| Biography:
Jeff Horwitz is a Partner in our Corporate Department, where he co-heads Mergers & Acquisitions and our internationally recognized Lodging & Gaming Group. He has also served on our Executive Committee. He has been selected as one of “The Best Lawyers in America,” a “New York Super Lawyer,” and is listed in Lawdragon's “3000 Leading Lawyers in America,” “500 New Stars,” US Legal 500, PLC's Which Lawyer? and PLC's Cross Border Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook. He is a general corporate and securities lawyer with broad-based experience in mergers and acquisitions, international transactions, and corporate and real estate finance.
Jeff regularly counsels clients on the full range of their activities, from raising seed capital through to public offerings, acquisitions and operational matters. He regularly represents major financial institutions, such as J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley in sophisticated financial and other transactions. He also represents private equity funds and other investors in structuring, managing and disposing of investments. He has handled tender offers, "going-private" transactions, restructuring, securitization and structured finance transactions. He has worked in industries as diverse as biotechnology and aerospace, apparel and cable television, hedge funds and scrap metal. He represented Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in connection with its equity participation in the $33 billion acquisition of HCA.
Jeff has handled transactions in many areas of the world, including Europe, India, the People's Republic of China, the Pacific Rim from Korea to Australia, South Africa, and South America, and has substantial experience in transactions with Israeli, French, Swiss and Singaporean companies.
As co-head of Proskauer's nationally recognized Lodging & Gaming Practice Group, Jeff has handled virtually every type of matter involving the lodging and gaming industries, including casino and hotel development and construction, financing, management, marketing, reservations systems and ancillary services, acquisition and sale, and restructuring. For more than a decade, Jeff represented Meridien Hotels and Resorts in all their U.S. activities. He also regularly represents Accor, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Starwood Capital, and has worked on projects involving Caesar’s/Harrah’s, Cendant, Colony Capital, Club Med, Days Inns, Fairmont, Four Seasons, Garret Group, Hilton, Marriott, Raffles, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Swissôtel, Wyndham and many others, both in and outside the U.S. Jeff has many years of experience in real estate-related securities and partnership transactions. He has worked on single-property deals throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world, including many of the largest deals. He has substantial experience with global distribution systems and computer reservations systems, and participated in the early formation of Amadeus. His gaming experience covers both traditional casinos and projects on Indian tribal land. He is also outside general counsel to Hayground Cove Asset Management, the hedge fund group managed by former Bear Stearns gaming, lodging and leisure analyst Jason Ader, and its various investments, including the IPO in London for India Hospitality Corp. and its subsequent acquisition of flight catering, restaurant and hotel businesses in India.
Jeff also founded Proskauer's iPractice® Group, which focuses on start-up and development-stage companies, as well as established "traditional" businesses, in online, Internet-related or technology businesses. Jeff has handled organizational and structuring matters, venture capital and other equity placements, restructurings (from "down" rounds to recapitalizations to M&A solutions). He has both company-side and investor experience, and regularly represents venture capitalists, such as RRE Ventures, in making preferred stock investments. He has experience in virtually every type of online advertising, sponsorship, licensing, content distribution, co-branding, hosting, training, and other operational matter. Jeff handles complex software joint ventures and related transactions, such as the development and licensing of a proprietary operations management system for Weight Watchers franchisees.
Jeff is also one of the leaders of our entertainment practice, particularly in the live theatre business, where he represents, among others, The Broadway League (the national trade association for Broadway theatre), the Tony Awards®, and various other joint venture events, such as Broadway on Broadway® and Broadway under the Stars®, as well as producers. Jeff also has represented various interests in establishing multimillion-dollar licensing and sponsorship arrangements for such events as New Year's Eve in Times Square, and is regular outside counsel to the motion picture company Threshold Entertainment, and its cable and animation affiliates. He was counsel to Or Music, the independent record company that produced the Grammy®-award winning album by Los Lonely Boys. In the media industry, Jeff has advised on the acquisition and sale of television, radio, newspaper and magazine properties, and the acquisition and sale of advertising, promotion and marketing agencies, and joint ventures. Jeff also advises rights holders, including our long-time clients, The Leonard Bernstein Office and The Balanchine Trust.
Jeff has combined his work in a variety of these areas advising companies in the apparel business, where he has represented designers, manufacturers and many others in everything from M&A and bankruptcy turnarounds to licensing and sponsorship.
Jeff is a member of the New York City Bar Association, where he has chaired the Committee on Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism, and the American Bar Association, where he is a member of the Section of Business Law and the ABA Hospitality Committee. He regularly lectures on hotel management agreements at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, and has lectured on health care mergers and acquisitions for the Practising Law Institute, on hotel acquisitions at the NYU Hospitality Industry Investment Conference, on transactions in India at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong, and on mezzanine debt financing at various industry conferences. Jeff is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research and a part member of the Editorial Board of the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly. He is a director of The New York Hospitality Council, Inc., a not-for-profit forum for hospitality industry leaders. He also has served as a director of the America-Israel Chamber of Commerce and member of the FrenchAmerican Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. and the American Society of Corporate Secretaries. He is a director of The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, and is on the Executive Committee of the Lawyers' Division of UJA Federation and served as an officer of the Henry Kaufmann Foundation for more than a dozen years. In addition, he is Chairman of the Board of LAByrinth Theater Company and a member of the Board of Directors of StreetSquash. He was a Vice Chair of the Associates' Campaign for The Legal Aid Society.
Jeff graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was elected to The Order of the Coif. He has been with the Firm for his entire career and has seen its size nearly quadruple. He lives in Manhattan and Connecticut with his family and their dog.
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