Blockchain
Blockchain, digital assets, and cryptocurrencies are disrupting the way the world does business. This makes it critically important for companies across all industries to understand the legal and regulatory considerations that arise during the development and implementation of these complex technologies. Sidley is at the forefront of this technological and legal innovation in fintech and blockchain. Our Miami blockchain group is unique among global firms in its ability to combine leading regulatory practices in securities, commodities, derivatives, banking, and privacy with core intellectual property, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, enforcement, and litigation practices in a seamless manner. Our multidisciplinary team serves both emerging companies and established institutions worldwide, providing sophisticated advice to digital asset trading platforms, blockchain technology companies, U.S. and non-U.S. broker-dealers, custodians, financial services companies, and cryptocurrency funds.
Sidley is ranked as a Band 1 law firm in the 2022 Chambers FinTech guide and was named “FinTech Practice Group of the Year” by Law360 in 2020.
Complex Commercial Litigation
Our Miami litigators assist companies, individuals, boards of directors, and special committees with all aspects of complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts across the country, as well as with internal investigations, arbitrations, and mediations. Team members have decades of experience in advising businesses in the U.S. and around the world, and they work closely with Sidley’s clients in Latin America and elsewhere across the globe. Our Miami litigation team is trial ready and can manage the most complex class actions, mass actions, and multidistrict litigation. The team’s experience spans such industries as securities, healthcare, insurance, sports and entertainment, food and agriculture, fintech, private equity, and technology. Our experience in state and federal securities litigation includes shareholder derivative suits, breach of fiduciary actions, securities class actions, corporate governance and control disputes, and government investigations. Miami litigators also have extensive experience representing clients in disputes involving antitrust laws, federal and state RICO, the Lanham Act, Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and state and federal telephone solicitation claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and Florida’s Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA).
Sidley’s acclaimed Litigation department is built to win at each stage of the litigation process, from strategic motion practice, to trying the most closely watched cases, to precedent-setting appellate success. The department was named as a finalist in 2019 by The American Lawyer for its prestigious “Litigation Department of the Year” award.
Entertainment, Sports, and Media
Sidley has one of the most active and accomplished global entertainment, sports, and media (ESM) practices. Our ESM team in Miami offers decades of experience providing strategic advice to a diverse list of domestic and international sports, entertainment, and media clients — from iconic franchises and leagues, to leading entertainment and media companies, to high-profile individual and institutional investors. Our legal work includes representing professional sports teams and investors in M&A and equity financing transactions, as well as handling licensing deals involving stadiums, facilities, sports complexes, television, radio, and technology or web-based platforms. We also advise, negotiate, and structure complex transactions, including incentive packages, for sports facility development, sports-anchored ancillary development, and stadium and arena financing.
FDA
We have counseled clients in more than 20 countries and across numerous industries on current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), Quality System Regulation (QSR), and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) issues. Our team has successfully guided companies through sensitive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspections and related actions, including compliance reviews, due diligence and drafting of quality technical and testing service agreements, and consent decrees. Companies seek our advice on a variety of products and processes regulated by the FDA, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), medical devices, vaccines, dietary supplements, biotechnology, and aseptic processes. We also advise clients on compliance with a variety of international regulatory bodies. Many of our lawyers have held senior positions at government agencies, including with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Global Finance
Sidley has pioneered the development of financial instruments for the world’s financial markets. As a thought leader, an innovator, and one familiar with new and existing asset classes and esoteric offerings, we offer a comprehensive range of lending and securitization services to clients worldwide. Our Miami team handles high-value, complex financings across a variety of asset classes and represents clients throughout the creation, management, restructuring, and termination of structured finance transactions. Our lawyers have advised on numerous asset-backed securitization transactions involving a variety of asset classes, including auto loans and leases, auto floorplan accounts, equipment loans and leases, and student loans, representing both issuers and underwriters in public and private securities offerings. We represent issuers and underwriters in private offerings of residential mortgage-backed securities throughout the Miami marketplace, as well as purchasers and sellers of residential mortgage loans, with our structured finance experience extending to asset-based lending arrangements, conduit transactions, covered bond transactions, and synthetic securitizations.
Latin America
Sidley has maintained a valued presence in Latin America for over 50 years, which is now further strengthened by our footprint in Miami. We represent major local and multinational companies and financial institutions, private equity and other investment funds, sovereign governments, and state-owned enterprises in transactions throughout South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Our Latin America team comprises approximately 60 lawyers firmwide, many of whom are able to conduct business in Spanish or Portuguese, and who spend a significant amount of time working on matters in one or more of the aforementioned jurisdictions.
Our team draws on the extensive resources of the firm’s international reach, working together seamlessly from Sidley’s offices around the globe and within multiple areas of the firm’s practice. Our practice is structured to give our clients unsurpassed access to our lawyers.
Life Sciences and Healthcare
Our Miami lawyers support a diverse range of companies across the life sciences and healthcare industries, including pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device innovators, healthcare providers and services companies, and investors in those sectors. Sidley’s Global Life Sciences and Healthcare teams defend clients in government investigations, try civil cases, counsel on pricing, reimbursement, fraud and abuse, compliance, cGMP, QSR, and GCP, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) privacy, transparency, and antitrust issues. We also advocate on behalf of clients before Congress as well as regulatory agencies, conduct comprehensive regulatory due diligence, and execute private financings, capital markets, M&A, and partnering transactions.
M&A and Private Equity
Our lawyers in Miami advise on public and private mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and other corporate transactions involving large and small companies, private equity sponsors, fundless sponsors, family offices, and other private companies. We also counsel clients on a broad range of non-transactional corporate, governance, and strategic planning matters, drawing on our experience with clients from a variety of industries and market capitalizations.
Leveraging the resources of Sidley’s extensive Private Equity practice — which comprises more than 285 lawyers around the world — our Miami team offers full-service transaction support working with private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies. The firm’s lawyers have deep experience across the spectrum of private equity transactions, from multibillion-dollar leveraged buyouts to growth equity investments in premium middle market companies.
Real Estate
Sidley’s Real Estate team is a recognized leader in the field, working on complex real estate transactions and financings spanning the entire United States and crossing international borders and markets. We are well equipped to anticipate and navigate changes in real estate development and finance that may affect our clients’ businesses. The real estate team in Miami works on a wide range of real estate transactions, real estate litigation, bankruptcies, and workouts. We bring to bear a substantial practice in mergers and acquisitions, working on domestic and global transactions for a variety of clients, including businesses, REITS, private equity firms, real estate and hedge funds, special board committees, and financial advisers.
Collectively, our Miami team has decades of experience advising our clients in a broad range of commercial real estate transactions. These transactions involve commercial, hospitality, multifamily, mixed-use condominium, retail, industrial, and stadium properties around the globe. Our work includes the sale, acquisition, development, management, and leasing of various types of commercial real estate properties, together with a focus on complex real estate and capital market financings, including senior and subordinate debt structures, construction lending, portfolio acquisitions, syndications, mezzanine loans, participations, and equity investments. The Miami office has significant experience representing companies and/or creditors with respect to their real estate portfolio and distressed debt in restructurings (both in and out of court).
Regulatory and Enforcement
Sidley’s regulatory and enforcement lawyers play a vital role in helping clients achieve their business goals while maintaining compliance with complex laws and regulations. Our Miami team provides tailored regulatory counseling and advice to assist clients whose business operations intersect with such areas as federal and state securities laws, cybersecurity and privacy, fintech, blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and life sciences and healthcare.
We advise clients on a comprehensive range of government and internal investigations, enforcement-related litigation, whistleblower complaints, cyberbreaches, and regulatory and compliance issues, including clients seeking to strengthen corporate governance and compliance programs. Members of our Miami team have prior experience serving in senior roles at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including overseeing hundreds of investigations involving broker-dealers, investment advisers, exchanges, securities offerings, insider trading, and a range of public company and accounting issues.
Venture Capital
Corporate venture capital has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, with strategic venture investors looking at early-stage companies more than ever before. Our Miami team assists corporate investors in developing and executing venture investment strategies, from small seed-rounds to much larger later-stage investments, in both domestic and international financing transactions. The firm’s Emerging Companies and Venture Capital group has handled hundreds of portfolio investments and have long-standing relationships with a wide range of corporate investors, including many Fortune 100 companies. The strength of our practice, coupled with the firm’s leading regulatory practice and international offices, provides our clients with sophisticated guidance and counseling on complex business and legal issues at all stages of growth.
