JB focuses on corporate law with an emphasis on advising clients on the intellectual property and technology aspects of transactional matters, including licensing arrangements, mergers and acquisitions, corporate financings and capital markets offerings.

He has extensive experience drafting and negotiating a wide range of transactional documents, focusing on intellectual property and technology, including trademark, patent and copyright license agreements, software agreements, development and manufacturing agreements, service agreements, assignment agreements, stock / asset purchase agreements, credit agreements, security agreements, offering memoranda and related ancillary documents.

His experience includes working with clients in the computer hardware and software, power, automotive, pharmaceutical, medical device, chemical and financial services industries.

Prior to joining the firm, JB was at an intellectual property boutique handling intellectual property counseling matters, including intellectual property litigation and prosecution and patent portfolio valuation and acquisition.

Experience

Representative matters

  • SAP in the USD12.5 billion sale of Qualtrics International to Silver Lake.
  • Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. in various matters, including its pending USD11.7 billion acquisition of Black Knight, Inc. and related divestitures; the sale of its “Interactive Data Managed Solutions” business; and the sale of Trayport.
  • General Electric Company in various matters, including in the combination of GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes, Inc. to create a USD32 billion oilfield technology provider and in connection with the sale of GE’s distributed power business for USD3.25 billion.
  • The Dow Chemical Company in various matters related to its USD130 billion combination with DuPont and subsequent spinoff.
  • Boston Scientific in a definitive agreement to acquire Axonics Inc., a publicly traded medical technology company focused on the development and commercialization of differentiated devices to treat urinary and bowel dysfunction, for an equity value of approximately USD3.7 billion.
  • Paramount Global on the sale of Simon & Schuster to KKR for USD1.62 billion.
  • American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. in connection with its USD1.6 billion cash and stock acquisition of Metaldyne Performance Group Inc.
  • Raytheon on the sale of its Military Airborne Radios business to BAE Systems.
  • Genmab A/S in connection with its initial public offering and listing on the Nasdaq.
  • Hitachi Energy in its acquisition of a controlling stake in eks Energy.
  • Amyris in the USD350 million sale and licensing of certain of its cosmetic ingredients to Givaudan.
  • Citigroup, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, and Mizuho as joint book-running managers and representatives of the underwriters in connection with Amgen’s registered USD24 billion notes offering.
  • Various underwriters, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, in connection with capital markets offerings, including in connection with Axonics Modulation Technologies, Inc.’s and HOOKIPA Pharma Inc.’s initial public offerings.
  • Various Administrative Agents, including Bank of America N.A., Citigroup, Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse, Jefferies Finance LLC and Goldman Sachs, on secured financing transactions.
  • B/E Aerospace in its USD6.4 billion acquisition by Rockwell Collins.
  • LyondellBasell Industries N.V. in its merger transaction with A. Schulman, Inc. for USD2.25 billion.
  • Salesforce.com, inc. in its acquisition of Demandware, Inc. for approximately USD2.8 billion.
  • Nokia in connection with the acquisition of Withings.
  • Thomson Reuters in its acquisition of Capital Confirmation, Inc. and its acquisition of REDI Holdings.
  • Textron Inc. on the sale of its Tools and Test Business.
  • Discovery Communications LLC in connection with the separation of its UKTV joint venture with BBC Studios.
  • Ardagh Group in connection with its combination of its Food & Specialty Metal Packaging business with Exal Corporation.
  • Boston Scientific in connection with its sale of its drug-eluting and bland embolizing bead business to Varian Medical Systems.
  • Ecopetrol in connection with its joint venture with Occidental Petroleum Corporation.
  • Lanxess in its acquisitions of the clean and disinfect businesses of Chemours.
  • McGraw Hill Financial in connection with its sale of J.D. Power for USD1.1 billion.
  • Ardagh in its purchase from Ball Corporation and Rexam PLC of certain metal beverage can manufacturing assets for an enterprise value of USD3.42 billion.
  • Legg Mason, Inc. in its acquisition of equity interest in Clarion Partners Holdings LLC.
  • Novartis Groupe France S.A. in its tender offer to purchase all of the ordinary shares of Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A., a French radiopharmaceutical company that develops, produces and commercializes molecular nuclear medicines, in a transaction valued at approximately U.S. USD4 billion.
  • GENEWIZ Group, a leading global genomics service provider, in connection with being acquired by Brooks Automation.

Published Work

  • JB Betker, (2019), “INSIGHT: Registering Immoral, Scandalous Trademarks Following Brunetti,” Bloomberg Law

Qualifications

Admissions

New York, 2011

Courts

Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, 2015

Academic

B.S., University of Notre Dame, 2007
B.A., University of Notre Dame, 2007
J.D., Washington University in St. Louis, 2010
Disclaimer
A&O Shearman was formed on May 1, 2024 by the combination of Shearman & Sterling LLP and Allen & Overy LLP and their respective affiliates (the legacy firms). Any matters referred to above may include matters undertaken by one or more of the legacy firms rather than A&O Shearman.