Ropes & Gray - Prominent Cases

Prominent Cases

The firm's lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, representing Harris Associates, in a seminal case for the mutual funds industry. In March 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Harris Associates, which definitively established the standard governing claims of excessive mutual fund fees under § 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Ropes & Gray lawyers have advised on notable M&A transactions, including:

• The acquisition by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee and Bain Capital of Clear Channel Communications, for $26 billion;
• Bain Capital's and The Blackstone Group's acquisition of The Weather Channel, in a multi-billion dollar deal;
• The sale of the Warner Music Group to Access Industries by private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee, for $3.3 billion;
• Genzyme's acquisition by Sanofi-Aventis, for $20.1 billion;
• TPG Capital's acquisition of J.Crew, for $3 billion;
• A private equity group's acquisition of Dunkin' Donuts, for $2.4 billion;
• The Bare Escentuals merger with Shiseido of Japan, a $1.7 billion deal;
• Bain Capital's acquisition of MYOB, Australia's largest financial software developer.

In 2009, Ropes & Gray advised on three of the largest leveraged acquisitions of the year, on three continents. The firm advised long-term client Bain Capital on its acquisition of Bellsystem24 in the largest buyout by a foreign private equity firm in Japan in nearly two years. It also represented TPG Capital and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board in their $5.2 billion acquisition of IMS Health Inc., a leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. And the firm worked on Liberty Global Inc.'s 2.6 billion Euro high yield offering to finance the acquisition of Unity Media, a German-based provider of broadband Internet, telephone, and digital TV.

The firm also represented Genzyme Corporation on a transaction that was recognized as a "Deal of Distinction" by the Licensing Executives Society in September 2010. Ropes & Gray advised Genzyme Corporation on a complex $2.9 billion deal with Bayer Schering Pharma AG that expanded Genzyme’s oncology portfolio by giving the company rights to marketed cancer drugs and control of a program in multiple sclerosis.