James R. Whitney

Jim concentrates his practice on general corporate and securities matters. He has experience in a number of substantive areas, including corporate finance, public offerings and private placements, contract negotiations and mergers and acquisitions of both public and private companies.

Representative Clients

• First Industrial Realty Trust
• Mediware Information Systems
• Pacific Office Properties Trust
• US Bank

Representative Matters

• First Industrial Realty Trust Public Offerings
  

  Served as primary counsel to industrial NYSE-listed REIT with respect to public offerings utilizing diverse structures of a 12.5 million share of common stock ($65.6 million) firm commitment underwriting, a continuous “at-the-market” offering of up to 10 million shares of common stock, and direct stock sales of up to 5 million shares pursuant to a dividend reinvestment and direct stock purchase plan. The offerings utilized takedowns from a universal shelf registration statement and newly filed registration statement on which we previously represented the company.

• First Industrial Realty Trust Waterfall Debt Tender Offer
  

  Served as primary counsel to industrial NYSE-listed REIT for its cash tender offer for $160 million in aggregate principal amount of notes utilizing a "waterfall" structure to prioritize accepted tenders.

• Medgenics, Inc. Initial Public Offering
  

  Served as counsel to Medgenics, Inc., an Israeli clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, in its U.S. initial public offering of common stock on the NYSE Amex.

• The Shidler Group/Pacific Office Properties Trust Reverse Merger
  

  Represented The Shidler Group in connection with the formation of a new public west coast-focused office properties REIT in a "reverse merger" transaction involving the contribution of The Shidler Group's western U.S. office building portfolio to a newly created operating partnership subsidiary of Pacific Office Properties Trust and the assumption of indebtedness in excess of $750 million.

Professional Activities and Honors

• Member, Chicago Bar Association
• Associate Editor, Michigan Law Review