Patrick J. Naughton

Patrick Naughton is a Partner in the Firm’s Corporate Department. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions transactions, including leveraged buyouts and private equity investments, and on corporate and securities law matters. Patrick was resident in the Firm’s Hong Kong office from 2006 to 2010.

Selected transactions include the representation of:

• Invitation Homes in its merger-of-equals transaction with Starwood Waypoint Homes, a transaction with an enterprise value of $20 billion
• EQT in connection with its acquisitions of Sitecore and Press Ganey and the acquisition of WorkWave by its portfolio company IFS
• New Mountain Capital in its acquisition of the majority ownership position in One Digital Health and Benefits from Fidelity National Financial Ventures and its sale of its stake in AmWINS
• Primavera Capital and Ant Financial in connection with their investments in Yum China
• MTS Systems Corporation in connection with its acquisition of PCB Group, Inc.
• AXIS Capital in connection with its announced but subsequently terminated merger with Partner Re
• Daiichi Sankyo in connection with its acquisition of Ambit Biosciences
• Smithfield Foods in connection with its sale to Shuanghui International Holdings
• A bank in connection with its sale of its interests in Archstone to Lehman
• Hellman & Friedman in connection with the acquisition of a controlling interest in its portfolio company Emdeon by Blackstone
• Sealed Air in connection with its acquisition of Diversey
• Blackstone in connection with its acquisition of the U.S. business of Centro Properties Group
• AIG in connection with the sale of its Japanese subsidiaries, AIG Star Life Insurance company and AIG Edison Life Insurance Company, to Prudential Financial, Inc.
• KKR in connection with its acquisition of Oriental Brewery Co., Ltd., in Korea
• Blackstone in connection with its acquisition of 20% of China National Bluestar (Group) Corporation
• KKR in connection with its acquisitions of MMI Holdings Ltd. and Unisteel Technology Limited in Singapore
• KKR in connection with its investment in Yageo Corporation in Taiwan
• KKR in connection with its sale of Cleanaway in Australia
• KKR in connection with its investment in the Seven Media Group joint venture in Australia
• First Reserve in its pre-IPO investment in China Coal Energy Company Limited
• Focus Media in its acquisitions of Target Media and Allyes
• The Special Committee of Lafarge North America in connection with the tender offer by Lafarge S.A., its controlling stockholder
• Chatam International in connection with the sale of its Chambord brand to Brown-Forman
• First Reserve in its acquisition of Chart Industries
• The Special Committee of Eon Labs in its sale to Novartis
• Genesee & Wyoming in the acquisitions of Rail Partners and several other railroad companies
• Travelers in its merger with St. Paul
• The consortium of Blackstone, Apollo and Goldman Sachs in the acquisition of Nalco Company from Suez
• The independent directors of ImClone Systems in connection with various corporate governance matters
• The controlling shareholder of Panamerican Beverages in its sale to Coca-Cola FEMSA
• The principal stockholders of Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas in its sale to Dominion Resources
• America Online, in its merger with Time Warner
• Evercore and other investment banking clients in their roles as financial advisors in M&A transactions

Patrick is commended as a leading lawyer by Chambers USA and Chambers Global, which cites his “solid work [and] commercial and reasonable approach” and describes him as a “go-to adviser on cross-border transactions involving China and Hong Kong.” He has also been recognized as “Dealmaker of the Week” by The American Lawyer for his lead role in Sealed Air’s acquisition of Diversey.

Patrick received his J.D. in 1995 from Harvard Law School and his B.A., magna cum laude, in 1992 from Williams College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.