Willkie represents accounting firms, financial services companies and law firms, as well as private equity firms and other investors in professional services companies in matters ranging from financing, PE/VC investments and M&A to corporate and IP litigation.
Experience
- Accounting firm KPMG in various restructuring cases.
- Exela Technologies, Inc. on its exchange of its Common Stock for 6.00% Series B Cumulative Convertible Perpetual Preferred Stock.
- Interpublic Group in its registered public offering of $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 2.400% Senior Notes due 2031 and $500 million aggregate principal amount of its 3.375% Senior Notes due 2041.
- Austin Industries. v. William M. Mercer, Inc.: Mercer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, in a professional malpractice suit related to its actuaries.
- In re The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Securities, Derivative, and ERISA Litigation (S.D.N.Y.): Bear Stearns senior official in class action litigation and related matters arising out of writedowns of subprime-related financial instruments and events leading to acquisition by JPMorgan.
- In re Bennett Companies Investors Litigation, No. 96-601927 (N.Y.S. Ct.): Defendant broker in $570 million securities class action arising out of alleged accounting irregularities and Ponzi scheme at Bennett Funding.
- National Coordinating Counsel for a Big Four accounting firm in its civil tax shelter litigation and related federal and state governmental investigations. From 1997 through 2001, the accounting firm sold tax shelters to hundreds of wealthy individuals. Many of these shelters were subsequently disallowed by the IRS. Former tax shelter clients have sued the firm in cases brought all over the country, seeking fees, transaction costs, back taxes, interest, and penalties totaling in the billions of dollars. As National Coordinating Counsel on these matters, we directly represent the accounting firm as lead counsel on many of the matters, and also reviews and directs the work of many prominent national and regional law firms that are defending the accounting firm in other individual tax shelter cases and related governmental investigations across the country.
- Brice, Vander Linden & Wernick, P.C. in a U.S. Trustee investigation of structured financing transaction issues.
- In re Fannie Mae Securities Litigation, No. 1:04-CV-01639 (D. D.C.): Auditor in audit committee investigation, securities class actions, derivative litigation, and SEC proceedings arising out of accounting issues at Fannie Mae.
- Footstar, Inc. Securities Litigation: Defendant accounting firm in $65 million securities class actions, shareholder derivative litigation, and bankruptcy litigation arising out of accounting issues at Footstar.
- A foreign member of a global accounting firm network in an SEC enforcement investigation relating to potential independence matters, auditing issues and financial fraud regarding a foreign company client registered with the SEC.
- The Hartz Mountain Corp. v. BDO Seidman, LLP, No. 96 Civ. 3042 (SDNY): BDO Seidman in $15 million securities action arising out of tender offer for nonpublic company.
- H&R Block in its response to the DOJ’s civil suit seeking to block a $288 million deal by H&R Block to acquire 2SS Holdings, maker of TaxAct software.
- Just For Feet, Inc. Securities Litigation: Defendant accounting firm in $1.1 billion securities class actions, Alabama state court proceedings, bankruptcy trustee litigation, and parallel SEC and Department of Justice investigations arising out of accounting issues at Just For Feet.
- Kemin Industries, Inc. v. KPMG Peat Marwick, No. 96-1093 (S. Ct. IA): AICPA as amicus curiae participant before Iowa Supreme Court in appeal seeking to overturn jury verdict in action against accounting firm brought by Kemin Industries.
- KPMG in an SEC investigation into the contingent liability accounting of its audit client Anadarko Petroleum in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
- Sharp International Corp. v. KPMG LLP: KPMG in professional malpractice cases brought by bankruptcy trustee and lenders of defunct watch company.
- Accordion, a private equity-focused financial and technology consulting firm and portfolio company of Charlesbank Capital Partners, in its acquisition of Merilytics.
- AlixPartners in the following transactions:
- its acquisition of leading independent restructuring practice THM Partners LLP.
- its acquisition of global risk management firm Freeh Group International Solutions.
- its acquisition of management consulting firm Galt & Company.
- Analytic Partners in connection with an investment by funds affiliated with Onex Corporation.
- Aquiline Capital Partners in its acquisition of human resources outsourcing provider CoAdvantage from Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.
- ASG, a portfolio company of Alpine Investors, in its acquisition of Sierra Interactive, a residential real estate software company.
- Atax Consultants on its sale to EIF Group.
- Management of Axiom, the global leader in specialized on-demand legal talent, in a strategic investment from Permira funds.
- BigHand Inc., a portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, in its acquisition of Iridium Technology, a legal business intelligence and analytics software provider.
- Capstreet Group in the sale of Onpoint Industrial Services.
- CIP Capital in the following transactions:
- its acquisition of People 2.0 Global, LP, a leading business process outsourcer in the human capital services sector.
- its sale to an affiliate of TPG Capital of a majority of its interest in P20 Global Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of certain employer of record, payroll and benefits services.
- Dubin Clark in its sale of InProduction to ZMC.
- PE-backed CoAdvantage in its acquisition of SourcePointe, a provider of outsourced HR services.
- Warburg Pincus portfolio company FacilitySource Holdings, LLC, a high-growth leader in technology-based procurement and facilities management solutions, in its agreement to be acquired by CBRE Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm.
- FFL Partners in the following transactions:
- FFL Partners and portfolio company ProService, a leading provider of bundled HR solutions, in the sale of ProService to Silver Lake.
- its $100 million investment in Velocity Global, in connection with Velocity Global’s acquisition of global workforce management provider iWorkGlobal.
- FFL and its portfolio company Accordion in a majority growth investment in Accordion by Charlesbank Capital Partners and Motive Partners.
- FFL and its portfolio company Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), the leading provider of behavior management and crisis prevention training programs, in the $910 million sale of CPI to Wendel.
- Foundation Source in its acquisition by Incline Equity Partners.
- Freshstream Investment Partners LLP on its investment in MCR Group, a rapidly growing outsourced services company based in Ireland.
- IK Investment Partners in its acquisition, through its IK Small Cap I Fund, of Domia Group, owner of Acadomia (the number one French player in the private tutoring market) and Shiva (the fast-growing French home cleaning provider), from Metric Capital Partners.
- Insight Partners on its Series A investment in Leapsome GmbH.
- Interpublic Group in its $2.3 billion acquisition of data marketing company Acxiom Marketing Solutions.
- ISS on the contemplated sale of its “ISS Hygiène et Prévention” division to the Ortec Group, a leading service provider specialized in services for industry, energy, environment and aeronautics.
- Lagardère on the contemplated sale of its leading global sports marketing firm, Lagardère Sports, to H.I.G. Capital.
- Latour Capital on its investment in the Primonial group, a major player in the design, management and advice on investment solutions in France.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners in its portfolio company Law Business Research’s acquisition of MBL Seminars Limited.
- Levine Leichtman Capital Partners on its investment in Global Loan Agency Services (GLAS).
- Orion Advisor Solutions in its acquisitions of Redtail Technology, a leading web-based CRM software firm serving the wealth management industry, and in its acquisition of TownSquare Capital, a boutique, full-service investment and trading platform.
- PAI Partners in its investment in the Apave Group, a specialist in the field of technical, environmental, human and digital risk management.
- PAI Partners and Sagard on the sale of the Kiloutou Group, a leading European equipment rental company, to funds HLDI and HLD Europe.
- PayScale, the leader in cloud compensation data and software-as-a-service (SaaS), in its $325 million sale to Francisco Partners by Warburg Pincus.
- Questel and its financial sponsors Eurazeo, IK Investment Partners and Raise Investissement on the contemplated acquisition of NovumIP from Paragon Partners.
- Recognize Partners in its investment in 2X LLC, a leading B2B-focused marketing-as-a-service firm.
- Regate, a finance automation software provider for SMEs, in its acquisition by Qonto.
- Shamrock Capital in its investments in AnswerLab, a leading user experience research firm, and Highwire PR.
- Shamrock Capital Advisors in connection with the sale of Bayard Advertising to Appcast.
- TFH Reliability Group, LLC, a provider of industrial products and services, asset performance management and reliability consultancy services and portfolio company of Capstreet, in its sale to Shell USA, Inc.
- The management and employees of TigerRisk Partners in its acquisition by Howden Group.
- The founders of von Poll Immobilien, a leading German residential real estate agency, on their sale to private equity firm Deutsche Beteiligungs AG.
- Waterland Private Equity in its acquisition and later disposition of shares of PREMIUM group, a leading European fashion show organizer, to Clarion Events.
- WilsonHCG, a portfolio company of CIP Capital, in its investment from 3i Group.
- XBP Europe, Inc., the European business of Exela Technologies Inc., in its merger with CF Acquisition Corp. VIII.