William J. Curtin, III
Partner Corporate & Finance
New York
Washington, D.C.
Languages
English, French
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Overview
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Experience
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Credentials
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Insights and events
Chambers USA, 2023"Bill is one of the most hard-working lawyers you will meet in your life. He will do anything to get a deal done."
Bill Curtin is Global Head of our M&A practice and advises market-leading companies on their cross-border transactions.
An American Lawyer Dealmaker of the Year, Bill is commended for his ability to "get impossible deals done" and recognized as an “outstanding lawyer [who] always comes up with a win-win for both sides” (Legal 500; Chambers).
Bill offers clients a cross-industry, multi-jurisdictional array of experience having advised many of the world’s leading companies, including Airbus, Arm, Audi, Bernhard Capital Partners, BDT & MSD, BMW, Bureau Veritas, Celanese, Chevron, Citibank, Cloudflare, The Coca-Cola Company, Corning, Cranemere Group, Daimler Truck, Dell Technologies, Elastic, Ford Motor Company, Frazier Aviation, Gemalto, Goldman Sachs, Henco, Honda, Honeywell, Hyundai, IBM, Ingredion, ITT, Kaiser Permanente, Keplr Vision, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Norges Bank, Stellantis, Ulta Beauty, Viatris and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
From 2003 until 2008, Bill was based in Paris and led the development of our operations in France. From 2008 to 2010, Bill was based in London and served as Head of our European Corporate Group. From 2010 until 2016, he served on the firm’s Global Board while based out of our Washington and New York offices. Since 2016, he has served as Global Head of our M&A practice.
Bill is a frequent commentator on the state of M&A, appearing on Bloomberg, CNBC, Sky News, Wharton Business Daily, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He is also an adjunct professor on corporate law at Duke University and The University of Virginia.
He is co-author of a comprehensive article on cross-border business combination transactions, cited by the U.S. SEC as one of several authoritative sources on such transactions.
Bill is fluent in French and has studied at the London School of Economics and the Wharton School of Business. Bill also spent an academic year in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Chambers USA, 2023"Bill is one of the most hard-working lawyers you will meet in your life. He will do anything to get a deal done."
Representative experience
Special Committee of a Board of Directors with respect to a proposed interested party transaction.
Airbus Group on its joint venture with OneWeb; its acquisition of MTM Robotics; its sale of Airbus DS SatCom Government, Inc; and its acquisition of Aerovel.
Arcturus UAV, Inc. on its US$405m sale to AeroVironment, Inc.
Arm Limited, subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. and SoftBank Vision Fund, on its contemplated US$40 billion sale of Arm to NVIDIA.
Audi, BMW, and Daimler in connection with their US$3.1bn purchase, as a consortium, of the HERE mapping business from Nokia, and third-party investments by Intel, Mitsubishi Corporation, and NTT.
Bernhard Capital Partners on its acquisition of Duotech Services, Inc. and its acquisition of Boston Government Services, LLC.
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc on its strategic investment in the German pay television market.
BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota on their joint venture to develop and operate a high-powered electric vehicle charging network across North America.
Cisco Systems, Inc. on its acquisitions of Assemblage, Inc., DocumentReady ApS, ParStream GmbH, and Skyport Systems, Inc.
Cloudflare, Inc., a leading web infrastructure and cybersecurity company, on its US$162m acquisition of Area 1 Security, Inc., a developer of industry-leading phishing and network security products.
Dell on its US$3.05bn sale of the Dell Services IT services business and on its US$2.075bn sale of the RSA business.
Dominique Dawes, a hall-of-fame Olympic gold medalist, three-time Olympian, and founder of Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy (“DDGNA”), on DDGNA’s partnership with Trivest Partners.
Ford Motor Company on its sales of Volvo Cars, Jaguar, and Land Rover; minority investments, including in Pivotal Software and ZoomCar; and its ventilator partnership with GE Healthcare.
Gemalto N.V. on its US$890m acquisition of SafeNet, Inc. from Vector Capital.
The Gores Group on its acquisition of a majority stake in Mexx International from Liz Claiborne, including the formation of a joint venture between Gores and Liz Claiborne.
Honeywell International Inc. on its US$1.5bn acquisition of Intelligrated and its €425m acquisition of Transnorm.
IBM on the global separation and reorganization of Kyndryl Holdings, Inc. prior to the spin-off of Kyndryl.
Ingredion on its £185 million acquisition of LSE-listed PureCircle Ltd. and its joint venture with Amyris.
Mercedes Benz Group AG on its joint venture with MN8 Energy to develop, own, and operate a Mercedes-Benz branded network of 2,500+ electric vehicle chargers across the United States and Canada.
The co-founders and senior management of The Motley Fool, Inc. on a series of restructuring and recapitalization transactions.
PDS Tech, Inc. on its sale to AKKA Technologies.
SkyWater Technology on its approximately US$112.1m initial public offering and listing on the Nasdaq (SKYT).
Credentials
- J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1996
- A.B., Duke University, cum laude, 1992
- New York
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- Regional Manager for Washington, D.C., University of Virginia Law School Annual Giving, 2000-present
- Visiting Professor, L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris, France, 1992-93