John R. Sobolewski is a partner in Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz’s Restructuring and Finance Department. His multidisciplinary practice includes a broad range of finance, securities, restructuring and related matters, including leveraged M&A, public and private capital markets transactions, complex syndicated bank financings, and in-court and out-of-court workouts. He has unique expertise representing companies in connection with rapid response efforts to debt default activism and net-short debt activism situations.
John has represented borrower clients in numerous major corporate financing transactions, including T-Mobile in connection with its acquisition of Sprint and its related $38.0 billion of financing commitments and $39.0 billion of consent solicitations; Intelsat in connection with over $6.0 billion of issuances of high-yield, holdco, and convertible notes, as well as related bond tender offers and open market purchases; Lions Gate in its $4.5 billion of bank and bond transactions in connection with its acquisition of Starz, and its subsequent repricing transactions and bond exchanges; Zoetis in its $1.0 billion of bank financing for its acquisition of Abaxis; XPO Logistics in its €3.24 billion acquisition of Norbert Dentressangle S.A. and $3 billion acquisition of Con-Way, and its subsequent refinancings and repricings; Office Depot in its $750 million term loan facility to finance its acquisition of CompuCom; Publicis in its $3.5 billion bridge and permanent financing in connection with its acquisition of Sapient; and Apollo in its $1.0 billion buyout of Presidio, and Presidio’s subsequent refinancing transaction and leveraged stock buyback.
John also frequently represents sellers in financing matters relating to major M&A transactions, including Celgene in its sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb, Monsanto in its sale to Bayer, Whole Foods in its sale to Amazon.com, Envision in its sale to KKR, and Convergys in its sale to Synnex.
John has represented key stakeholders in multiple major public and private debt default activism situations. He has additionally represented clients such as Goldman Sachs, GSO Capital Partners, and Bank of Nova Scotia in workout and restructuring situations.
John received a B.A. summa cum laude from Boston College in 2005. He completed a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2008.
