Introduction: What Is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is the manipulation and use of particles that measure 1 to 100 nanometers in size. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. For comparison purposes, a human hair has a width of 80,000 to 100,000 nm. What makes nanotechnology so promising as an industry is its wide application to numerous sectors - energy, electronics, cosmetics, food packaging, environmental remediation, sports equipment, aerospace, automotive, military, and medicine, just to name a few.
Day Pitney's Nanotechnology practice group is a multidisciplinary team that offers both strategic and practical advice. Clients dealing with the Nanotechnology group have access to the full range of our services, including counseling, transactions, and litigation, provided by an integrated team of lawyers with experience in:
- Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights
- Corporate
- Emerging Companies and Venture Finance
- Energy
- Environmental and Land Use Regulation and Litigation
- Governmental Relations and Investigations
- Institutional Finance and Structured Finance
- Intellectual Property
- Labor and Employment Regulation and Litigation
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Private Companies
- Public Companies
- Securities Law and Securities Litigation
- Products Liability and Risk Management
- International Transactions and Asian Business Focus
Day Pitney's Nanotechnology group does not simply provide our clients with comprehensive legal advice. Rather we offer our clients a total solution to any issue by working in conjunction with an industry-leading team of strategic partners, who possess expertise in nanotechnology science, toxicology, engineering, human factors engineering, industrial hygiene, and insurance risk management. Our attorneys publish in the scientific and trade literature, and conduct seminars on cutting-edge issues in nanotechnology. Our attorneys also participate in dialogues with state and federal regulators, and are actively participating in the creation of both international and national industry standards for successful economic development of nanobusinesses and for promotion of the environmental health and safety of nanomaterials. Our experience extends to a number of industries at the forefront of today's challenges and opportunities, including, among others:
- Energy
- Construction
- Automotive
- Financial Services
- Health Care
- Aviation
- Insurance
- Accounting
- Retail
- Land Use
- High Technology
- Aerospace
Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights
Our Nanotechnology business clients rely on Day Pitney to resolve complex financial issues. These may take the form of restructurings, bankruptcy, workouts and/or creditors' rights remedies. In situations that may be contentious and fiercely competitive, we are called upon to enforce our clients' rights and to achieve effective business solutions. Our attorneys have the understanding and knowledge to act quickly while minimizing risk and navigating the complex and convoluted logistics that characterize foreclosures, liquidations, Section 363 sales, reorganization plans, receiverships, UCC sales, assignments for the benefits of creditors, and other scenarios invoked by the disposition of distressed assets. Day Pitney attorneys regularly appear in proceedings in bankruptcy courts in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Delaware.
Emerging Companies and Venture Finance
We assist fast-growth companies in reaching their full potential.
Our Emerging Companies and Venture Finance team assists nanotechnology, high-technology and other fast-growth companies in realizing their short- and long-term goals. From the counseling required to transform an idea into an enterprise to the eventual liquidity event, we have successfully guided numerous clients through the venture capital-financed lifecycle. We help entrepreneurs conform to the expectations and demands of professional venture capital investors while retaining the management autonomy and flexibility a successful company requires. Our relationships with nanotechnology experts, financing sources, venture capital investors and underwriters and emerging company professionals allow us to introduce our nanotechnology clients to valuable resources throughout the United States and around the world as their businesses expand.
Energy Law
Our Energy and Utility Law practice group has been at the forefront of the energy industry restructuring. As a result, we are uniquely positioned to assist our nanotechnology clients with energy-related product applications.
Development and Finance of New Generation
We counsel developers, contractors, utilities and institutional investors involved in the development and financing of new power generation nationally and internationally.
Renewable Energy
We advise a number of clients, including developers, contractors, utilities, power marketers, and lenders and other investors, who are committed to the development and commercial operation of renewable energy projects. Our team of experienced attorneys has counseled on a wide variety of green power projects, including wind, solar, hydroelectric, trash-to-energy, geothermal, fuel cell, and landfill gas projects. As nanotechnology continues to grow in the field of renewable energy, our attorneys keep pace with new developments to better serve our clients.
Drawing on our decades of experience in the energy industry, our Renewable Energy practice group is comprised of lawyers who focus on the areas of energy, environmental law, finance, mergers and acquisitions, tax law and intellectual property, enabling the team to address comprehensively the unique and complex problems that confront participants in renewable power projects and nanotechnology related products.
Environmental and Land Use Regulation
Bring us your issues and we will draw on our experience to resolve them.
Whatever environmental matter you are facing, chances are we have successfully dealt with it before. Our environmental regulatory attorneys are current on the most recent nanotechnology oversight issues implemented by EPA and REACH. With an established commitment and track record of staying ahead of the regulatory wave, our attorneys have been serving clients with environmental issues since the establishment of permitting and regulatory programs in the 1970s and 1980s.
Environmental and Land Use Litigation
Day Pitney's Environmental and Land Use Litigation professionals offer well-honed legal skills and a practiced sensitivity to our nanotechnology clients' business needs. This assures a resourceful and cost-efficient result. Our track record reflects over 70 years in our business, demonstrating a proven ability to work with and realize the expectations of our clients, public and private.
Governmental Relations and Investigations
Our White Collar team has many years of experience handling all types of government inquiries and proceedings. Many of these attorneys served as prosecutors and others worked for the SEC or in other law enforcement or regulatory agencies. This experience positions us to understand prosecutorial strategies from the inside out, increasing our value to nanotechnology clients and prospects who may anticipate or be dealing with government inquiries. We have also assisted many clients with investigating fraud or other potential wrongdoing involving their organizations. When such action is called for, we advise our clients on how best to refer such matters to the appropriate regulatory or law enforcement organizations.
Day Pitney's attorneys have forged solid working relationships with governmental officials at the local, state and federal levels, over decades of client and community service. We use our acquired knowledge and experience to assist our clients in their dealings with myriad governmental departments, agencies, commissions, and elected or appointed officials, to effectively communicate our clients' policy interests, as well as providing important public and private commentary in the establishment of new laws and regulations, or in considering changes to existing legal and regulatory schemes.
Institutional Finance and Structured Finance
Our finance lawyers assist institutional lenders and investors with financial transactions of many different kinds, including private placements, secured and unsecured credit facilities, asset based and structured finance transactions, lease transactions, real estate financings, and project and acquisition financings. Our lawyers understand the business and accounting considerations relevant to complicated transactions and their emphasis in all cases is on the efficient realization of maximum value for our clients. See sections on emerging companies, venture finance, public and private companies.
Patent Prosecution and Counseling
Clients seeking to license their technology and business process advancements rely on Day Pitney for its extensive experience in patent prosecution, opinion, counseling and transactional services including due diligence involving patent issues. We ensure that our clients are provided with the legal counsel and strategic thinking to further their business objectives.
Patent Litigation
Clients seeking to protect their intellectual property rights rely on Day Pitney for its extensive experience in patent litigation. Our litigation clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, and are engaged in such diverse industries as manufacturing, packaging, information services, software, high-technology research and development, pharmaceuticals, toy, retail sales, telecommunications, financial services, banking, insurance, health care, utilities, advertising and media.
Labor Regulation and Union Relations
Day Pitney represents employers of all sizes in the full range of matters affecting labor-management relations. On behalf of companies with union-represented workforces, our attorneys act as chief spokespersons, members of the company negotiating committee, and strategic advisers during collective bargaining negotiations. We handle hundreds of labor arbitrations each year under collective bargaining agreements.
Employment Litigation
Representing employers in the litigation, negotiation, and arbitration/ADR of employment-related disputes is a longtime Day Pitney strength and a cornerstone practice of our firm. Our employment litigators not only have outstanding trial records but also have the proven ability to help clients solve problems in innovative, cost-effective ways before litigation becomes an option.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures
Day Pitney's Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures team has served as counsel to targets, acquirers, and investment banks in a variety of public and private company mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and strategic joint ventures, including three recent billion-dollar-plus deals. In recent months, we have handled a large number of significant transactions throughout the United States and abroad in the energy, retail, banking, defense, communications, and technology sectors.
Private Companies
We offer privately owned nanotechnology businesses the full array of legal services they require, delivered by a legal and paralegal staff that understands the financial and other challenges our clients face. Our clients want - and we deliver - rapid turnaround, premier quality, and client-focused service and attention.
Public Companies
Our Public Companies practice group serves as securities and corporate counsel to a wide array of NYSE, NASDAQ and other publicly traded companies. The group's experience includes securities law compliance, self-regulatory organization (SRO) listing requirements, corporate governance, tax, executive compensation, equity plans and requirements, state corporate law, broker-dealer, investment advisors, and hedge funds. The state of scientific data on nanotechnology product safety suggests that specialized analysis of public disclosures is very important to nano-related public companies.
Products Liability and Risk Management
For more than 70 years, Day Pitney attorneys have been providing clients with comprehensive and innovative defenses of products liability, mass tort and class action matters. Our products liability practice is widely recognized as one of the strongest in the Northeast and the attorneys in the practice have literally written the book on products liability. In the field of nanotechnology, we see our current role as advisors poised to assist our clients in taking steps to minimize the risks associated with any future products liability issues.
International Transactions
Lawyers at Day Pitney assist foreign, multinational and domestic clients in a broad range of cross-border commercial endeavors -- as well as finance and investment transactions -- locally, in the United States, and around the world. We routinely advise clients with respect to areas of the law specific to the cross-border activity, including extraterritorial aspects of United States income taxation and intellectual property rights. A core service we provide is to assist in structuring inbound and outbound business and financial relationships.
Focus on China
Our Chinese business clients benefit from our solid relationships with large U.S. corporations, banks, enforcement agencies and other entities. We are able to provide our Chinese business clients with advice in selecting American partners in business ventures as well as substantive industry-related legal advice.
Focus on Japan
Our Japanese practice group is built on our experience and understanding of the Japanese language and culture. Our native Japanese attorneys and administrative staff have assisted many Japanese clients, including corporations of all sizes, national and private universities, and individuals with their legal needs in the United States. Our ability to explain and discuss the often complex legal issues and strategies in Japanese language has helped our clients make difficult decisions with full understanding of all the issues and risks associated with the decision.
