ATTORNEY PROFILE

Rick J. Gibson

Partner

During his twenty years as a corporate lawyer, Rick Gibson has served as primary legal advisor on a variety of domestic and international business transactions, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, financings (including credit agreements and equipment leasing), cell tower transactions, franchising, joint ventures, and corporate governance matters. He represents entrepreneurs, small businesses, and public and private companies in numerous industries, including automotive, consumer product, equipment rental, franchising, insurance, restaurant, retail, and telecommunications. Rick has also served as local counsel on many transactions to render closing legal opinions on Ohio and New York law matters for credit agreements, indentures, and other matters. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Rick worked in his family’s business for many years, so he has first-hand experience with the real-world issues and challenges encountered in the business environment. Rick also has significant experience on much larger transactions, such as:

  • T-Mobile’s $2.4 billion monetization of over 7,000 towers with Crown Castle; Sprint-Nextel’s sale leaseback involving over 3,000 towers with TowerCo; certain aspects of Verizon’s $5.0 billion monetization of over 11,000 towers with American Tower Corporation (ATC); NII Holding’s sale leaseback of 4,000 towers in Mexico and Brazil with ATC; T-Mobile’s sale leaseback of 600 wireless towers to Phoenix Tower; Alaska Wireless Network’s $90.0 million sale leaseback of 300 wireless & broadcast towers with Vertical Bridge; the sale of BR Towers, SA (Brazil) (over 4,500 towers) for approximately $1.0 billion to ATC; and certain aspects of a similar tower transaction for Trilogy International in the Dominican Republic.
  • Acquisition of approximately $1.0 billion of cellular spectrum for US based carrier.
  • Master franchise agreement for the development and operation of Panda Express restaurants throughout Mexico.
  • Consolidation and roll-up of NationsRent (n/k/a Sunbelt Rentals), involving dozens of equipment rental businesses.
  • More than $500 million of equipment lease financings involving a variety of different assets.
  • Numerous Section 363 asset sales and dispositions, including deals for Polar Corporation, Alderwoods, AZ Automotive, and others.
  • Out-of-court debt and equity restructurings of Evenflo, Examination Management Services, Norwood Promotional Products, and Pentagon Technologies.

Other companies for which Rick has worked on matters during his career include Community Choice Financial (Check Smart), Delaware County Bank, Evenflo, Gruppo Gigante, Indian Motorcycle, Kokosing Construction Company, Nationwide Insurance, Network Towers, Polar, Questor, Schindler Elevator, Trilogy International Partners, US Bank, Viva, Yum! Brands, and WW Williams. Rick is a frequent speaker on a variety of transaction-related topics, and he is a member of the American Bar Association (Business Law Section and the Legal Opinion Section), the Ohio State Bar Association, and the Columbus Bar Association. Rick is actively involved with Buddy-Up Tennis, Inc. (http://www.buddyuptennis.com), a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, which provides a tennis and fitness program for individuals with Down Syndrome in seventeen cities and nine states. Buddy Up Tennis was organized in 2009 by Rick and his wife, Beth, as a result of their youngest son’s passion for tennis.

Education

  • University of Pittsburgh (Juris Doctor magna cum laude, 1996; Order of the Coif; Articles Editor, Pitt. Law Review).
  • Loyola University of Chicago (Masters of Business Administration, with a Finance concentration, 1994).
  • Loyola University of Chicago (Bachelor of Business Administration magna cum laude, with a Information Systems concentration, 1991).

Bar Admissions

  • New York
  • Ohio

Contact Details

Phone
614.763.2240
Email
rjgibson@lmng-law.com
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