Practices
Where the firm does its work
Six groups, each led by a partner in daily practice. Below is what each group handles, the matters it has run, and the partner who answers for it.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Buy-side and sell-side representation across the full transaction, from the first letter of intent to the final post-closing adjustment. The group leads diligence, drafts and negotiates the definitive agreements, and manages the specialists a deal draws in.
Representative matters
- Sale of a family-held industrial manufacturer to a strategic acquirer for $410 million
- Take-private of a Nasdaq-listed software issuer by a sponsor consortium
- Carve-out of a European division, closing across four jurisdictions in eleven weeks
- Group leader
- Eleanor R. Vance
Securities & Capital Markets
Counsel to issuers and underwriters on registered offerings, private placements and the continuous disclosure obligations that follow. The group also advises audit committees on disclosure controls and Section 16 compliance.
Representative matters
- Initial public offering on the NYSE raising $286 million for a medical device issuer
- Rule 144A high-yield note offering for a regional healthcare operator
- Restatement disclosure and remediation programme for a public issuer
- Group leader
- Marcus Oyelaran
Complex Commercial Litigation
Contract, fiduciary and shareholder disputes tried in state and federal court and arbitrated before the American Arbitration Association. Matters are budgeted stage by stage, and the partner arguing the motion is the partner who took the call.
Representative matters
- Defence of a board against fiduciary duty claims arising from a merger, dismissed at the pleading stage
- Post-closing earn-out arbitration recovering $38 million for a selling shareholder group
- Trade secret injunction obtained in the District of Massachusetts within nine days of filing
- Group leader
- Priya Raghunathan
Regulatory & Government Investigations
Representation before the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, including internal investigations conducted for and reported to the audit committee.
Representative matters
- SEC enforcement inquiry concluded with no action following a voluntary submission
- Second request response in an FTC merger review, produced on a sixty-day schedule
- Independent internal investigation into revenue recognition, reported to the audit committee
- Group leader
- Daniel Whitcombe
Employment & Executive Compensation
Executive agreements, equity incentive plans, restrictive covenants and the workforce questions that arrive with a transaction: retention, redundancy, and the treatment of unvested awards on a change of control.
Representative matters
- Equity plan redesign for a company transitioning from private to public reporting
- Enforcement of non-solicitation covenants against a departing sales organisation
- Retention architecture covering 140 employees through an integration
- Group leader
- Ingrid Halvorsen
Intellectual Property & Technology
Licensing, technology transfer, data protection and the intellectual property diligence that decides whether a transaction is worth signing. The group also negotiates the commercial agreements that carry a product to market.
Representative matters
- Global licensing programme covering a portfolio of thirty-one patent families
- Data protection assessment and remediation ahead of a cross-border acquisition
- Master technology agreement for a platform serving regulated financial institutions
- Group leader
- Sofia Marchetti