Dealmaker of the Year—S. Ward Atterbury
April 2009, American Lawyer

S. Ward Atterbury of global law firm White & Case LLP was recognized by The American Lawyer magazine as one of its 2008 "Dealmakers of the Year." A partner in the Firm's M&A Practice in New York, Atterbury was noted for his representation of Visa, Inc., in its $17.9 billion initial public offering, the largest in US history.

In its profile of Atterbury that appeared in the magazine's April 2009 issue, The American Lawyer noted that the Visa IPO was "no cookie-cutter offering." Before Visa could conduct the offering, reports the magazine, it had to undergo a change in ownership structure – "from a membership organization owned by regional financial institutions to a single entity" – a yearlong process involving 120 White & Case lawyers in 20 countries.

As further explained in the profile, the restructuring also entailed splitting the "organization's equity among all the institutions that owned a piece of the company" and creating a "retroactive responsibility plan to cover Visa USA, Inc.'s preexisting litigation exposure. (Visa Europe Ltd. was not included in the IPO.)"

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