Edward F. Cox
Of Counsel

 Video: Venture Capital Mergers and Acquisitions: Strategies and Analysis

212-336-2030 | 212-336-2032 fax |
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Edward Cox has experience in a broad range of public and private transactions.  He represents companies, special committees and their advisors in financings, acquisitions and investments.  He has represented a wide variety of industries including software, energy, finance, insurance and biotech and foreign companies in their U.S. acquisitions and operations.   He has been named in the most recent list of Super Lawyers in the area of Securities and Corporate Finance practice.

Mr. Cox also has a distinguished history of international and domestic public service.  He has served three Presidents, including Presidents Nixon and George H.W. Bush in the international arena and President Reagan as general counsel to a major energy agency financing synthetic fuels projects.  In New York government, he has acted in volunteer capacities responsible for the merit selection of judges for New York’s highest court, for the budget of the State parks, for the authorization of charter schools, for the state’s community colleges, and for the State University’s $10 billion budget, the reengineering of its operations and the construction and maintenance of its academic and medical facilities.  Since his service in the energy area in the Reagan administration, Mr. Cox has also been deeply involved in energy and environmental issues as a director of a New York Stock Exchange independent oil and gas company and as the Chair of the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund.  Mr. Cox has also been a member of the American College of Investment Counsel for more than 20 years.

Mr. Cox has served as the Chairman of Patterson Belknap’s Corporate Department and as a member of its Management Committee.

Representative Matters

Finance and General Corporate
Mr. Cox’s experience includes public equity and debt financings representing both underwriters and issuers; private debt, including industrial revenue bonds placed with commercial banks, insurance companies and pension funds, including secured, convertible and subordinated debt, representing in most cases the borrower; equipment lease financings; SEC filings; and general corporate and governmental relations advice.

International
Mr. Cox has counseled foreign companies in their U.S. activities and U.S. clients with foreign subsidiaries or projects, including in 1988 the first significant acquisition of U.S. assets (a steel mill) by a Chinese Corporation (CITIC) and more recently representing a $1.4 billion fund for major U.S. institutional investors to invest primarily in East Asia projects including commercial and residential properties in China.

Project Finance
Mr. Cox has represented mineral, steel, utility, chemical, paper, commercial bank and insurance companies in the organization and financing of mineral and energy projects, including international project financings and representing companies in the formation and financing of international joint ventures and in negotiations with local government entities, mining companies, engineering firms, The World Bank, the Eximbank and the managers of bank syndicates.

Private Equity / ”Going Private” Transactions
Mr. Cox has advised clients in “going private” transactions since the 1970s.  Most recently, he advised the special committee of a publicly-owned leading provider of behavioral health software in a precedent-setting buyout transaction.  He has also represented venture capital companies and funds, including formation, financing and ongoing advice, for more than 30 years.

Development Stage Companies
Mr. Cox advises in the formation and structuring of corporate and partnership entities; private placements of equity to institutions and individuals; employee arrangements including equity incentive programs; dispute resolution advice; intellectual property protection and arrangements, including licensing agreements; industry partnerships, including product development, marketing and equity arrangements; public equity financings, including initial public offerings; private and public merger and acquisition transactions; and litigation counseling, including class action matters.

Union Matters
Mr. Cox has represented a major police union in all its matters, a union pension fund in its investments and a union health and welfare fund.

Charitable Foundations
Mr. Cox has represented foundations with dispute resolution matters and financings, with the financing of research projects and with advice with respect to major grants.

Dispute Resolution
Mr. Cox has advised clients in investigation and litigation matters, including a landmark private equity case, the representation of an underwriting syndicate charged with fraud in the issuance of utility bonds, the settlement of a dispute between two major oil companies and the representation of an engineering company in connection with a failed solar project.

Bankruptcy Matters
Mr. Cox has advised clients in insolvency issues, including the representation of a defrauded secured creditor in U.K. receivership/U.S. bankruptcy proceedings and the representation of a debtor-in-possession in a refinancing.