James L. Palenchar
Professional Practice
Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP, Founding Partner, 1993-Present
Kirkland & Ellis, Partner, 1975-October, 1993
Over thirty-five years' experience as a transactional lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions, securities regulation, corporate finance, and advising management of business organizations on governance matters and compliance with the federal securities laws.
Representative engagements
Johnson Controls Inc.’s acquisition of Saft Groupe S.A.’s 49% interest in the Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC ($145 million)
Acquisition by Trico Marine Services, Inc. of DeepOcean ASA, a Norwegian provider of subsea services to the energy industry ($810 million).
Sale of Aquilex Corporation (a First Reserve Corporation portfolio company) to Harvest Partners, LLC.
Sale of ScissorTail Energy, LLC, an Oklahoma based natural gas midstream operation, to Copano Energy, LLC ($500 million).
Acquisition by Foundation Coal Corporation (a portfolio company of First Reserve Corporation and Blackstone Capital Partners) of RAG American Coal Holding (Illinois, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal operations) from RAG Coal International AG ($1 billion).
Sale by NaPro Bio Therapeutics (now known as Tapestry Pharmaceuticals) of its worldwide generic injectable paclitaxel business to Mayne Group Limited ($71 million).
EchoStar Communications Corporation's acquisition of the United States direct broadcast satellite business of The News Corporation Limited and MCI WorldCom. Inc. ($1.5 billion).
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company's acquisition of Merck & Co., Inc.'s 50% interest in the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company ($2.6 billion).
Sale of Tejas Gas Corporation to Shell Oil Company and related post-closing management arrangements ($1.45 billion).
Intrepid Potash, Inc., initial public offering ($1.1 billion), counsel to twenty-percent stockholder, Platte River Ventures I. L.P.
Trico Marine Services, Inc. PIPES offering of Senior Convertible Debentures ($300 million).
Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. initial public offering ($645 million).
Representation of General Motors Corporation in connection with activism by Kirk Kerkorian.
Successful defense of Federal Signal Corporation against proxy contest initiated by Warren B. Kanders.
Successful defense of Trico Marine Services, Inc. against proxy contest initiated by Kistefos AS.
Successful defense of Trico Marine Services, Inc. against proxy contest initiated by Newcastle Partners, L.P.
Successful defense of Colorado MEDTech, Inc. to hostile takeover attempt by HEI, Inc.
DuPont Pharmaceutical Company's strategic alliance with Barr Laboratories, Inc.
NaPro BioTherapeutics, Inc.'s (now known as Tapestry Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) strategic alliance with Abbott Laboratories for the development of Paclitaxel formulations, including equity investment, development funding, and product development and sales milestones ($68 million).
Partitioning of The Harold C. Simmons Family Trust in connection with the settlement of fiduciary litigation (corpus valued at approximately $1 billion).
Representation of management of Community Health Systems in connection with the leveraged buyout by Forstmann Little & Co. ($1.3 billion).