McGuireWoods deputy managing partner Joanne Katsantonis has been named an MCCA Rainmaker by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, the premier diversity and inclusion organization for the legal profession.
Katsantonis is a global rainmaker who serves as lead counsel to companies in multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions. She recently advised Dominion Energy Inc. — one of the nation’s largest energy producers and transporters — in a $14.6 billion stock-for-stock merger with SCANA Corp. The deal, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, is the largest U.S. energy M&A deal so far this year and would create a combined company serving 6.5 million electric and natural gas distribution customers in 18 states from Connecticut to California. Katsantonis has advised Dominion in many strategic mergers and acquisitions, including its $4.4 billion acquisition of natural gas company Questar.
Katsantonis is a driving force who established McGuireWoods as a leader in emerging growth areas including public utility and gas company mergers and utility-scale solar and retail energy transactions. Focusing on the areas of M&A, energy transactions and financing, she advises purchasers and sellers of businesses as well as energy companies of all kinds, from public utilities and independent power producers to financial investors. Over the past 18 months alone, she has led more than a dozen solar power transactions with an overall project value of $5 billion.
Early in her career in McGuireWoods’ Brussels office, Katsantonis completed one of the first initial public offerings on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange after it switched to Euros. She also handled a $1 billion loan facility spanning 10 different countries and currencies. Her work leading landmark transactions throughout her nearly 30-year career earned her recognition as an “M&A/Antitrust Trailblazer” from The National Law Journal. Under her leadership as former chair of McGuireWoods’ energy team, the firm earned a nationwide ranking for its energy regulatory and litigation work in the prestigious Chambers USA guide and the firm’s U.S. energy regulatory and enforcement work was recognized in Chambers Global.
As part of her recognition as an MCCA Rainmaker, Katsantonis will be featured in the spring edition of the organization’s Diversity & The Bar magazine.