John Owen is a partner in our New York office in our Corporate Group. He represents issuers and underwriters in complex capital markets transactions, working with issuers in more than 15 countries and representing clients in transactions that have raised in excess of $50 billion in gross proceeds over the last five years. His experience includes offerings of high-yield debt, equity, and equity-linked securities. He has worked with a variety of companies across industries, including life sciences, technology, telecommunications, financial services, and consumer products on capital markets, liability management, and M&A transactions.
- In two to three sentences, describe your practice. I’m a transactional lawyer who advises corporate issuers, underwriters, and investors on a wide range of capital markets transactions, including debt, equity, and equity-linked offerings. In my 17 years of practicing, I’ve been very fortunate to work on a really wide range of transactions, including representing a number of non-U.S. issuers on very complex transactions.
- Why did you choose to make MoFo your professional home? I love MoFo’s culture not just because it results in a great working environment but also because it results in great client service. Increasingly, clients expect their legal teams to bring a diverse set of backgrounds and viewpoints to bear in order to creatively solve their legal challenges. Moreover, in an ever more complex and interconnected world, transactions and other legal matters routinely stretch across multiple geographies and practice groups, and it’s critical that a law firm work collaboratively across offices and practices to deliver the best client service possible. Diversity and collaboration are at the core of MoFo’s culture, and we have a long history of very actively supporting diversity and inclusion. It’s great to work at a firm with a long, proven track record of supporting diversity and inclusion and being able to marshal the results of that commitment to deliver clients the best service possible.
- Why is professional mentorship important when it comes to promoting diversity and inclusion? I recently participated in a diversity panel discussion where one of the speakers asserted emphatically that we should strive not to be just attorneys that happen to be (in my case) LGBTQ+ but be visible as LGBTQ+ attorneys and leaders — something that is certainly welcome at MoFo. Mentorship is incredibly important to promoting diversity and inclusion in many ways, but what I love about this speaker’s comment is that it really brings home the important message that it is critical for younger attorneys to see diverse attorneys visibly leading the way. Building a mentoring relationship takes a lot of work and dedication, but, at its core, it allows younger attorneys to be more connected to the firm, feel more a part of a community faster, and, hopefully, see their mentor as a leader and a role model.