Sidley Austin LLP

Congratulations to Brian Fahrney, who has been named Chair-Elect of Sidley’s Executive Committee. Currently, Mr. Fahrney is global co-leader of Sidley’s M&A and Private Equity practice and a member of the Management and Executive Committee, and represents both acquirers and sellers in a wide variety of public and private merger and acquisition transactions including complex carve-outs, take privates, cross-border transactions, spinoffs, and leveraged acquisitions. He will continue practicing law and serving clients while chairing the Executive Committee. Mr. Fahrney will succeed Mike Schmidtberger, who has served as a member of the Executive Committee since 2002 and as its Chair since January 2018. Mr. Schmidtberger is slated to transition from that position in April 2025 as required under the Firm’s partnership agreement. He will remain a partner in the Firm’s market-leading Investment Funds practice. Read more here, https://bit.ly/4engj49.

Sidley has been recognized among the top four law firms globally for cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters by Global Restructuring Review in the 2024 edition of its annual GRR 100 guide. The recognition once again places the firm among the publication’s elite “GRR 30.” Furthermore, Sidley won the “Asian Practice of the Year” award at Global Restructuring Review’s GRR Awards 2024. Read more here, https://bit.ly/3Z90uro.

Congratulations to Sidley partners Yvette Ostolaza, Penny Reid, and Yolanda Cornejo Garcia and their team on their recognition on last week’s The American Lawyer Litigation Daily’s “Litigator of the Week” list. They were recognized for their work helping Aspen American Insurance Co. secure a ruling in Connecticut Superior Court dismissing a lawsuit brought by a group of dentists’ offices seeking business interruption coverage for government-mandated shutdowns during the pandemic. The decision on personal jurisdiction grounds caps a remarkable 24-case winning streak the firm has for Aspen in business interruption litigation, with none of the cases proceeding past a motion to dismiss. The Sidley team also included Robin Wechkin, Mitchell Alleluia-Feinberg, and Tayler Bragg.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in London for Sidley’s inaugural European Legal Heads roundtable. 25 European legal heads — including those from Accenture, Adobe, The Coca-Cola Company, Mastercard, McDonald's, MSD, Qualcomm, Salesforce, SHEIN, and Zoom — joined Sidley’s Tom Thesing, Todd Friedbacher, Leonard Ng, Ramy J. Wahbeh, and Bill Tulin, for an engaging conversation regarding issues that are top of mind as we move into 2025. ? Special thanks to our co-moderators, Seda Yalcinkaya (Apollo Global Management, Inc.) and Jeff Bullwinkel (Microsoft), for leading such an informative, lively, and fun dinner discussion.

Sidley is representing Olive & June, a leading omnichannel retailer of nail care products, in its US$240 million sale to consumer retail company Helen of Troy. The #acquisition will allow Olive & June to leverage Helen of Troy’s scale and innovation capabilities. Olive & June will continue to operate under its original brand name; other Helen of Troy brands in its beauty and wellness segment include Drybar, REVLON, and Bed Head, to name a few. The Sidley team is being led by partners David Grinberg and Emily Zipperstein. Read more here, https://bit.ly/491bv2a.

Congratulations to Axel Miranda, a senior managing associate in Sidley’s Miami office, who has been accepted an invitation to become a fellow of the American Bar Foundation (an arm of the American Bar Association). The Fellows is a global honorary society of lawyers, judges, law faculty, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the highest principles of the legal profession and to the welfare of their communities. Membership in the Fellows is limited to 1% of licensed lawyers in a jurisdiction.

Sidley is advising leading global life and health insurer Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated in its US$4.1 billion reinsurance transaction to acquire a long-term care (LTC) block and structured settlements block from John Hancock, a subsidiary of Manulife. The transaction is one of the few LTC #reinsurance trades in recent years. The Sidley team is led by Anthony Ribaudo, Michael Devins, and John Grothaus. Read more here, https://bit.ly/490wulY.

Sidley represented medical services company CareMax, Inc. in its #Chapter11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas. Based in Miami, CareMax operates a network of 56 medical centers in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and New York, catering largely to elderly patients. The Sidley #Restructuring team was led by partners Thomas Califano and Anthony Grossi, and included Jason Hufendick, Juliana Hoffman, Margaret Alden, Ryan Fink, Chelsea McManus, Veronica Courtney, Andreas Rauch, and Hayden Golemon. Read more here, https://bit.ly/4998PzJ.

Sidley has been named “Law Firm of the Year” for Securitization and Structured Finance Law in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms.” Learn more about Sidley’s Global Finance practice here, https://bit.ly/3CFNGkz.

Sidley has been named “Law Firm of the Year” for Litigation – Regulatory Enforcement (SEC, Telecom, Energy) in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers’ “Best Law Firms” — the fourth time the firm has received this designation. Read more on Sidley’s Regulatory Enforcement capabilities here, https://bit.ly/3V24DvW.