Ben Barkley advises public and private clients in a broad range of corporate finance transactions and securities regulatory matters, including mergers and acquisitions; public offerings and private placements of debt and equity securities; venture capital and private equity investments; compliance with securities disclosure obligations; corporate governance; corporate restructurings; recapitalizations and distressed situations; joint ventures and strategic alliances; and special committee, board and independent director counsel.

Mr. Barkley has broad experience structuring and executing mergers and acquisitions and other control transactions, including extensive experience representing strategic buyers in consolidating industries, leading serial acquisition programs including from 10 to 120 acquisitions. He has handled public and private issuances of debt securities in transactions ranging in size from $20 million to $1.35 billion, including Rule 144A offerings, high yield 144A-for-life bond offerings, investment grade public debt offerings, institutional private placements, and Exxon Capital debt exchange offerings. He also has extensive experience with equity offerings ranging in size from $10 million to more than $1 billion, including initial public offerings, secondary offerings, at-the-market continuous offerings, and PIPES transactions.

Mr. Barkley has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities/Capital Markets Law in 2015 and each of the six years immediately preceding. He is listed in the 2014 and the five years immediately preceding editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading lawyer for Corporate/Mergers & Acquisitions and in the 2009, 2011 and 2012 editions of Legal 500 US for Mergers & Acquisitions. He was also named as a top “Dealmaker” of 2008 by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Mr. Barkley was recognized by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2004 for being one of Atlanta’s “Up and Comers – Under 40 and Rising,” and has been recognized as a 2009 Georgia "Super Lawyer" for Corporate Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Securities Law by Super Lawyers magazine, and again in 2014 and the three years immediately preceding for Mergers & Acquisitions. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, he was recognized as one of Georgia Trend's “Legal Elite” for Corporate Law. Mr. Barkley previously served as Deputy Managing Partner of the firm, and as Chairman of the Corporate Department.