Biography: Corporate Tax

Sharp Sorensen, a partner in Sidley's Chicago office, is a coordinator of the firm's national tax practice and heads the firm's tax practice in Chicago. Mr Sorensen concentrates in federal tax matters, and focuses on representing domestic and foreign entities involved in a wide variety of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and other divisive transactions, securitisations and other asset-based financings, partnerships and joint ventures, foreign and domestic securities offerings, leveraged leasing and regulated investment companies.

Mr Sorensen was the lead outside tax counsel to First Data Corporation in its highly structured $17 billion spin-off of The Western Union Company, and in First Data's earlier acquisitions of Concord EFS, Inc and First Financial Management Corporation, and he recently advised eBay Inc in its sale of Skype Luxembourg Holdings Sarl. Mr Sorensen was also the lead outside tax counsel to Wallace Computer Services, Inc in its leveraged cross-border acquisition by Moore Corporation Limited and in turn to RR Donnelley in its cross-border acquisition of Moore Wallace, to Exelon in its acquisition of PSEG (terminated), to Tellabs, Inc in its acquisition of Advance Fibre Communications, to Saks Incorporated in its $1.1 billion sale of the Northern Department Store Group, and to Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company in its sale of Antares Capital Corporation. He recently advised AIG in the sale of its personal auto insurance business to Zurich Financial Services Group, Discover Financial Services in connection with its spin-off from Morgan Stanley, Canadian Pacific Railway Company in connection with its acquisition of Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corporation, and First Data, CDW, and ServiceMaster in their acquisitions by private equity funds. He has represented numerous clients, both corporate and non-corporate, in non-public acquisitions and divestitures using a variety of structures, including mergers, taxable and nontaxable transactions, spin-offs, and joint ventures.

Mr Sorensen graduated from the Northwestern University School of Law (JD, with honours, Order of the Coif) in 1985, where he was the managing editor of the Northwestern University Law Review. He graduated from the University of Utah (BS, Accounting, magna cum laude) in 1982. He is admitted in Illinois.