Larry A. Barden

From 2008–2021, Larry was recognized by Chambers USA as one of the leading Corporate/M&A lawyers in the United States. Additionally, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America from 2007–2019 in Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions Law. He also has been recognized by The Legal 500 US as a leading lawyer in the United States in the area of Capital Markets: Equity Offerings, Capital Markets: Debt Offerings and M&A: large deals. In 2009 and 2012, he was named a “Client Service All-Star” by BTI Consulting Group based on a survey of corporate counsel from more than 250 Fortune 1000 companies.

In the mergers and acquisitions area, Larry represents both buyers and sellers of public and private corporations and counsels boards of directors and financial advisors on acquisition, takeover defense, corporate and financial restructuring and corporate governance-related matters. He also has substantial experience with private equity/venture capital investments, joint ventures, partnerships and limited liability companies. In recent years, he has been counsel to one of the parties in the following public company mergers: Fortive/Landauer; XPO Logistics/Con-way; Tribune/ESOP-Zell; Tribune/Times-Mirror Company; FLIR Systems/ICx Technologies; Bell Sports/Charlesbank Partners-Brentwood Associates LBO; Owens Corning/Fibreboard; IMC Global/Cargill Fertilizer; IMC Global/Freeport-McMoRan; IMC Global-Vigoro; Unilever/Helene Curtis; IBP/Foodbrands; Trustmark Insurance/Health Fitness Corporation; Utilicorp/St. Joseph Light & Power; Eagle Point Software/JB Acquisitions LBO; and Chicago Dock & Canal Trust/CityFront. Larry has handled hundreds of private company acquisitions and divestitures in a variety of industries. He also has significant experience in restructurings and corporate reorganizations, including having handled the corporate law aspects of the restructurings of Tribune Company, R.H. Donnelley Corporation, Owens Corning and Federal-Mogul Corporation. 

Larry regularly represents issuers, underwriters and investors in a variety of public and private offerings of common stock, preferred stock, convertible securities or debt securities and has extensive experience in initial public offerings. Certain initial public offerings in which he has represented the issuer or underwriters include offerings by American Public Education, Navteq, Inc., Heritage Crystal Clean, Zengine, Inc., Eagle Point Software, Inforte, Inc., Quotesmith.com, Second Swing, Inc., Cosi, Inc. and Prism Financial Corporation. In recent years, he has represented issuers and financial institutions in a number of high-yield debt offerings and debt/equity exchanges.