Nia Brown is Of Counsel to DLA Piper's Corporate and Securities group.  She focuses her practice on the representation of US and foreign public and private companies in a range of transactional matters, among them acquisitions and dispositions (including mergers, stock and asset transactions and divestitures), cross-border acquisitions, venture capital investments involving a broad range of industries, general corporate and securities matters and public and private securities offerings. Ms. Brown has represented US and foreign clients in divestitures, joint ventures and general corporate matters.

Ms. Brown began her career at the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, where she was a member of the mergers and acquisitions practice group and worked with Fortune 500 companies and other top-tier issuers and acquirors.

Service

Ms. Brown is highly involved in pro bono service, in particular through Access to Education, the signature project of DLA Piper's New York office. In that work, Ms. Brown represents Bedford-Stuyvesant Early Childhood Development Center (Bed-Stuy Head Start) as its outside counsel, working closely with the executive director and board of to ensure the program is in compliance with federal and state regulations and performance standards and enabling it to keep its doors open and assist low-income children for years to come. In recognition of her work on behalf of Bed-Stuy Head Start, in 2010 the Lawyers Alliance of New York awarded her its prestigious Cornerstone Award.

Within DLA Piper, Ms. Brown actively serves on certain administrative committees. She is on the Hiring Committee for the New York office as well as the office's Diversity and Inclusion Committee. In addition, Ms. Brown has served as the co-chair of the New York office's summer associate program. She also serves on DLA Piper’s national Associate Evaluation and Compensation Committee.

Significant Matters

Ms. Brown has represented:

• Pfizer Inc. in the divestiture of material portions of Pfizer's and Wyeth's animal health business to Boerhinger Ingelheim (divestitures mandated by the FTC as a condition to its approval of the Pfizer/Wyeth merger)
• Invitrogen Corporation (now known as Life Technologies) in its $6.7 billion merger with Applera Corporation (Applied Biosystems, Inc.)
• Mistral Equity Partners in its acquisition of Country Pure Foods
• CHC Helicopter Corporation, the world’s largest provider of helicopter services to the global offshore oil and gas industry, in its sale to First Reserve Corporation, a private equity firm that specializes in the energy industry for CA$1.5 billion
• CK Life Sciences in its acquisition of Vitaquest International
• Carat Duchatelet its acquisition of Centigon Holdings from BAE Systems
• Emirates Investment and Development Corp. in its acquisition of Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp (now known as Emivest Aerospace)
• A publicly traded technology company in its $110 million acquisition of an Austrian private company
• Clinical research management company Almedica International in its sale to Apuit, Inc.
• MLW Services Inc., a privately held license insurance broker, in its sale of assets to Bollinger Inc.
• MPI Professionals LLC in its sale of assets to CGI, a Canadian NYSE-listed company in a $17 million transaction
• The borrower in its entry into a $500 million senior secured revolving credit facility
• VanthedgePoint Group, Inc.’s Series A Preferred Stock financing
• Starbucks Corporation in connection with its issuance to the public of $550 million principal amount of 6.25 percent senior notes
• Underwriters’ counsel in the initial public offering of a contract research company, Luna Innovations Incorporated.

Pro Bono

• Legal Outreach Program, St. John's University School of Law
• City Harvest Street Fleet program
• DLA Piper’s  New York Office signature pro bono project, Access to Education