Biography: Life Sciences

Pran Jha is a partner in the corporate practice group in Sidley's Chicago office. His principal areas of practice are mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance as well as general corporate counselling.

Mr Jha has extensive experience with life sciences companies having represented such companies (and underwriters for such companies), including Baxter International Inc, Cephalon, Inc and Smith & Nephew plc, in a variety of mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions and general corporate matters.

Mr Jha has extensive experience representing purchasers and sellers in a variety of merger and acquisition transactions, including cross-border transactions. Transactions in which he played a major role include Smith & Nephew plc's offer for Centerpulse Ltd; NTT Communications Corporation's purchase of Verio, Inc; Smith & Nephew plc's purchase of ORATEC Interventions, Inc; the purchase of CareerBuilder, Inc by Tribune Company and Knight Ridder, Inc; Owens Corning's purchase of Fibreboard, Inc; the sale of Chicago Dock & Capital Trust to Cityfront Center, LLC; the sale of Helene Curtis Industries, Inc to Unilever plc; and the sale of EMPHESYS Financial Group, Inc to Humana Inc. Mr Jha also has experience with spin-offs, having represented Marshall & Ilsley Corporation in its sponsored spin-off of Metavante Corporation. He has been involved in the structuring and formation of numerous joint ventures involving industries including life sciences, internet media and consumer products.

Mr Jha received his JD (cum laude) from The University of Michigan Law School in 1991, and his AB (with high distinction) from University of Michigan in 1988. He is admitted in Illinois. Mr Jha is a member of the American and Chicago Bar Associations and is also an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University School of Law.