Joe Verdesca is a partner in the firm’s Corporate practice, and has served in the firm’s Insurance practice group since 1993. Mr. Verdesca’s focus consists of insurance-related mergers & acquisitions, private equity investments, restructurings, and reinsurance transactions. He also has experience in insurance company IPOs, privatisations, not-for-profit conversions and market conduct matters.
Through a variety of insurance-related transactions, Mr. Verdesca has developed strong relationships with the New York Department of Financial Services and insurance departments of several other states. Such experience includes representing clients before such departments at public hearings and other meetings.
Mr. Verdesca also counsels clients on the implications of new and emerging insurance legislation and regulation, including the sweeping provisions of the new financial reforms that affect insurance regulation at both the state and federal level. He serves on the firm’s Financial Regulatory Reform Working Group, providing insurance-related expertise within the larger context of financial industry regulatory reform.
Mr. Verdesca has participated in a number of prominent insurance-related M&A, private equity, restructuring and securities transactions, and is named a "Best Lawyer" in the specialty of Insurance Law for the upcoming 2013 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. Examples of Mr. Verdesca’s experience include:
- advising the New York Liquidation Bureau in connection with the rehabilitation of Financial Guaranty Insurance Company
- extensive additional restructuring and counselling involvement in the financial guaranty insurance arena, including representations for or relating to Syncora (formerly Security Capital Assurance), MBIA, FGIC and Ambac
- representation of private equity firms including Goldman Sachs, CVC Capital, Guggenheim Capital, Macquarie Capital, Summit Partners, Providence Equity, Lee Equity and Capital Z in insurance-related investments, dispositions, reinsurance, financings and take private transactions
- representation of UnitedHealth in connection with its acquisition of PacifiCare;
- representation of GE in connection with the acquisition and disposition of most of its insurance businesses, as well as the spin-off and initial public offering of Genworth;
- the restructuring of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield; and
- the acquisition and privatization by Swiss Re of the Texas Workers’ Compensation Insurance Facility.
Fluent in German and previously based in the firm’s Frankfurt office, Mr. Verdesca has facilitated cross border European private equity, M&A and securities transactions involving clients such as Texas Pacific Group, Fortress, Ewing Management Group, Lone Star, GE, Enron and IFCO. Examples of Mr. Verdesca's non-insurance related experience include involvement in numerous investment and disposition transactions for American Capital, Ltd., IFCO’s high-yield note offering, Enron’s sale of its European wind operations to GE, NBC’s acquisition of Telemundo, GE Capital’s acquisition of Heller Financial, American Airlines' acquisition of TWA, and Reuters’ acquisition of Bridge Information Systems, as well as numerous completed and aborted private equity investments by US investment groups in German companies.