Darren Skinner focuses his practice on corporate and securities matters. He has represented private and sovereign clients in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia in connection with a variety of capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and business structuring and formation transactions.
Mr. Skinner has advised issuers, selling securityholders, venture capital and private equity investors, underwriters, and placement agents in public offerings and private placements covering equity, debt, and hybrid securities, including IPOs, follow-ons, registered directs, secondaries, exchange offers, and unregistered transactions pursuant to Regulation D, Regulation S, and Rules 144 and 144A under the Securities Act. He has also represented buyers, sellers, and special committees of boards in merger and acquisition transactions, including stock and asset deals, mergers, and reorganizations. In addition, Mr. Skinner regularly counsels clients on corporate and securities compliance matters, including Securities Exchange Act reporting and corporate governance issues.
Mr. Skinner was named a 2024 Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyer following an independent global survey of senior in-house counsel who were asked to identify the most outstanding lawyers they had worked with in the last three years. In 2020 and 2018, Mr. Skinner was named an Acritas Star Lawyer based on independent global surveys of general counsel and other senior leaders at legal departments. Mr. Skinner is included on the inaugural BTI Consulting Group's Client Service All-Star Team for Corporate Transactions, which, based on a survey of corporate counsel at large and FORTUNE 1000 companies, identifies a very limited number of US attorneys who provide superior client service in corporate transactions.
Experience
- Nasdaq Global Market-listed business development company in its initial public offering of $150 million in gross offering proceeds of common stock.
- In-Q-Tel, the independent, strategic venture organization established by the US government to support the missions of the CIA and the broader US intelligence community, in dozens of investment transactions involving early-stage technology companies.
- Non-traded business development company, with respect to:
- Its formation and shelf-registered continuous initial public offering of up to $1.5 billion in initial offering price of common stock;
- Its continuous follow-on offering of up to $2.3 billion in initial offering price of common stock.
- Government of a Caribbean nation with respect to:
- The issuance and sale by its statutory port authority in a private placement in the United States of $67 million in aggregate principal amount of senior government guaranteed bonds.
- A US dollar/Japan yen currency swap transaction between its national water and sewerage authority and Citibank, N.A.
- Exchange-listed business development company and alternative asset manager in its underwritten public offering of $500 million in aggregate principal amount of debt securities.
- FORTUNE 500 industrial company in a multimillion-dollar convertible preferred stock investment in a provider of electric utility software and system solutions.
Perspectives
Recognition
Credentials
Education
- J.D., Georgetown University Law Center, 1995, cum laude
- LL.M., Harvard Law School, 1991
- LL.M., London School of Economics and Political Science - University of London, 1988
- LL.B., University of the West Indies, 1987, magna cum laude
Admissions
- District of Columbia
Activities
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
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Former Member, Law Alumni Board, Georgetown University Law Center
- Former Member, Board of Directors of the University of the West Indies Alumni Association of Washington, DC