George Martin and Ryan Miske Tell Law360 How They Sealed the Deal in Hormel Foods' Acquisition of Skippy

Law360 highlighted the expedited sale of the Skippy peanut butter line from Unilever United States Inc., to Faegre Baker Daniels client Hormel Foods Corp. in its February "Sealing the Deal" feature. Faegre Baker Daniels partners George Martin and Ryan Miske signed the deal up, which would typically take two to three months, in just two and a half weeks.

The firm's M&A and food and agriculture teams in the Minneapolis, Indianapolis and Shanghai offices played integral roles in streamlining the $700 million, cross-border transaction. "The success of the deal was largely based on the depth and breadth of our M&A bench," Miske explained. "We assembled a team to work through the holidays day and night. That would have been impossible without a culture focused on client service and teamwork. It was an inconvenience for everybody — all had plans with family and friends that had to be canceled — but the firm's team has a common sense of commitment."

In particular, the 130-lawyer food and agriculture industry team at FaegreBD is structured in a way to maximize value for the firm's industry clients, Martin told Law360. "The food and agriculture industry team is multidisciplinary and is [composed] of many different practice areas," he said. "We meet on a regular basis, we share information and we host industry conferences. It's an area in which we've developed a great deal of expertise and knowledge that we think goes beyond our lawyering."