Corporate Law

Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP has a rich history of assisting domestic and foreign clients in achieving both their day-to-day and long-term corporate strategic goals.  Satterlee’s team of seasoned corporate attorneys (averaging 20 years of corporate law experience) exercise their creative abilities in a wide spectrum of industries and general areas of corporate and securities law practice, punctuated with strengths in a variety of specialties such as banking, public finance, natural resources and energy, equipment leasing and investment fund law.  What makes Satterlee unique is that its depth of experience and quality of work is complemented by a commitment to keep legal fees to a minimum.  Because most corporate projects are tightly staffed, clients have an opportunity to work directly with the partner in charge.  We believe that this maximizes accuracy, efficiency and responsiveness, while minimizing the excess cost and duplicative efforts so prevalent at other law firms.

Satterlee's corporate expertise is comprehensive and many-faceted.  The foundation of our corporate practice is our long experience in advising on the formation and operation of corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and other entities created to carry on business.  In such work we have counseled on the choice of entity to be employed, its financing, its governance, the tax ramifications of its operation, and the regulatory framework within which such entity must operate.

Some key specialty areas of corporate law in which the firm practices are described below.

Mergers, Acquisitions & Reorganizations

The firm has assisted a large number of public and private corporations in planning for and executing strategic reorganization programs through a series of transactions which include corporate acquisitions (stock and asset), mergers (reverse, shadow and their permutations), reorganization through the recapitalization and reclassification of both debt and equity, corporate spin-offs and asset dispositions.  One of our oldest clients, a UK-based food and household products company with its North American headquarters in New Jersey, has recently completed a strategic redeployment which involved a recapitalization of its debt structure, the acquisition of approximately $2.5 billion in assets during the last six years, and the disposition of $550 million in assets, involving a total of some thirty separate transactions overall.  In this work, we participated in the planning, negotiation and execution of all of the respective transactions.

Securities

The firm’s securities practice runs the full gamut of matters involving United States Federal and state securities regulation.  We counsel issuers, broker-dealers, investment advisers, underwriters and investors in connection with securities offerings (both public and private), regulatory compliance and other matters involving the possible application of Federal and state securities laws.  We have also had extensive experience in planning, negotiating and executing foreign offerings by domestic issuers as well as counseling foreign issuers, investors and financial intermediaries in connection with their domestic offerings and investments in U.S. securities.  We also assist our corporate clients in connection with the preparation of their periodic and episodic reports and proxy statements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  The firm has a long history of representing issuers and broker-dealers in connection with compliance matters involving the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. and various state regulatory agencies, as well as various national and foreign securities exchanges.

Pooled Investment Funds

In connection with our general corporate and securities practice, the firm has developed a specialized practice representing sponsors, managers and advisors of domestic and offshore investment partnerships, investment companies, venture capital funds, hedge funds and arbitrage entities.  This representation often involves integrating several different disciplines in which tax and regulatory considerations play a major role.  Our tightly staffed approach to managing legal projects results in improved responsiveness and cost efficiency for our clients.

Equipment Leasing

Our corporate attorneys have experience in representing all parties to equipment leasing transactions and have structured and completed a number of complex financings.  We are experienced in leveraged-lease and tax-oriented, asset-based financings of assets.  In this regard, we represent lessors, lessees, lenders, partnerships and participants in portfolio asset sales, as well as lease brokers and investment bankers.

Natural Resources and Energy

The firm has over 30 years of experience in counseling various participants in the natural resources and energy industries, both domestically and internationally, ranging from public and private oil and gas exploration and production companies, coal producers, hard rock mining companies and co-generation power producers to investors and financial intermediaries.  We have also represented public and investor-owned utility companies in connection with bank financings and public and private debt and equity offerings.

Public Finance

Our public finance practice encompasses a wide range of tax-exempt as well as taxable municipal bond financings.  These projects have included innovative financing techniques such as interest rate and forward swaps, floating/inverse floating interest rates, imbedded derivatives and asset securitization.  

The firm led the development of tender option put bonds representing the issuers of tender options and underwriters as well as acting as special tax counsel in over $1 billion of financings.  We have also helped develop innovative ways of using existing laws to create other state-of-the-art financings.  The firm serves as counsel to municipal and non-profit issuers, underwriter’s counsel for leading national and regional investment banking firms, borrower’s counsel for corporations, non-profit institutions and universities, purchaser’s counsel for institutional investors, including a prominent insurance company, trustee’s counsel, counsel for domestic and foreign banks in letter of credit transactions and taxable certificate of participation programs, and counsel to rating agencies in their review of municipal bond issues.

Banking

The banking practice provides a full range of legal services for domestic and foreign borrowers, lenders and trustees in New York, New Jersey and other states, ranging from credit document preparation and review to all facets of Federal and state regulatory work.  Satterlee’s banking practice members are not only skilled in the areas of corporate finance law necessary to structure and execute complex transactions, they are also well versed in the specific nuances, customs and practices of the banking industry.  Among financial institutions worldwide, the firm’s banking practice enjoys a reputation for service and results.

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