Gregg A. Noel

Gregg Noel is head of Skadden's West Coast capital markets practice. He's leading the charge on special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs. The so-called "blank check" deals allow a company's investors to retain a stake while gaining liquidity.

"It's becoming, if you will, more of a norm," said Noel. "It's another tool in the tool kit."

Noel was part of one of the most successful SPAC deals to-date: he represented public investment vehicle Social Capital Hedosophia in its $1.5 billion merger with Virgin Galactic LLC to create Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. It's the world's first publicly traded commercial human spaceflight company. The merger was finalized in October 2019.

"The Virgin Galactic deal caught a lot of people's imagination," he said.

Noel has handled some 140 SPACs since 2006, with at least 80 of those since 2017. Despite slowing elsewhere in the marketplace, he said he has another 40 more SPACs in-process.

Noel's capital markets practice has become well-known for its novel approach to public offerings, private placements, dispositions, corporate restructurings, and mergers and acquisitions in varied industries including health care, real estate, financial services, and hospitality.

For instance, he co-counseled Theravance Biopharma Inc. in a complex deal with its largest shareholder, GlaxoSmithKline PLC. GlaxoSmithKline, acting through its subsidiary GSK Finance, in June 2020 offered $280.3 million worth of senior notes due in 2023 exchangeable into ordinary shares of Theravance held by GSK and its affiliates. The transaction was the first of its kind for the pharmaceutical/biotech sector, according to Noel.

"You see those transactions as often as you see unicorns," he said.

His more traditional deals are just as headline-grabbing, including representing the underwriters in last year's $1.4 billion initial public offering by Pinterest.

Noel has been with Skadden for about 30 years and has served on the California State Bar's corporations committee and business court committee.

--Jennifer McEntee