Established in 2008, Ropes & Gray’s Chicago office has quickly grown from three lawyers to a fully integrated team of more than 50 lawyers. Lawyers in the Chicago office serve an impressive range of local, regional, national and international clients whose legal needs cover a broad spectrum of the firm’s practice areas, including:
- Capital markets
- Health care
- Investment funds
- M&A / Private equity
- Business and securities litigation
- Global government investigations
- Intellectual property
Corporate
Capital markets. The firm’s Chicago office represents public companies, investment banks and private equity funds and their portfolio companies in public and private securities offerings, including first-time listings, initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings, high yield debt offerings, acquisition financings, debt exchanges and debt restructurings. Our deep securities law expertise lets us help clients navigate through the SEC and disclosure regulations, assuring timely and effective public and private offerings. Our extensive initial public offering experience makes us uniquely situated to represent companies, underwriters and selling stockholders in the IPO process. The Chicago office’s recent IPO experience includes West Corporation, Mattress Firm, Erickson Air-Crane and FleetCor Technologies, Inc. The Chicago office’s recent high yield offering experience includes National Financial Partners Corp. (a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn Partners), J. Crew Group (a TPG portfolio company), Michaels Stores (a portfolio company of Bain Capital and Blackstone) and Nortek. Our Chicago office also advises clients on critical compliance and corporate governance issues, including Dodd-Frank Act issues, Sarbanes-Oxley issues, NYSE and Nasdaq compliance, disclosure and reporting requirements, corporate communications, the Regulation FD legal requirement.
Health care. The firm’s nationally recognized health care practice has a robust and expanding presence in Chicago, recently adding FDA regulatory and licensing capabilities to its already broad bench. Our attorneys regularly advise leading health care and life sciences companies on cutting-edge, complex transactional, regulatory and compliance matters. They are particularly recognized for their experience on HIPAA/HITECH privacy and security and regulatory compliance matters. Our multidisciplinary health care/government enforcement team regularly represents health care and life sciences clients in high-stakes government investigations and in the negotiation of Corporate Integrity Agreements. In one of the most significant recent health care deals, attorneys in Chicago represented Heartland Dental Care, Inc., one of the largest dental services organizations in the United States, in connection with the 2012 sale of its controlling interest to Teachers' Private Capital, the investment division of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
Investment funds. The firm’s prominent private investment funds practice has a vibrant presence in Chicago, which is also the center of its well-known global commodities law practice. Chicago attorneys represent some of the largest and most pre-eminent funds and investment managers in Chicago and worldwide. Our attorneys have extensive experience structuring complex investment programs, and focus on fund formations and operations, internal operating agreements, fund-of-funds issues, investment reviews, registration, regulatory developments, compliance programs, and regulatory inquiries and investigations.
M&A / Private equity. Ropes & Gray’s Chicago office has been at the forefront of many high-profile M&A and private equity transactions for many of the leading private equity funds in the United States, including Bain Capital, Berkshire Partners, Blackstone Group, Cressey & Co., Greenbriar Equity Partners, KRG Capital Partners, Madison Dearborn Partners, Pfingsten Partners, Sterling Partners, TPG Capital, and TPG Ventures, among others. Notably, we recently represented Madison Dearborn Partners in its acquisition of National Financial Partners, announced in April 2013. Our Chicago office also has an active strategic M&A practice. Notable recent transactions include representing Gentex, Inc. in its $700 million acquisition of an automotive products business unit from Johnson Controls, announced in July 2013, and the sale of Nypro to Jabil Circuit for $665 million, completed in July 2013.
Litigation
Business and securities litigation. Attorneys in Chicago focus on high-stakes litigation, including representation of private equity firms and their portfolio companies in complex transactional litigation, health care disputes and securities cases.
Global government investigations. The firm’s Chicago attorneys have been recognized as leaders in the area of securities and government investigations, advising Fortune 500 companies, private equity firms, academic medical centers and other organizations, as well as officers, directors and other individuals, in domestic and global government investigations and other government enforcement and regulatory matters. These include matters involving alleged securities fraud, including financial statement fraud, disclosure fraud and insider trading; alleged violations of the FCPA, OFAC, U.K. Bribery Act and other anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws; health care fraud; and alleged violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and other related claims.
Intellectual property. The firm’s globally recognized IP practice has a strong and growing presence in Chicago. Our attorneys have extensive experience handling complex patent disputes, including serving as lead counsel, in federal courts throughout the United States. We represent leading companies across a broad spectrum of industries and have particular depth of experience in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, software and consumer products.
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