Leslie N. Silverman is a partner based in the New York office.
Mr. Silverman’s practice focuses on the domestic and international capital markets, representing both issuers and underwriters. He has extensive experience, in particular, in cross-border offerings and the development of new financial products. Mr. Silverman regularly counsels companies on compliance with the Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley Acts, the SEC’s implementing regulations and related corporate governance matters.
Mr. Silverman’s recent matters include representation of:
- Deutsche Bank Securities, in its capacity as lead underwriter and auction agent, in multiple offerings by the United States Treasury of warrants acquired under the TARP program
- Bank of America in its sale of approximately 13.1 billion H shares of China Construction Bank for an aggregate sale price of approximately $8.3 billion
- American Express Company in its $3 billion SEC-registered notes offering and $500 million SEC-registered common stock offering, issued as part of satisfying the requirements to repay TARP funding
- Morgan Stanley in a joint venture, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, with Citigroup that combined both parties’ retail brokerage operations and created the largest retail brokerage in the world, in terms of the number of financial advisors
- Temasek on securities law matters in its multi-billion dollar investment in Merrill Lynch
- Deutsche Bank Securities, as lead underwriter and auction agent, in a $1.8 billion offering of warrants for the purchase of common stock issued by Ford Motor Company
- The initial purchasers, led by BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, J.P. Morgan Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities, in a $1.15 billion Rule 144A convertible senior notes offering by MGM MIRAGE
- The initial purchasers in two Rule 144A convertible notes offerings by Alliance Data Systems Corporation totaling $1.15 billion
- The underwriters, led by Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Securities and Morgan Stanley, in a $500.5 million SEC-registered common stock offering by Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, S.A.B. de C.V. in its $388 million Reg S/Rule 144A IPO
- The underwriters in the $191 million SEC-registered IPO of Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the first IPO by a U.S. financial exchange, and in two follow-on offerings by Chicago Mercantile Exchange totaling $243.5 million
- American Express in the spin-off of Ameriprise to shareholders
- Empresas ICA Sociedad Controladora, S.A. de C.V. in its $465 million IPO and in its $230 million follow-on offering
- Telmex and the Government of Mexico in the $2.3 billion global offering of Telmex ADSs, listed on the NYSE
Mr. Silverman is widely published and is one of the authors of
U.S. Regulation of the International Securities and Derivatives Markets (Tenth Ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2011),
PLI’s Guide to the Securities Offering Reforms (Practising Law Institute, 2005) and
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: Analysis and Practice (Aspen Publishers, 2003). He currently is serving as a member of, and counsel to, the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation. Mr. Silverman is distinguished as one of the world's best lawyers by
Chambers Global,
Chambers USA,
Chambers Latin America,
IFLR,
The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, The Legal Media Group Guide to the World's Leading Capital Markets Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 and
PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook.
Mr. Silverman joined the firm in 1974 and became a partner in 1982. From 1985 to 1989, he was resident in the London office. Mr. Silverman received a J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1973, where he was an editor of the Law Journal, and an undergraduate degree,
summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He also served as law clerk to Chief Judge Irving R. Kaufman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Mr. Silverman is a member of the Bars in New York and the District of Columbia, and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.