Jim Silkenat Bio

Jim Silkenat is a partner of Arent Fox and heads the International Business Group in the New York office. His primary focus is on international joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, privatizations, project finance transactions (in developed and developing countries) and private equity investment funds.

Client Work

Jim's recent representations have included: investors and fund managers in international investment funds; governments and bidders in privatization transactions; European banks in loan transactions in the U.S.; Asian corporations and financial institutions in cross-border acquisitions and financings; U.S. corporations in joint ventures overseas; U.S., Latin American, Asian and African companies and government entities in project financings, particularly in the energy sector; and U.S. and international technology companies in capital-raising activities. He has substantive industry experience in energy, hotels, manufacturing, transportation and telecommunications.

Professional Activities

An active member of the American Bar Association, Jim has served as Chair of the Section of International Law and Practice and the Section Officers Conference. In 1990 he was elected to the A.B.A. House of Delegates and has served as Chair of the New York Delegation in the House of Delegates since 2000. He served on the A.B.A. Board of Governors from 1994-1997 and has Chaired the A.B.A.'s Latin American Legal Initiatives Council. He is also a former Chair of the A.B.A.'s Museum of Law and of the A.B.A.'s China Law Committee. He is also a member of the House of Delegates of the New York State Bar Association and Chair of the Council on International Affairs of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Jim is a former adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.

Publications/Presentations/Recognitions

A prolific writer, Jim has authored more than 100 articles on law and business for various national and international publications. He is editor of:

• The A.B.A. Guide to International Business Negotiations (1994 and 2000 Editions)
• The A.B.A. Guide to Foreign Law Firms (1988, 1993, 1999 and 2004 Editions)
• The Moscow Conference on Law and Bilateral Economic Relations
• International Mergers and Acquisitions

Jim is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the American Law Institute, has served as a Fellow in the U.S. State Department Scholar/Diplomat Program, and was a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Jim is also a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and currently serves as National Chair of the Fellows. In 2000, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award for Career Achievement from Drury University. He is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the East, the Euromoney Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers and the Mondaq Guide to the World's Leading Banking Lawyers.

Bar and Court Admissions

New York Bar
District of Columbia Bar

Education

New York University School of Law, L.L.M. (International Law) 1978
University of Chicago Law School, J.D. 1972
Drury College, B.A. 1969