Judith T. Kitano

Partner
Baker & McKenzie LLP

Biography

Judith Kitano is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Baker McKenzie. Judith guides clients through complex corporate transactions.

Practice Focus

Judith represents clients in connection with corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and private and public financings. She represents companies in a variety of industries, including insurance, banking, entertainment, energy and manufacturing.

Representative Legal Matters

Prior to joining the Firm, Judith was involved in several notable transactions, including:

  • Counseled companies in connection with the establishment of bank credit facilities and the issuance of debt in private, 144A and public transactions, as well as with workouts of troubled loans.
  • Represented lenders, including in connection with a USD 5.6 billion secured loan to a troubled financial company and related structured financing and establishment of novel tranches of debt.
  • Advised a large investor-owned utility in establishing a USD 1.6 billion credit facility with unique security features.
  • Assisted an issuer in creating a USD 400 million innovative “negative yield” structured security.
  • Acted as counsel on the acquisitions of public companies by merger or tender offer, including a USD 22 billion reinsurance company and publicly traded building products and apparel concerns.
  • Represented private equity funds in various transactions, including preferred equity investments, the purchase of convertible instruments and the negotiation of related corporate governance agreements.
  • Represented strategic purchasers in the acquisition of insurance companies.
  • Negotiated joint ventures providing PCS services in numerous states, including exchanges of joint venture interests for stock of an international telecommunications issuer.
  • Represented financial institutions in acquisitions and dispositions, including purchases and sales of banks, savings and loans, branches, credit card portfolios and deposits.
  • Represented a Japanese conglomerate in connection with a manufacturing joint venture.
  • Represented an energy company in a USD 540 million issuance of convertible preferred securities.

Admissions

  • California~United States

Education

  • Stanford Law School (J.D.) (1988)
  • Stanford University (M.B.A.) (1988)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) (1984)

Languages

  • English