Jones Day Hires Three Top M&A Attorneys

09/05/14

Jones Day Hires Three Top M&A Attorneys


Summary: Jones Day hires three top M&A attorneys, each having experience in handling billion dollar cross-border deals. All three worked in leadership roles for General Electric at some point of their careers.

Global law firm Jones Day has announced the hiring of three leading M&A attorneys to join the law firm in its New York and London offices. The three new partners are Michael McGuinness, George Flemma and Benedict O'Halloran. All three have handled numerous billion dollar deals and have backgrounds of working at General Electric. Flemma and O'Halloran are joining directly leaving GE, while McGuinness left GE in 2009 to return to private practice.

Speaking on the three new M&A partners, Jones Day's global M&A practice head Bob Profusek, said, "These three lawyers are terrific additions to our M&A Practice, each a first-rate practitioner, with substantial cross-border experience, and in very active sectors." Profusek added, "Their experience at GE will help us to continue to drive innovation in client service …."

Most recently, Flemma was the Executive Counsel - Mergers & Acquisitions, supervising the worldwide transaction activity of GE Oil & Gas. He previously worked in the role of Transactions and Finance Counsel at GE Corporate, where he led all aspects of domestic and cross-border M&A transactions for GE. Before joining GE, Flemma was Senior Counsel - Global Mergers & Acquisitions at Citigroup. In the early years of his career he worked as a senior associate in the M&A practice group of Shearman & Sterling.

O'Halloran was the General Counsel - European Transactions & United Kingdom for GE and also served as GE's U.K. General Counsel. He will be joining the London office of Jones Day. He led the European M&A activities of GE. He has led many high-profile cross-border and domestic transactions across Europe for GE. He has worked on projects in almost every European country and also in U.S., Africa and the Middle-East. O'Halloran has also led company-wide efficiency projects to drive quality and innovation for the GE legal team.

McGuinness was the leader of the Latin America & M&A practice of Shearman & Sterling and was an elected member of the governing body of that firm. McGuinness is a fluent speaker in Spanish and is of Mexican descent. His Latin American practice includes M&A transactions across countries like Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Brazil. McGuiness maintains an active cross-border presence and he recently represented GE in its $4.3 billion acquisition of the aviation business of Avia S.p.A. He also handled the $3.6 billion acquisition of ING's Latin American pensions, life insurance and investment options by GrupoSura.

McGuinnes has been recognized as a "Legal Star" by the Latin Business Chronicle and is ranked as a "Leading Individual" for Latin American Corporate and M&A by The Legal 500 and Chambers Latin America. In 2012, The American Lawyer recognized him as a "Dealmaker of the Year."

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This news originally appeared on BCGsearch.com: Jones Day Hires Three Top M&A Attorneys