Ben Kaplan represents clients in a range of sophisticated public and private corporate matters, with a focus on large-scale, cross-border transactions involving the technology sector.

Ben advises public and private companies, investment funds and financial institutions on a variety of complex corporate matters and corporate governance. He draws on his broad experience, including as in-house counsel to a leading financial services firm and serial acquirer, to provide pragmatic and commercially driven advice on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures.

He helps clients across a wide range of industries navigate:

  • Complex carve-outs
  • Affiliate transactions
  • Bankruptcy-related restructuring transactions
  • Leveraged buyouts
  • Negotiated and contested M&A transactions, including bankruptcy-related
  • Public and private investments, including SPAC-related considerations
  • Deal architecture and risk mitigation
  • Corporate governance matters in preparation for M&A activity

Demonstrating his commitment to giving back to the community, Ben maintains an active pro bono practice, including most recently advising a client through Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, a legal aid and education organization dedicated to New York artists and cultural organizations. At a previous law firm, Ben participated in legal clinics at various homeless shelters and support groups in Manhattan through Homeless Experience Legal Protection (HELP) and provided formation, regulatory, and corporate advice to small business owners and entrepreneurs in Upper Manhattan through the Business Resource & Investment Service Center (BRISC), which was established by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and the US Small Business Administration.

Prior to joining Latham, Ben served for more than a decade as senior in-house counsel at a global financial services firm. Before that, he worked at two leading global law firms in New York.

He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Rockland County Bar Association, and he received the Legal Aid Society’s 2003 Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award.

Ben's representative experience includes advising:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • A publicly traded cell phone tower owner/operator on its:
    • US$4.1 billion stock-for-stock merger into another publicly traded cell phone tower owner/operator
    • US$1.3 billion acquisition of cell phone towers from a publicly traded cellular service provider and the related leaseback of a portion of each tower to the seller
    • US$108 million sale of cell phone towers to a publicly traded cellular service provider
    • US$19 million divestiture of its Canadian business
  • A public Japanese trading company on its US$1.2 billion acquisition of power plants in Mexico
  • A private equity fund on its US$800 million acquisition, via merger, of a publicly traded company
  • A company on the US$500 million sale of a portion of its international investment
  • A sovereign wealth fund’s portfolio company on its US$493 million acquisition of an international manufacturing company with facilities in the US, China, Germany, and Mexico
  • A private company in the financial software industry on its US$400 million acquisition by a private equity fund via merger
  • A French publicly traded company’s US subsidiary on the US$140 million aggregate sale of a portion of its advertising business to a private equity fund and its partner’s sale of its entire interest
  • A private equity fund on its US$62 million sale of an international manufacturing portfolio company
  • A private equity fund on its US$33 million acquisition of a plastic-mold injection manufacturing company serving the US automobile industry
  • Acquisitions and dispositions across multiple geographies and industries, including:
    • Regulated entities in Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, the UK, and the US 
    • A registered investment advisory business
    • A regulated technology platform
    • A regulated gaming technology business
    • An advertising business
    • An online commercial goods platform
    • A wealth management business

Bankruptcy-Related Transactions

  • Bang Energy, a leading energy drinks and performance beverage manufacturer, on closing a chapter 11/Section 363 sale of its assets pursuant to an asset purchase agreement with Monster Beverage Corporation
  • Starry Group Holdings, a fixed wireless broadband ISP, as restructuring counsel, on its uncontested reorganization plan
  • A lender on a privately held borrower’s successful bankruptcy auction and Section 363 sale
  • A lender on restructuring a privately held borrower’s outstanding debt into new debt and equity
  • A publicly traded company on corporate aspects of its pre-pack bankruptcy filing that resolved US$1.8 billion of debt and coordinated its emergence from bankruptcy
  • A publicly traded company’s noteholders committee on corporate aspects of its pre-pack bankruptcy filing that resolved US$355 million of debt and coordinated its emergence from bankruptcy
  • A public Japanese company on its US$250 million acquisition of a mining company’s assets out of bankruptcy, including the purchase of senior debt directly from the lenders
  • A publicly traded international bank on its US$24 million acquisition of a leading processor of private label salads and fresh-cut vegetables as part of collecting on a defaulted promissory note
  • A publicly traded company on its bid to purchase life insurance assets from a bankrupt entity in a Section 363 auction and sale
  • A privately held company on its bid for real estate assets in a Section 363 auction

Joint Ventures

  • Corporate clients on investments and joint ventures in:
    • The international gaming industry
    • Broker dealer desks and equities trading technology platforms
    • Microwave antenna communications networks
    • An advertising business
    • An online ordering platform for commercial products

Bar Qualification

  • New York

Education

  • J.D. in Intellectual Property & Communications Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, 2000
    summa cum laude
  • B.A. in English Literature & Creative Writing, New York University, 1997
    cum laude

Languages Spoken

  • English
  • Hebrew