Katten

Chairman: Gil M. Soffer

Number of partners: 328 firmwide

Number of other lawyers: 364 firmwide

Firm Overview:

Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals.

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate:

The Corporate practice provides sophisticated transactional representation and business counselling to national and global companies across a broad range of concentrations. The mergers and acquisitions group is involved in all aspects of public and private mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, representing both targets and bidders in negotiated and hostile takeovers. The nationally recognized private equity group represents leveraged buyout funds, mezzanine debt funds and venture capital funds in acquisitions, divestitures and financing transactions, and advising in all aspects of private equity fund formation. The capital markets group assists clients with public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, tender offers, proxy contests and going private transactions. It also provides corporate governance counselling to public and private companies, boards of directors and board committees.

Financial Markets & Funds:

Katten’s Financial Markets and Funds practice regularly advises a broad range of participants in the financial services arena, including broker-dealers, futures commission merchants, investment advisors, finance companies, investment bankers, futures and securities exchanges, commodity trading advisors, pension funds, banks and insurance companies, as well as investment vehicles such as hedge funds, commodity pools, venture capital funds and private equity funds, securitization vehicles, mutual funds and bank collective investment funds. Attorneys apply an interdisciplinary approach in providing comprehensive legal services, including regulatory and transactional advice, tax and ERISA counsel, and domestic and foreign litigation.

Insolvency & Restructuring:

The Insolvency and Restructuring practice focuses on managing the business and legal risks inherent in the restructuring process, and offering practical and innovative solutions to challenging problems. Clients include banks and other financial institutions, secured and unsecured creditors, hedge funds and private equity funds, debtors and borrowers, agents and participants in syndicated loan transactions, indenture trustees and bondholders, landlords, official and unofficial creditors’ committees, equity committees, equipment lessors, shareholders, partners, purchasers of distressed assets, vendors, trade creditors and other interested parties in all manner of insolvency and workout situations. The team also provides front-end counselling of clients in structuring their commercial transactions to identify and minimize risks related to insolvency and bankruptcy.

Intellectual Property:

The Intellectual Property practice secures, protects and enforces patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property. The practice has represented plaintiffs and defendants in some of the most significant intellectual property cases (i.e., patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and unfair competition) for some of the world’s most prominent corporations. Attorneys also assist in enhancing the value of intellectual property rights through licensing and related commercial agreements.

Litigation:

Katten’s Litigation practice represents companies in a wide variety of industries, with a focus on financial services and health care industries. The group’s seasoned white-collar, complex commercial and class-action litigators have a deep understanding of its clients’ businesses and the group has a deep bench of former prosecutors who come from a variety of government agencies, at both federal and state levels. When clients face any of a wide range of financial services or health care violations, this team is able to represent them effectively at every stage of the process, from the initial investigation through trial. Furthermore, Katten has developed a strong team of litigators who regularly conduct high-level internal and criminal investigations, reporting to boards or C-suite executives.

Private Credit:

The Private Credit practice represents financial institutions making a wide variety of debt investments of all types and sizes in a broad range of industries. The firm’s senior lending practice focuses on the representation of administrative agents, lead arrangers and bookrunners in syndicated asset-based and cash flow financing transactions to support leveraged buyout, recapitalization, acquisition and refinancing transactions. The firm also represents investors in a wide variety of secured and unsecured mezzanine investments, term B and second lien term loans, and other forms of junior capital.

Private Wealth:

The Private Wealth practice unites three essential components — planning, administration and litigation — on the local, national and international levels. The group oversees the administration of estates, trusts and other structures, and uses sophisticated strategies to help entrepreneurs, corporate executives, investors, philanthropists, professionals and creative artists integrate personal and business goals. The firm also resolves family conflicts, estate and trust disputes, and controversies with taxing and regulatory authorities, including the IRS and attorneys general.

Real Estate:

While many law firms focus primarily on the finance side of commercial real estate and others focus on the equity investment side, Katten’s Real Estate practice is known for its strengths in both. Katten attorneys regularly represent both lenders and investors. The real estate practice has one of the most extensive and renowned practices in the country and serves clients in virtually every aspect of real estate law, including acquisitions and sales, development, fund formation and administration, leasing, private equity and joint ventures, recapitalizations, affordable housing development and finance, construction and bridge lending, syndicated lending, mezzanine lending and preferred equity investments, structured lending and securitizations, workouts and restructurings.

Structured Finance & Securitization:

The Structured Finance and Securitization practice advises clients in a wide variety of transactions, including securitizations of consumer receivables, such as auto loans and residential mortgages; and commercial receivables, such as equipment leases, corporate loans and commercial mortgages. Katten represents all market participants, from issuers, underwriters, placement agents and collateral managers to investors, swap counterparties, trustees, credit enhancers and servicers in industries including aircraft, mortgage, automobile and health care.

Transactional Tax Planning:

The Transactional Tax Planning practice handles United States and international tax planning and advises clients on the tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, reorganisations, spinoffs, venture capital and LBO transactions and financings, investment fund formation, securitizations of debt, equipment leasing, real estate transactions, hedge funds, public and private partnerships, limited liability companies, and closely held and multinational corporations.