Infected deals: M&A in times of Covid-19

Paul Josephus Jitta

Paul A. Josephus Jitta, partner and lawyer at BUREN, specializes in (inter) national corporate law.

He mainly advises national and international companies on (cross-border) M&A transactions. He also litigates on corporate law and trade disputes, often on the termination of international joint ventures and partnerships. Paul, who is also the honorary consul of Ecuador in Amsterdam, is co-head of BUREN’s Latin America desk.

Paul was one of the initiators of the Cancun case in 2009, an inquiry that led to groundbreaking case law of the Supreme Court in 2014 on directors’ and officers’ liability in joint ventures.

Paul graduated in 1993 in Dutch law from the University of Amsterdam, having taken minors at the University of Salamanca, Spain. In 2000 he completed the Business Law specialization course at Erasmus University.

According to legal expert guides such as Chambers & Partners and Legal500, clients praise him for his sound knowledge and commercial instincts, describing him as very responsive, pragmatic and “deal-driven”.

Paul is fluent in Dutch, English, German and Spanish.

Charles Martin

Clients look to himfor strategic counsel across a wide variety of legal issues.

Much of his work is cross-border.

He has been Senior Partner since 2008 and stepped down from that role on 1 May 2020 to focus on work for corporate and family office clients.

Dinesh Melwani

Dinesh is a seasoned transactional attorney who advises US and international clients in both domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, strategic investments, entity formation, and venture financings – topics on which he regularly guest lectures at institutions such as MIT’s Sloan School of Management, The Broad Institute and MassChallenge. Given his unique and extensive experience with international matters, Dinesh often serves as a first point of contact for clients as they enter, and grow, their businesses in the United States. Dinesh graduated with honors from McGill University’s Faculty of Law with degrees in both common law and civil law.

Ralf Morshäuser

Ralf is co-head of Gleiss Lutz’ Corporate and M&A practice. Peer group reviews including JUVE, IFLR 1000, Legal 500 and Best Lawyers regularly list him as a leading or frequently recommended M&A and Private Equity lawyer. Ralf, who was admitted in 2001 and has been a partner at Gleiss Lutz since 2007 has made a name for himself as a sell-side M&A specialist and frequently advises in cross-border M&A transactions. Among his clients are many DAX30 companies, other corporate clients, financial investors and insolvency administrators who entrust him with their most important and complex M&A transactions (including carve-outs and distressed M&A) and corporate law matters.

Seiichi Okazaki

Seiichi Okazaki, admitted to practise in Japan (1995) and New York (2000), is a partner in the corporate and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) practice group of Mori Hamada & Matsumoto. His main practice areas include M&A and cross-border corporate and finance transactions. He has extensive experience in advising non-Japanese clients doing and expanding business or making investments in Japan, and also has represented a variety of Japanese and foreign financial institutions, private equity funds and corporations with business operations in Japan. He joined Mori Hamada & Matsumoto in 1995, attained his LLM in 1999 from Columbia Law School and worked as a visiting attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York from 1999 to 2000.

Luciana Tornovsky

Partner of Demarest’s Mergers and Acquisitions area, Luciana Cossermelli Tornovsky holds a master’s degree (LLM) from the Harvard Law School (USA) and a postgraduate degree from the International Tax Program (ITP) at Harvard University. She is the author of notable book chapters, such as ‘International Trade Law’ (Aduaneiras, 2004), ‘Securities World 2005 – Jurisdictional Comparison’ (European Lawyer, 2005) and ‘Business Laws of Brazil’ (West, 2009-2010). Luciana is head of Demarest’s Corporate Social Responsibility area, which encompasses the Social Responsibility, Diversity & Inclusion and Pro Bono groups. Luciana is ranked in Chambers Global, Chambers Latin America, The Legal 500, Law Firm 500, LACCA, Leaders League, IFLR, among others.