings, restructurings and the operational reset of the pandemic. He began his career in Minnesota and practiced corporate and securities law at Stikeman Elliott before moving in-house. He gives advice the way an owner or a board needs to receive it: practical, decisive and tied to the business.

Chuck co-hosts the Y’all Street Law podcast with Brian Elliott and was a founder of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Alberta Chapter. He is recognized by Legal 500 among the Dallas Elite in Corporate and M&A.

Canadian and American, Chuck splits his year between Texas and Alberta where his family runs a waterski school. He is a competitive water-skier, chairs the Water Ski Canada Technical Committee, and spends what time is left on a road or mountain bike.