Global Co-Head of Capital Markets at Paul, Weiss, John Kennedy focuses primarily on corporate finance and securities transactions. He has represented both issuers and underwriters in a broad range of public and private securities offerings.
Kennedy has handled many complex securities and financing transactions, such as initial public offerings, high yield debt offerings, convertible debt offerings, cross border securities offerings, exchange offers, debt tender offers, consent solicitations and debt restructurings. He also regularly counsels his public clients on corporate governance and securities compliance issues.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2027 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers | 2027 | Capital Markets |
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2026 | Capital Markets |
| The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2025 | Capital Markets |
| The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2024 | Capital Markets |
| The 2022 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2022 | Capital Markets |
| Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2021 | Capital Markets |
Kennedy has represented:
- Rocket Companies in its $2 billion IPO and $9.5 billion of debt offerings
- Carnival Corporation & plc in a number of securities offerings, including $36.3 billion of debt offerings, $3.8 billion of common stock offerings and $2.5 billion of ATM equity programs since 2020
- Latham Group in its $437 million IPO and $234 million secondary offering
- European Wax Center in its $207 million IPO
- Driven Brands in its $700 million IPO and $225 million secondary offering
- Taylor Morrison Home Corporation in its $722 million IPO
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company in its $252 million IPO
- Las Vegas Sands in securities offerings and financings, including its IPO, its $3 billion secondary offering, its $2.1 billion equity offering and the financing of the Venetian Casino Resort, the Palazzo Casino Resort, its Singapore casino project, the Sands Macau, the Venetian Macau and other casino projects in Macau
- Emdeon in its IPO
- General Electric in the spin-offs of GE Healthcare and GE Vernova
- IBM in the spin-off of Kyndryl Holdings, its managed infrastructure services business into a separate publicly traded company
- Honeywell in its spin-off of Garrett Motion, Honeywell’s former Transportation Systems business
Kennedy's other public company clients include AMN Healthcare, Chevron, Garrett Motion, Teladoc and Vertiv Holdings. He also regularly represents private equity firms such as 3G, General Atlantic, Oak Hill Capital Partners and CI Capital Partners.