James R. Brown
Partner
Overview
James R. Brown is a corporate attorney in Holland & Knight's Houston office. Mr. Brown focuses his practice on a variety of matters related to corporate finance and securities law.
Mr. Brown is experienced in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) offerings and securities law. He regularly counsels public companies on strategic transactions, capital markets offerings and general corporate and securities law matters.
Mr. Brown's capital markets experience includes the representation of issuers and underwriters in U.S. and international capital markets transactions, including initial public offerings (IPOs) and SPAC IPOs, as well as public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. He regularly advises public companies and boards of directors on governance and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compliance and disclosure matters.
In addition, Mr. Brown works with private equity investors, their portfolio companies and a variety of other public and private companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and strategic investments.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Brown was an attorney for an international law firm in its Houston office.
While in law school, Mr. Brown was a managing editor for the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal.
Representative Experience
- Representing a vertically integrated technology company creating energy storage and charging solutions as it announced a $5 million initial public offering (IPO)
- Represented a vertically integrated startup electric vehicle (EV) technology ecosystem company as it announced pricing of a follow-on public offering
- Represented a vertically integrated startup EV technology ecosystem company as it closed an initial $10 million tranche of a $30 million private placement
- Represented a vertically integrated startup EV technology ecosystem company in connection with its application to list on the Nasdaq Exchange
- Represented the underwriter in connection with a newly organized blank check company in the closing of its IPO
- Represented a financial broker, as the joint book-running managers, in connection with a blank check company's $75 million IPO
- Represented a purchaser and operator of top marine retail dealerships in its $64 million initial public offering (IPO) of Class A common stock
- Represented a provider of innovative, efficient, end-to-end water management solutions for energy producers in its $121 million IPO of Class A common stock
- Represented an independent oil and natural gas company in its $448 million IPO of common stock
- Represented an oilfield services firm in its $216 million IPO of common stock
- Represented a premiere petroleum distributor in its $234 million IPO of common stock
- Represented an oilfield services company in its $322 million private placement of Class A-1 common stock
- Represented an American downstream energy limited partnership in its $75 million offering of senior notes
- Represented a generator, transmitter and distributor of electricity in its $1.25 billion offering of notes
- Represented a nationwide custom home builder in its $200 million offering of senior notes
- Represented an owner, operator, developer and acquirer of pipelines and other midstream assets in its $765 million initial public offering (IPO) of common units
- Represented a provider of compression services and equipment for natural gas and oil production, gathering, transportation, processing and storage in its $413 million public offering of common units
- Represented the underwriters to a third-party provider of mission-critical compression services in its $198 million IPO of common units
- Represented a producer, treater and transporter of oil and natural gas in its $176 million public offering of common units
- Represented the underwriters to a leading producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in its $720 million IPO of common units
- Represented the underwriters to an owner, operator, acquirer and developer of midstream assets in its $621 million IPO of common units
- Represented an American downstream energy partnership in its $262 million IPO of common units
- Representing an Asia-Pacific-focused publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in connection with the announced business combination agreement with an Indonesia-based financial technology (FinTech) company
- Representing a preclinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on cancer therapeutics in its announced business combination with a SPAC
- Represented a publicly traded SPAC in the closing of its merger with a certified B-Corporation and innovative software platform that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide
- Representing a financial services firm in its combination with a SPAC
- Represented a provider of innovative, efficient, end-to-end water management solutions for energy producers in its $1.3 billion merger with a chemical and environmental solutions provider
- Represented a leading private markets asset management firm in the $9.5 billion formation of one of the largest independent power producers in the United States, through a Reverse Morris Trust spinoff of an energy company's merchant power generation business and the concurrent combination thereof with the firm’s merchant power generation business and associated debt financings
- Represented an independent energy company in the $800 million sale of the company in an all-stock transaction to a wholly owned subsidiary of a large oil and natural gas company
- Represented a manufacturer and provider of nitrogen fertilizer products in the $533 million to create a leading North American nitrogen fertilizer producer
Credentials
- University of Houston Law Center, J.D., cum laude
- The University of Texas at Austin, B.A., History
- Texas
- Houston Bar Association
- Houston Young Lawyers Association
