Jeff Horwitz is a Partner in the Corporate Department, where he co-heads the Mergers & Acquisitions Group and is head of the internationally recognized Lodging & Gaming Group. He also has served on the firm's Executive Committee. Jeff 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 has regularly represented major financial institutions, such as Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds, in sophisticated financial and other transactions. For example, he represented Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in connection with its equity participation in the $33 billion acquisition of HCA in what was then the largest LBO ever. He also represents hedge, private equity and venture capital funds and other investors in structuring, managing and disposing of investments. He has handled tender offers, "going-private" transactions, IPOs, restructuring and structured finance transactions. Many of the matters Jeff handles are first-of-their-kind, including the de-SPACing of a blank-check company and conversion to a perpetual enterprise for the acquisition of banks.
As head of the Lodging & Gaming Group, Jeff has handled virtually every type of matter, and has worked with virtually every major player, in the industry. His experience, both in and outside the U.S., extends to hotel and casino development and construction; acquisitions, sales and restructurings; financings; management; marketing; reservations systems; litigation counseling and strategic planning; and ancillary services. This breadth of work is key to executing complex and sophisticated transactions such as the acquisitions of flight catering, restaurant and hotel businesses in India for a Cayman Islands company traded on AIM, the sale-and-management-back arrangements for the Sofitel chain in the U.S., the acquisition and later sale of the Red Roof Inns chain and many of the largest luxury hotel transactions in the world.
As a senior member of the Entertainment Group, Jeff represents 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. 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. He also advises rights holders, including our long-time clients The Leonard Bernstein Office and The Balanchine Trust.
Jeff also frequently represents start-up and development-stage companies, as well as established "traditional" businesses, in online, Internet-related or technology businesses. He 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.
Jeff’s experience reaches industries as diverse as biotechnology and aerospace, retail and cable television, and education and scrap metal. He regularly handles transactions in many areas of the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and India.
As a frequent lecturer in the hospitality industry, Jeff regularly speaks about hotel management agreements at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and at lodging investment conferences around the world, including the NYU Hospitality Industry Investment Conference in New York, Americas Lodging Investment Summit in San Diego, the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin and the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong.
Jeff is a member of the Advisory Board of the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research and has served as a 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 as a member of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. and the American Society of Corporate Secretaries. He has been a director of The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan for more than 15 years, a member of the Executive Committee of the Lawyers' Division of UJA-Federation for more than five years and was 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 also was a Vice Chair of the Associates' Campaign for The Legal Aid Society.
Jeff has been with the firm for his entire career and lives in Manhattan and Connecticut with his family and their dog.