Smith Anderson Counseled on $40B in Deals and $1B in Legal Controversies in 2023

Smith Anderson advised on more than 240 completed national and international business transactions in 2023, totaling over $40 billion in value, including First Citizen’s acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank. Our award-winning litigation team, honored as the North Carolina Firm of the Year for the fifth consecutive year by Benchmark Litigation®, skillfully handled hundreds of disputes, collectively exceeding $1 billion in controversy.

The firm’s 2023 transaction highlights include:

• Represented First Citizens in its acquisition of more than $100 billion in assets, $70 billion in loans and $50 billion in deposits of Silicon Valley Bank and in loan arrangements with the FDIC of up to $105 billion. This landmark transaction was one of the most significant transactions in the country last year.
• Advised on more than 130 Sponsor, Mezzanine, Venture and other Debt Finance transactions totaling over $2 billion in value.
• Represented dozens of clients with Real Estate Development and Construction transactions totaling over $4 billion in value.
• Advised on more than 40 Mergers & Acquisitions, including representing Curi Holdings, Inc. in its merger with Constellation, Inc., combining two of the nation’s leading providers of medical professional liability insurance with over $2 billion in consolidated assets in the first-ever merger by a N.C.-domiciled mutual insurance holding company.
• Advised dozens of AgTech & FoodTech companies globally in collaboration, licensing and other transactions to develop sustainable innovations for improving the world’s food supply, including Pairwise’s collaboration with Bayer to develop gene-edited short-stature corn for future use in Bayer’s Preceon™ Smart Corn System.
• Advised clients in more than 40 Start-Up and Growth Company Financings, including software development company Teamworks in its sale of $65,000,000 of Series E Preferred Stock.

Businesses entrusted Smith Anderson’s trial-tested attorneys to represent them in complex areas of litigation, including large multi-party, multi-jurisdiction litigation and complex matters in state and federal court. We advise and litigate matters involving intellectual property disputes, commercial contracts, shareholder actions and employment disputes, and represent real estate and construction companies and corporate policyholders in insurance-related disputes, major manufacturers in product liability and tort actions – which are often class-action based, and healthcare entities and professionals regarding licensure issues and allegations of malpractice. Among the firm’s notable litigation in 2023 include the following:

• Representing a component manufacturer of a fire suppressant agent used to fight certain fires in more than 5,000 toxic tort cases throughout the nation that were transferred to a multi-district litigation panel. State and federal regulators continue to wrestle with whether and, if so, how to regulate and remediate PFAS chemical contamination in ground water.
• Representing North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, Inc. in the lead case involving a tax credit dispute with The N.C. Department of Revenue related to NCFB’s renewable energy investments. The DOR reversed its position and disallowed credits for investors state-wide. The N.C. Business Court reversed DOR’s ~$24 million assessment and upheld NCFB’s rights to its tax credits, paving the way to resolve hundreds of similar cases with $750 million tax credits at issue.
• Defending a large bank in patent infringement cases in federal courts in Texas arising out of patents for two-factor authentication and point of sale transactions.
• Representing a national auto parts retailer, along with a manufacturer, in trademark and copyright litigation in federal court against a motor vehicle parts and accessories manufacturer over ownership of the trademark.
• Represented a leading electric aerospace company in a contract dispute with its supplier that claimed exclusive rights to participate in an aircraft development and manufacturing program, alleging hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Smith Anderson resolved the matter without any payment by client, including recovery of its intellectual property and a declaratory judgment establishing that the supplier had no further rights in the program.
• Defended a medical equipment manufacturer in a lawsuit brought by a minority shareholder alleging that the company failed to pay dividends, engaged in interested-party transactions and breached their fiduciary duties. The case was filed in the N.C. Business Court and was settled and dismissed, with approval of the court, prior to the filing of Defendants’ Answer.
• Representing an independent medical practice of more than 100 doctors and patients in a proposed class action against a multinational health and services company over unfair balance billing practices which has led to multiple lawsuits across the country.
  
  Click here to view a PDF.