Constance R. Barnhart is a Partner in the Business Law, International and Cross-Border Transactions, and Corporate practice groups of the firm and a member of the firm's Scandinavian/Nordic Practice Team. She practices in the area of international mergers and acquisitions, and commercial, securities and financial transactions. In more than 30 years of practice, she has handled, as lead attorney, many substantial international and domestic mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities offerings, venture capital investments, wind energy project financings, corporate reorganizations, distributorships, licensing and other commercial, financial, and intellectual property transactions for U.S. and international corporate clients.
She represents Scandinavian, Western European, Latin American, and U.S. corporate clients in both cross-border and U.S. transactions. She has represented clients and handled transactions in several industries, including computer software, information technology and security, media, telecommunications, e-commerce and internet infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, wind energy, manufacturing and product distribution, and financial services.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight in 1996, she practiced for 11 years in New York City with a major international law firm and in private practice, and previously with a large international law firm in Houston, Texas and London, England.
Ms. Barnhart is a member of, and has served in leadership positions in, several international, American and state bar associations, international chambers of commerce, and organizations pertaining to business and the arts, as reflected below.
She has lectured and written widely on topics that include legal issues in international commercial and trade transactions, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property law issues, cross-border business negotiation, and others. She has lectured at such forums as Wharton School of Business; NYU Stern School of Business; Banker’s Trust in New York; international business conferences sponsored by Direct International in New York City; the Annual ACE Conference on Entrepreneurship; the American Woman’s Economic Development Corporation; the National Association of Export Companies; American Bar Association, Forbes Magazine, Corporate Counsel and BDA Conferences; and Harvard Law School.
As a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota, Ms. Barnhart received several academic and extra-curricular honors. At the University of Minnesota Law School, she served on the Law Review, and graduated with Honors, in the top 10 percent of her class, and Order of the Coif.