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Curtis R.
Hearn

Position
Partner
Office
New Orleans

Curt Hearn is a partner and has served as co-lead of the Corporate Practice Group for 20 years. Drawing on his extensive experience and knowledge of what works — and what doesn’t — he works with firm clients to solve their most challenging, complex business and legal challenges.


Curt advises private equity and venture capital firms, as well as publicly traded and privately held companies, working with them to solve their most challenging and critical business and legal challenges, including negotiating major acquisitions and dispositions, working through sensitive board fiduciary issues and conflicts, raising capital, and helping financially distressed businesses navigate competing interests as they seek to restructure their balance sheets and return to solvency. He provides sophisticated guidance at the leading edge of emerging market and regulatory developments, with an emphasis on companies in the energy, energy service, healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics industries. 

As part of his extensive work in the private equity sector, Curt has advised on whole-company acquisitions, asset purchases and sales, carve-outs, and spinoffs, among other transactions. He represents clients on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, as well as capital raising transactions.

Curt also advises owners, senior executives, and boards of directors of a variety of public and private companies on matters such as compliance with US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure laws and Sarbanes-Oxley; preparing proxy materials and navigating proxy contests; implementing anti-takeover defenses, including stockholder rights plans; and drafting contracts, among other corporate governance matters.

Curt has been involved in numerous healthcare industry company transactions. He has represented buyers and sellers in public and private transactions involving the acquisition of hospitals and hospital groups; purchase and sale of managed healthcare plans; and purchase of companies in ancillary healthcare services such as radiology and imaging. He also has been lead counsel on complex healthcare joint ventures.

Ranked Band 1 (top tier) in the area of Corporate/M&A in Chambers USA – America's Leading Lawyers for Business, he is described in the 2018 edition as a “very thoughtful and articulate” professional providing “strategic negotiating advice” that draws on his “general and specialized expertise.” 

Noteworthy

  • The Best Lawyers in America®, Corporate Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Securities/Capital Markets Law, and Venture Capital Law (listed annually since 1995)
  • Best Lawyers'®, "Lawyer of the Year," Corporate Law (2015 and 2019), New Orleans Venture Capital Law (2013)
  • Chambers USA, Corporate/M&A (listed annually since 2004; top band since 2009)
  • Louisiana Super Lawyers, Mergers & Acquisitions (also listed 2007-2009, 2011 to present)
  • Recognized as a 2018 Top Lawyer by New Orleans Magazine (also listed in 2013)
  • AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rating in Martindale-Hubbell

Publications

  • "SEC Issues New Guidance on the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" with Joan Guilfoyle and Curtis Hearn, Corporate & Securities Client Alert, May 20, 2016

Presentations

  • "Feeling Conflicted? Identifying and Resolving Conflicts of Interest from the Board's Perspective", July 9, 2013
  • 2012 Oil & Gas Workshop, November 15, 2012, Lafayette, Louisiana
  • "Mergers and Acquisitions—What Corporate Counsel Needs to Know", September 24, 2010, Essential Issues Affecting In-House Counsel and Corporate Attorneys, Association of Corporate Counsel Louisiana Chapter CLE, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, New Orleans, LA
  • SEC Hot Topics Institute, April 24, 2008, New Orleans, Louisiana

Memberships

  • American Bar Association, Section on Business Law, ABA Task Force on Public Company Mergers
  • Louisiana State Bar Association

Teaching

  • Tulane University Law School, Mergers and Acquisitions, Former Adjunct Professor
New Orleans
201 St. Charles Ave
New Orleans, LA 70170-5100
D: 504.582.8308
F: 504.589.8308
Emailchearn@joneswalker.com

Education

  • The George Washington University Law School
    JD, with honors, 1979
  • University of Delaware
    BA, Distinction in History, magna cum laude, 1976

Bar Admissions

  • Louisiana
  • Texas

Related Practices

  • Corporate
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Private Equity
  • Healthcare Practice
  • Finance
  • Public Company
  • Privately Held and Family Companies
  • Corporate Governance
  • Securities

Related Industries

  • Healthcare
  • Maritime
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