Profile: Joseph Rinaldi

Mergers and Acquisitions

Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Mr Rinaldi is a member of Davis Polk & Wardwell's corporate department. He advises on public and private takeovers, private equity transactions, corporate governance and general securities, and corporate law. His practice encompasses both domestic and cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He frequently represents boards of directors of public companies and board committees. Mr Rinaldi has played a leading role in many highly complex and significant transactions, including both contested and uncontested transactions. In such transactions, he has represented both US clients (such as General Electric, Comcast, Qwest Communications and Delta Air Lines) and international clients (such as Banco Santander, Telecom Italia, Suez and Reed Elsevier). Among recent noteworthy transactions, Mr Rinaldi has represented Banco Santander in its contested investment in Sovereign Bancorp, Sanpaolo IMI on its €65 billion merger with Intesa and Suez in its announced merger with Gaz de France. Mr Rinaldi's practice also includes advising investment banks and private equity firms on a variety of securities and transactional matters.

Mr Rinaldi joined Davis Polk in 1984 and became a partner in 1990. He graduated from the University of Sydney, Australia, with first class honours in 1979, and in 1981 received his LLB, with first class honours, from the University of Sydney, where he was a member of the editorial committee of the Sydney Law Review. He received an LLM from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1984. He is admitted to practise in New York, as well as before the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia.

Mr Rinaldi is a frequent speaker and author on merger and acquisition and corporate governance issues. He is listed as a leading lawyer in the field of mergers and acquisitions in several legal industry publications, including Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business; Euromoney's IFLR1000: The Guide to the World's Leading Financial Law Firms; Practical Law Company's Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook and Legal Media Group's Expert Guide to the World's Leading M&A Lawyers.