James L. Palenchar

Jim Palenchar has over 40 years' experience as a lawyer in complex corporate transactions. During his career, Jim has handled mergers and acquisitions for strategic and financial buyers and sellers in a variety of industries, pursuit and defense of hostile takeovers, financings, joint ventures, proxy contests, other corporate governance disputes, SEC disclosure questions, and litigation settlements. He is a seasoned board room and management counselor valued for his practical sense of how best to achieve his client's objectives with a minimum of friction. 

Jim has led the Bartlit Beck corporate team since the Firm's founding and is perennially recognized in leading legal industry publications–including, most recently, as Best Lawyers® 2017 Denver Mergers and Acquisitions Law "Lawyer of the Year." Jim's industry experience includes natural resources (coal, timber, potash and oil & gas midstream), industrial services, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications.

Clients interviewed by Chambers & Partners' USA Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business note that Jim is "incredibly seasoned and experienced" and a "go-to guy" for high-level and complex corporate work. Chambers notes that, in addition to having strong technical expertise, clients value Jim for his "down-to-earth" and "practical" approach to transactions.

Notable Experience

Alpha Natural Resources

• Formation of coal mining business as a First Reserve Corporation portfolio company.
• Subsequent roll ups by Alpha of Pittston's and El Paso's coal operations, several Northern and Central Appalachian acquisitions, and various financings.
• Led Alpha's initial public offering ($645 million), and provided corporate governance and SEC advice.

Trico Marine Services

• Led offshore oilfield services company's acquisition of DeepOcean ASA, a Norwegian provider of subsea services to the energy industry ($810 million), and related financing transactions.
• Successful defense of proxy contests waged by Kistefos AS and New Castle Partners, LP.
• Provided corporate governance and SEC advice.

Aquilex Corporation  

• Formation of industrial services roll-up as a First Reserve Corporation portfolio company.
• Handled debt and equity financing, add-on acquisitions, and eventual sale to Harvest Partners.

E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.

• Acquisition of Merck & Co., Inc.'s 50% interest in the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company.
• Strategic alliance with Barr Laboratories.

NaPro BioTherapeutics

• Strategic alliance for development of paclitaxel formulations with Abbott Laboratories, including equity investment, development funding, and product development and sales milestones ($68 million).
• Sale of worldwide generic injectable paclitaxel business to Mayne Group Limited ($71 million).
• Provided corporate governance and SEC advice.

Foundation Coal Corporation

• Formation as a First Reserve Corporation/Blackstone Capital Partners portfolio company through the acquisition of coal operations in four states from RAG Coal International AG ($1 billion).

ScissorTail Energy, LLC

• Sale of Oklahoma-based natural gas midstream operator to Copano Energy, LLC ($500 million).

Johnson Controls Inc.

• Acquisition of Saft Groupe S.A.'s 49% interest in the Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions LLC ($145 million).

Tejas Gas Corporation

• Sale to Shell Oil Company and related post-closing management arrangements ($1.45 billion).

Platte River Ventures I, L.P.

• Counsel to 20% stockholder in pre-IPO restructuring and subsequent IPO of Intrepid Potash, Inc. ($1.1 billion).

General Motors Corporation

• Corporate governance advice in connection with activism by Kirk Kerkorian.

Federal Signal Corporation

• Successful defense of proxy contest initiated by Warren B. Kanders.

Colorado MEDTech, Inc.

• Successful defense of hostile takeover attempt by HEI, Inc.

Harold C. Simmons Family Trust

• Settlement of fiduciary litigation, including trust partitioning (corpus value $1 billion).

Community Health Systems

• Represent management in leveraged buyout by Forstmann Little & Co. ($1.3 billion).

EchoStar Communications Corporation

• Acquisition of the U.S. direct broadcast satellite business of The News Corporation Limited and MCI WorldCom, Inc. ($1.5 billion).