The law firm of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC has won the mergers and acquisitions “deal of the year” award in the $50 million to $100 million category from M&A Advisors.
The deal for which Bass Berry won the award was announced earlier this year. It involved Luminex Corp. – a health care and life sciences research company – acquiring privately held GenturaDx, a molecular diagnostics company focused on making nucleic acid testing affordable and practical for any lab.
Bass Berry served as outside counsel to Luminex. The law firm’s team was led by partners Howard Lamar and Ryan Thomas and included lawyers from the firm’s corporate, intellectual property, labor and employment and employee benefits groups.
M&A Advisors, which recognizes achievement in the top performers of the mergers and acquisitions, turnaround and financing industries, also recognized the Luminex deal as a finalist for the distinction of “sector deal of the year” in the “Heath care/Life sciences (between $10 million and $100 million)” category.
Meanwhile, that wasn’t the only Bass Berry transaction noted recently by M&A Advisors. The firm also was the legal adviser to O’Charley’s Inc. in a deal announced earlier this year by Fidelity National Financial Inc. to buy the Nashville-based restaurant chain.
That deal was named a finalist for “Corporate/Strategic Acquisition of the Year (between $200 million and $500 million)” and “Sector Deal of the Year” in the consumer and retail products category between $100 million and $500 million.
Bass Berry’s team for that deal was led by Page Davidson and Scott Bell.
According to M&A Advisor, a record of 423 nominees, representing more than 600 companies, were award finalists this year. The awards were announced at the 11th annual M&A Advisor Awards Gala Dec. 11 in New York.
Bass Berry’s corporate and securities practice represents buyers and sellers in public and private company strategic transactions as well as financial sponsor transactions.
The corporate and securities team includes more than 50 attorneys, including two partners who have chaired the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association and one who is the immediate past chair of the mergers and acquisitions committee of the American Bar Association.
Bass Berry has more than 220 attorneys and offices in Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Washington.
The M&A Advisor honors also cap a string of recognitions and other awards for the firm this year.
They include Bass Berry being named “Tennessee firm of the year” for litigation by “Benchmark Litigation”; being named the best corporate law firm in Nashville by “Corporate Board Member” magazine and FTI Consulting Inc.; 86 Bass Berry attorneys being recognized in “Best Lawyers in America 2013” and Bass Berry being included in the 2013 U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” list.
Also, 45 of the firm’s attorneys were named to Mid-South Super Lawyers 2012 in 20 different practice areas. They include these members in the firm’s Nashville office.
H. Lee Barfield, II, Coburn Dewees Berry, IV, James H. Cheek, III, Michael L. Dagley, J. Page Davidson, Wallace W. Dietz, R. Todd Ervin, David R. Esquivel, Samuel Lanier Felker, Tim K. Garrett, J. Andrew Goddard, James C. Gooch, B. Riney Green, R. Dale Grimes, L. Wearen Hughes, Paul G. Jennings, David A. King, Howard H. Lamar, III, Anthony J. McFarland, Bryan W. Metcalf, Claire F. Miley, William N. Ozier, Michael S. Peek, J. Bradbury Reed, Cynthia Y. Reisz, Fritz Richter, III, D. Mark Sheets, Michael D. Sontag, James S. Tate, Jr., T. Stephen C. Taylor, G. Scott Thomas, Bob F. Thompson, Overton Thompson, III, F. Mitchell Walker, Jr., Leigh Walton, Jessalyn H. Zeigler