William J. Curtin, III
Advises industry-leading companies on U.S. and cross-border M&A transactions.
Bill advises industry-leading companies on U.S. and cross-border M&A transactions. His experience spans mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and other corporate matters in sectors including aerospace and defense, consumer products and retail, energy, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, sports, tech, media and telecom, and transportation and logistics.
Multiple publications, including Chambers USA, Legal 500 U.S. and IFLR1000, consistently recognize Bill as a leading M&A lawyer. Clients interviewed by Chambers describe Bill as “a remarkably gifted attorney” whose “dedication to the success of a deal is beyond par,” noting that he “is able to find and articulate benefits and outcomes often beyond those realized by other professionals in the room.” As one client noted, “Nobody cares more about their clients than Bill Curtin.”
For nearly 15 years, Bill practiced in Europe while based in Paris and London.
Bill has served as an adjunct professor of corporate law at Duke University and the University of Virginia.
Experience
Bill’s representations prior to joining Davis Polk include:
- Airbus Group on its joint venture with OneWeb, acquisition of MTM Robotics, sale of Airbus DS SatCom Government, acquisition of Aerovel and acquisition of Flexrotor
- Arcturus UAV on its $405 million sale to AeroVironment
- Arm Limited, subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp and SoftBank Vision Fund, on its contemplated $40 billion sale to NVIDIA
- Bernhard Capital Partners on its acquisition of Duotech Services and its acquisition of Boston Government Services
- British Sky Broadcasting Group on its strategic investment in the German pay television market
- A consortium of car manufacturers on their joint venture to develop and operate a high-powered electric vehicle charging network across North America
- Cisco Systems on its acquisitions of Assemblage, DocumentReady ApS, ParStream GmbH and Skyport Systems
- Cloudflare on its $162 million acquisition of Area 1 Security
- Dell on its $3.05 billion sale of the Dell Services IT services business and $2.075 billion sale of the RSA business
- Dominique Dawes, a hall-of-fame Olympic gold medalist, three-time Olympian and founder of Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy (DDGNA), on DDGNA’s partnership with Trivest Partners
- Ford Motor Company on its sales of Volvo Cars, Jaguar and Land Rover; minority investments, including in Pivotal Software and ZoomCar; and its ventilator partnership with GE Healthcare
- Gemalto N.V. on its $890 million acquisition of SafeNet from Vector Capital
- The Gores Group on its acquisition of a majority stake in Mexx International from Liz Claiborne, including the formation of a joint venture between Gores and Liz Claiborne
- Honeywell International on its $1.5 billion acquisition of Intelligrated and its €425 million acquisition of Transnorm
- IBM on the global separation and reorganization of Kyndryl Holdings prior to the spin-off of Kyndryl
- Ingredion on its £185 million acquisition of LSE-listed PureCircle and its joint venture with Amyris
- Mercedes Benz Group on its joint venture with MN8 Energy to develop, own, and operate a Mercedes-Benz-branded network of 2,500+ electric vehicle chargers across the United States and Canada
- The co-founders and senior management of The Motley Fool on a series of restructuring and recapitalization transactions
- PDS Tech on its sale to AKKA Technologies
Recognition
Chambers USA – Corporate/M&A & Private Equity, District of Columbia
Legal 500 – M&A/Corporate and Commercial: M&A: Large Deals ($1bn+)
IFLR1000 – M&A, United States, Highly regarded
American Lawyer – “Dealmaker of the Year,” 2011
Education
- cum laude
Prior experience
- Partner, Hogan Lovells, 2003-2026
- Associate, Hogan Lovells, 1996-2003
Qualifications and admissions
- District of Columbia
- State of New York
- State of Maryland