Michele Connell regularly advises public and private companies on international mergers and acquisitions, securities law matters, corporate control contests and corporate governance practices. Michele has extensive experience in complex international mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on strategic transactions for public companies. She has completed transactions in more than 20 countries and routinely manages teams of professionals across the globe. Michele also advises multiple public companies and their boards of directors on corporate governance practices, antitakeover defenses and securities compliance matters. She is primary outside securities compliance and governance counsel to several public companies.

Before attending law school, Michele was a foreign service officer with the US Department of State, serving as a diplomat in Warsaw, Poland and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Michele received the Meritorious Honor Award from the US government for her service.

Michele was selected for inclusion in the 2011 and 2012 editions of Ohio Super Lawyers – Rising Stars, a listing of the top up and coming lawyers in the state.

Michele is a member of United Way of Greater Cleveland’s Women’s Leadership Council and the Education, Children and Families Investment Committee. She is a volunteer with The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s Volunteer Lawyers' Program. Michele is a committee member for the Association for Corporate Growth and for the Shaker Heights Centennial Celebration, and a member of the Greater Cleveland International Lawyers’ Group, the Cleveland Council on World Affairs and the Ohio State and Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Associations.

Representative Experience

• Advising a Fortune 200 company in its US$200 million spinoff of a manufacturing division located throughout Europe and Latin America.
• Representing Parlux Fragrances, Inc., a publicly-held worldwide designer and distributor of prestige fragrances, in its merger with Perfumania Holdings, Inc.
• Representing a privately-held company located in the United States and Asia in its spinoff of its intellectual property division to a public company.
• Representing chemical company Ashland Inc. on its US$3.3 billion acquisition of Hercules Incorporated.
• Advising a publicly-held information technology company with significant government contracts on its sale by tender offer to a private equity group.
• Advising a public company on a US$1.2 billion acquisition of amusement parks.
• Representing a public company on a US$170 million acquisition of assets from a private equity group.
• Representing a public company in completing strategic joint venture relationships in five countries including a follow-on spinoff of a division in Korea.
• Advising a publishing company in the acquisition of a family-owned textbook company for US$200 million.
• Advising a Spain-based company in its initial public offering as a foreign private issuer on Nasdaq.
• Advising a public company on its simultaneous equity and debt offering for US$175 million.