Biography: Mergers and Acquisitions

Paul L Choi is a partner in Sidley's Chicago office where he practises in the firm's corporate group. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance transactions and corporate governance matters.

In the mergers and acquisitions area, he focuses on public and private mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, spin-offs and joint ventures. His practice also includes counselling clients on takeover defence and proxy contests. In recent years, Mr Choi has advised on a broad range of mergers and acquisitions transactions, from small private transactions to public multibillion-dollar mergers. He advised First Data Corporation on its $29 billion acquisition by an investor group controlled by KKR and previously represented First Data on its $14 billion spin-off of the Western Union Company. Mr Choi advised Discover Financial Services in its $15.8 billion spin-off from Morgan Stanley. He represented West Corporation in its $4.1 billion recapitalisation sponsored by Thomas H Lee Partners, LP and Quadrangle Group LLC. He also advised Andersen Worldwide, SC, the Swiss coordinating body for the independent Andersen professional firms, on its global corporate matters. Most recently, he assisted eBay Inc in its $2 billion sale of Skype Technologies. He is currently representing Discover Financial Services in its pending $600 million acquisition of The Student Loan Corporation.

Mr Choi served as a law clerk to the Honorable Laurence H Silberman on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit from 1989-1990. He received his JD (magna cum laude, Sears Prize, editor of the Harvard Law Review) from Harvard Law School in 1989 and his AB (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Harvard University in 1986.