Our Environment, Health and Safety practice has experience in providing transactional guidance, compliance counseling and management strategy, litigation and dispute resolution, and international environmental law and policy guidance on behalf of a wide range of corporate, utility, industrial, real estate, and financial services clients.
Experience
Various Small, Medium and Global Enterprises: Advised clients on issues arising under regional and international environmental agreements; counseled industry with respect to foreign legal requirements; monitored developments in policy and law; counseled industry on voluntary environmental standards, initiatives, and codes of conduct; conducted multi-jurisdictional assessments of legal and regulatory obligations; and applied multilateral financial institution guidelines to projects.
Various Small, Medium and Global Enterprises: Advised clients on climate law, policy, and related finance matters, including: conducting greenhouse gas (GHG) due diligence, applying carbon and other environmental standards, and drafting and negotiating related provisions in transactional and financing documents in connection with mergers, acquisitions, financing of projects, and other ventures; advised clients on international, federal, and state GHG regimes and initiatives; negotiated and drafted emission reduction purchase agreements; counseled companies on emissions trading activities, GHG emission reduction projects, and voluntary carbon market issues; and advised on GHG-related strategies and governance matters, including policies, management systems, disclosure, carbon footprinting, and offsetting.
- secured expedited approval of Louisiana’s request for a permit to build barrier islands to prevent or mitigate oil from the spill from coming ashore in sensitive coastal areas. The successful strategy involved pointing out to the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) that his constitutional and statutory authority to regulate emergency actions by a state to protect its coastline was questionable and that if approval was not forthcoming promptly, Louisiana might be forced to go ahead without USACE approval.
CMI and Warburg Pincus: Advised CMI and Warburg on the sale of CMI to Roche Diagnostics. CMI, the developer of a highly innovative hematology testing system, was created and funded by Warburg and members of CMI’s management team.
Continental Structural Plastics (CSP): Advised CSP, a U.S.-based innovator of structural composite products, on acquiring the assets of France-based Sora Composites, an automotive subcontracting operator that was dismantled in late 2012.
Cresta Fund Management/Lapis Energy LP: Represented Cresta Fund Management in its investment in Lapis Energy LP.
A Global Investment Management Company: We advised the private equity clients of a global investment management company in a various matters:
- two separate, unrelated joint venture transactions associated with large real estate development projects in New York and California.
- a series of complex, multi-party real estate transactions, resulting in the company’s acquisition of a portfolio of properties in the U.S. and abroad.
Insight Partners/AMCS/Quentic: Represented Insight Partners on its portfolio company AMCS’ acquisition of Quentic.
New Breed Holding Company: Advised New Breed, the preeminent U.S. provider of non-asset based, complex, technology-enabled contract logistics for corporate clients, on its acquisition by XPO Logistics, Inc. XPO purchased New Breed for $615 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.: Advised Teva on its acquisition of Théramex and related companies from Merck Serono (a division of Merck KGaA) for €265 million.
Warburg Pincus:We advised Warburg Pincus and its affiliates on a number of matters, including:
- an affiliate on its acquisition of JHP Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a fully integrated specialty pharmaceutical company, from JHP Holdings, LLC, an entity majority-owned by Morgan Stanley Principal Investments, for $195 million on a debt-free, cash-free basis.
- Warburg in a new aerospace venture, Extant Components Group Holdings, Inc., formed between Warburg and aerospace industry executive James Gerwien. Willkie represented Extant in its first transaction -- the acquisition of Symetrics Technology Group, LLC, a privately held company specializing in designing, manufacturing and testing electronic systems for the Department of Defense, NASA and prime contractors of the U.S. and foreign governments.
- Warburg and Clondalkin in the sale by Clondalkin of portions of its North American Flexible Packaging division to Hilex Poly, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners.
WEBER-HYDRAULIK: Advised WEBER-HYDRAULIK, a leading international provider of customized hydraulic drive and control engineering solutions, on its acquisition of U.S.-based Hyco International Inc., from U.S. financial investor Centre Partners Management LLC.