- Chairman: Mark S Stewart
- Number of partners: 236
- Number of lawyers: 523
Firm Overview:
Ballard Spahr is a national firm with 13 offices throughout the United States. Lawyers provide counseling and advocacy in more than 40 practice areas. The firm’s mission is straightforward: to provide nothing less than excellence in every legal representation. Ballard lawyers help clients achieve success as they define it, respecting and anticipating their needs, taking action to keep them informed, and devising forward-thinking solutions to get the best results.
Main Areas of Practice:
Business & Finance:
The Business and Finance Department’s scope is regional, national, and international. Industry focus includes financial institutions, life science companies, energy, and health care. In the M&A/private equity area, lawyers structure, negotiate, and close transactions for buyers, sellers, and related parties, including venture capital firms. Securities lawyers advise clients through development and capital-raising activities and on compliance with public reporting and proxy obligations and ongoing SEC disclosure obligations. Consumer financial services lawyers advise on regulatory matters, assist in the design and documentation of credit products, and represent clients in class actions, regulatory enforcement proceedings, and other lawsuits nationwide. Employee benefits and executive compensation lawyers help clients design and implement benefits packages that comply with today’s complex regulatory requirements. Transactional finance lawyers represent banks, insurance companies, commercial finance companies, and other institutions involved in the lending and borrowing of capital. Energy and project finance lawyers work on the development, acquisition, and financing of energy assets and regulatory compliance. They represent producers and distributors of electricity from renewable and other sources, operators of regional wholesale energy markets, and natural gas producers.
Intellectual Property:
Lawyers work nationally and internationally to develop, secure, police, and defend intellectual property. Many attorneys hold PhDs or other advanced degrees. Lawyers provide the spectrum of IP representation, including transactional copyright and trademark work, patent counseling and procurement, licensing, branding services, and litigation. They counsel on unfair competition, trade secret, and trade dress matters. Lawyers offer strategic due diligence guidance during mergers and acquisitions and portfolio restructuring, and work with early-stage growth companies and entrepreneurs in commercializing their IP assets.
Litigation:
Litigation is the firm’s largest department, with more than 200 lawyers. Attorneys handle complex litigation, ranging from securities class actions and contractual disputes to federal and state appeals, for a wide range of regional, national, and international clients. A dedicated group handles e-discovery and data management issues. Labor and employment lawyers counsel and defend against discrimination, harassment, and retaliation claims, FMLA,whistle-blowing, ERISA, and noncompetition agreements. Lawyers have significant experience in class and collective actions. Antitrust lawyers handle civil and criminal cases, including major class actions, and investigations by federal and state agencies. Preventive counseling guides clients in product pricing, distribution arrangements and trade association activities. White-collar lawyers conduct internal investigations and handle actual or threatened government enforcement, and False Claims Act and other civil fraud litigation and administrative proceedings. Environmental lawyers represent clients in investigations and litigation, and advise on national and regional compliance, permitting, rulemaking, development, business planning, and contamination matters.
Public Finance:
One of the premier public finance practices in the nation, the department’s clients include state and local governments and authorities throughout the country, as well as underwriters, borrowers, investors, financial institutions, nonprofit organizations, and trustees. Lawyers regularly act as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriter’s counsel, issuer’s counsel, special tax counsel, borrower’s counsel, lender and credit enhancer’s counsel, and trustee’s counsel. They also advise clients on defaults, restructurings, tax audits, and securities investigations, as well as arbitrage rebate and post-issuance compliance. Experience includes municipal, tax, securities, transportation, real estate, affordable housing, environmental, public utilities, energy, health care, education, banking, administrative, and corporate.
Real Estate:
The Real Estate Department, one of the most prominent in the nation, serves a diversified client base. Representations include acquisitions and equity participations; securitized and balance-sheet loans; construction and design contracts; complex mixed-use development and research parks; public/private ventures; office and headquarters leasing; housing development and finance; industrial, warehouse, and distribution facilities; condominium and planned community development; hotel, resort, and fractional interests; and workouts, restructurings, and foreclosures. Clients include private sector owners, lenders, investors, and developers; hospitals and universities; and government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.
International Experience:
Lawyers have assisted companies in matters involving market entry strategies; international product distribution; foreign technology transfers; mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures; export and import regulations; energy and project finance; franchising; international arbitration; resort and hotel; and litigation.