MICHAEL T. WOLF, Partner Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 840-7271 Fax: (312) 840-7371 Email: mwolf@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Michael T. Wolf is a partner in the Corporate Department of Jenner & Block’s Chicago office.  He is a member of the Firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity/Investment Management and Securities Practices.  Mr. Wolf is Co-Chair of each of the Firm's Hiring, Hiring Executive and Lateral Partner Hiring Committees.  In addition, he serves on the Firm’s committees for Associate Development and Evaluation, Marketing and Business Development, and Opinion Letters. 

While Mr. Wolf has a strong and diverse set of experiences in mergers & acquisitions, securities and general corporate counseling, each of which are described more fully below, he believes the strength of his practice is centered around excellent client service, great practical advice and a decent sense of humor.

He has represented financial and strategic buyers and sellers in connection with a wide variety of transaction structures across a broad array of industries.  By way of example, his recent experience includes:

• The representation of General Motors Corporation in connection with its 2009 sale of substantially all of its assets to a new entity sponsored by the U.S. Treasury as part of a sale process under Section 363 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
  
  
• The representation of KPS Capital Partners, LP and its portfolio company, Hephaestus Holdings, Inc., in connection with its 2009 acquisition of substantially all the assets of FormTech Industries, LLC through an auction conducted as part of a sale process under Section 363 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
  
  
• The representation of Sterling Capital Partners and its portfolio company, Educate, Inc., in connection with its 2008 divestiture of Catapult Learning, LLC.
  
  
• The representation of Sam Zell and Equity Group Investments, L.L.C. in the 2007 going-private transaction involving the Tribune Company.

In addition, over the course of his career, Mr. Wolf has represented strategic buyers and sellers such as General Dynamics Corporation, Material Services Corporation, Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. and Wolters Kluwer (Amsterdam), and financial sponsors such as Audax Group, Banc of America Equity Partners, CIBC World Markets Corp., Convergent Capital Management, LLC, GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, and Madison Dearborn Capital Partners, in a variety of other transactions, including transactions in the aerospace/defense, airline, consulting, consumer products, financial services, laboratory services, medical equipment, manufacturing, software, steel and telecommunications industries.

His securities practice is concentrated on securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions and securities compliance matters.  By way of example, his recent experience includes:

• The representation of General Dynamics Corporation in connection with its 2009 $750 million public offering of Notes due 2011.
  
  
• The representation of the Chicago Board of Trade in connection with its 2005 demutualization (conversion from nonstock to stock corporation) and approximately $200 million IPO.

Mr. Wolf has represented a variety of issuers over the course of his career such as Brown Jordan International, Clarus Therapeutics, Inc., General Motors Corporation, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, Navistar Financial Corporation, Navistar International Corporation and Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., in connection with initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, general securities compliance, private and public debt offerings, private investments in public entities (PIPEs) and tender and exchange offers.

Mr. Wolf has served as principal outside corporate counsel to a number of different companies, including the Chicago Board of Trade and Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., as well as a variety of smaller privately-held businesses, and routinely advises clients on corporate governance and other related matters.

Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Wolf served in various capacities for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. and The First National Bank of Chicago while working to complete his M.B.A, and later, his J.D. in the evenings.  After seven years of full time employment and evening classes, Mr. Wolf’s wife forbade him from pursuing any additional degrees and encouraged him to limit himself to full time employment.  Accordingly, Mr. Wolf accepted the invitation of a former co-worker at Merrill Lynch to serve as capital markets counsel for EVEREN Securities, Inc. in Chicago, where he provided advice and counsel on matters related to its investment banking, trading and research businesses. Upon the sale of EVEREN Securities to First Union Corporation in 1999, Mr. Wolf joined Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in Chicago as an associate in its corporate practice, concentrating on mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and general corporate matters.  At the invitation of two former senior partners of Kirkland & Ellis, Mr. Wolf joined Jenner & Block in 2003 to engage his more entrepreneurial impulses and help build Jenner & Block’s growing corporate practice.

Mr. Wolf graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1998.  He received his M.B.A. with a concentration in finance from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in 1994.  He earned his B.A. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990. 

Mr. Wolf is admitted to practice in Illinois.

Personal:

When he isn’t busy with his law practice and raising his two sons and a daughter with his wife, Christine, whom he has known since college, Mr. Wolf can be found pouring his time, effort and discretionary income into a 33 year-old sailboat that he sails and races with friends, family, co-workers and clients on Lake Michigan.