Corporate and Securities

Mergers and Acquisitions

Schiff Hardin attorneys advise U.S. and multinational businesses as well as private equity firms in structuring, negotiating and completing domestic and international mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Our transactions vary in size and scope, ranging from small private acquisitions to multi-billion dollar business combinations. Our role in these transactions is dictated by our clients’ needs and desires. We assist, for example, a number of clients with ongoing acquisition and disposition programs, managing all aspects of the transactions from conception to completion. We also serve as special counsel to companies, boards, and board committees that look to us for our experience in unique or complex transactions, such as tender offers or management-led leveraged buyout transactions.

Our strengths in the M&A area include:

• An ability to anticipate and address our clients’ needs under compressed time schedules
• Prior significant representation of all key players in various types of transactions, including:

• Strategic and financial buyers
• Bidders
• Sellers
• Target company management
• Special committees of independent directors
• Private equity fund acquirers
• Secured and unsecured lenders
• Equity and mezzanine investors
• Investment bankers
• Financial consultants
• Major stockholders
• Minority stockholders

We understand that no two transactions are alike. However, our considerable mergers and acquisitions experience allows us to apply lessons learned from past deals and to spot the key issues that often drive or derail the success of a transaction.

We know that a closing is the goal for lawyers but the beginning for clients, and that lawyers can win the battle yet lose the war through rigid insistence on inconsequential matters. Throughout the course of every transaction, we listen carefully to our clients and remain intensely focused on achieving our clients’ business objectives.