W. Stanley Blackburn

W. Stanley Blackburn

Stan Blackburn joined the firm in 1976 and was admitted to partnership in 1982. Mr. Blackburn practices in the areas of corporate, corporate finance and international law, and is a member of the firm's Corporate Department. Mr. Blackburn concentrates on the representation of clients in U.S. and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, issuances of debt and equity securities, and other business transactions. He also frequently advises clients on issues relating to non-transactional matters, including corporate governance, legal compliance, and shareholder rights.

Selected Experience

· Represented publicly-held and private companies such as AT&T (and predecessors BellSouth and Cingular Wireless), Equifax, Fidelity National Information Services (Certegy), Georgia-Pacific, Interface, Landmark Communications (The Weather Channel), Lockheed-Martin, Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Zodiac S.A. in connection with a wide variety of domestic and international acquisition, disposition, consortium, strategic alliance and joint venture matters, with values ranging as high as €18 billion.

· Advised clients such as ING, BellSouth, Equifax, Fidelity National and Interface on various corporate finance and investment matters, involving private and public offerings of debt and equity securities.

· Advised three NYSE companies and one NASDAQ company in connection with recent corporate governance matters, including efforts to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other corporate governance reform initiatives.

Background

· Mr. Blackburn's professional memberships include the State Bar of Georgia, American Bar Association, Atlanta Bar Association, International Bar Association, Inter-Pacific Bar Association and Lawyers Club of Atlanta. He is a Fellow of the American College of Investment Counsel.

· He is active in the organized bar, having served on numerous committees of the State Bar of Georgia and the American and Atlanta Bar Associations.

· He is a former chair of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia, and currently serves as a member of that Section's Corporate Code Revision Committee.

· He has also been a regular speaker at seminars sponsored by the Practicing Law Institute, the State Bar of Georgia, and the Atlanta Bar Association.

· Mr. Blackburn has also been active in community and civic affairs, currently serving as a director, a member of the executive committee, and the corporate secretary of Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, Inc.

· He has served as the president of the Young Men's Round Table of the High Museum of Art, the chairman of the Task Force on the Municipal Courts of the City of Atlanta, a director of the Japan-America Society of Georgia, a director of the Canadian-American Society of the Southeastern United States, the chair of the Fulton County Heart Fund campaign's legal division, a member of the Cobb County International Business Council, and a group chair for the United Way of Atlanta. He was selected for Leadership Atlanta in 1983.

· Mr. Blackburn served as Notes Editor for the Virginia Law Review.

· He is recognized in the 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and listed in the 2008 and 2009 Chambers USA for Corporate/M&A. He is also named in Georgia Trend's 2008 "Legal Elite" and recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer by Atlanta Magazine (2008).

Fellow, American College of Investment Counsel.