NEW YORK, January 6, 2005 – Holland & Knight LLP bolsters its business practice with the arrival of three experienced corporate lawyers to its New York office. The addition of Victor F. Guaglianone, George F.A. Parnell and Kenneth J. Stuart as senior counsels strengthens and diversifies the capabilities of the firm’s nationally regarded business team in several core practice areas: corporate governance, finance, mergers and acquisitions, securities, and antitrust practices.
“We are pleased to welcome these highly respected and talented lawyers to our New York Business Practice,” said Neal Beaton, Holland & Knight’s Business-New York Practice Group Leader. “They are well regarded for their ability to skillfully and strategically navigate complex business transactions while providing pragmatic advice to clients on a variety of matters. Their arrival underscores the firm’s commitment to providing exceptional resources and client service as we focus on expanding our business practice, in New York and nationally.”
Victor Guaglianone, a former GE Capital vice president and associate general counsel, brings substantial experience in a broad range of corporate counseling as well as domestic and international transactional matters. His practice covers mergers and acquisitions, commercial lending and other financing, capital markets transactions, corporate governance, and business reorganizations and debt restructurings.
Guaglianone spent 16 years with GE Capital in increasingly responsible positions after arriving from Weil Gotshal & Manges as general counsel of GE Capital’s leveraged buyout business. Among the many transactions he led at GE Capital were the acquisition of Heller Financial by friendly tender offer and the sale of the GE Americom satellite business to SES-Astra.
Guaglianone is admitted to practice in New York and California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977, and received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1980.
George Parnell has extensive experience in global mergers and acquisitions, antitrust matters, securities, public offerings, private placements, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and contracts. He has represented clients in mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and divestiture transactions of public, private and family businesses, both in the United States and internationally with transactions in excess of $100 billion. Parnell’s clients include medical device and pharmaceutical product manufacturers, real estate developers, investment advisors and consumer product and services companies.
Parnell’s portfolio of representative transactions includes the acquisitions of the Pillsbury Company, Damon Clinical Laboratories and Degussa AG and multiple public offerings and private equity transactions for Fortune 100 companies.
Parnell is admitted to practice in New York and Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor’s degree in internal administration at New England College, New Hampshire, in 1982, and received his J.D. in 1985 from Tulane Law School. He serves on the board of directors for Abbot House in Irvington, NY, and is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Corporate Counsel Association.
Kenneth Stuart’s practice focuses on securities, public offerings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions, hedge funds, private equity and venture finance, institutional lending, corporate governance and project finance transactions. Most recently, Stuart served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of ORIX USA Corporation, a $5 billion holding company for the U.S. interests of ORIX Corporation, a $50 billion NYSE-listed (IX) Japanese financial services company.
Among his significant transactions are the first project finance of an electric power plant and transmission facilities, the first limited partnership roll-up through a public tender offer, and the first public offering by a limited liability company involving the first publicly offered securitization of future cash flows.
Stuart is a current officer and former chair of the Banking, Finance & Securities Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association. He is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut, Colorado and Nebraska. Stuart earned his bachelor’s degree cum laude in history from the College of William and Mary in 1962. He received his J.D. in 1965 from Columbia Law School, and an LL.M. degree from Georgetown Law Center in 1968, while serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army Judiciary, JAGC.
About Holland & Knight LLP: Holland & Knight is a commercial law firm with more than 1,250 lawyers in 26 offices in the United States. Internationally, offices are located in Mexico City, Tokyo and Beijing, with representative offices in Helsinki, Caracas and Tel Aviv, and strategic alliance relations in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Holland & Knight is among the 15 largest firms worldwide, providing representation in all major areas of law. www.hklaw.com
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