Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Corporate Transactions

Partner - Corporate and Finance Transactions

Fred’s practice serves businesses in a wide range of domestic and foreign matters, with a primary emphasis on cross-border M&A. He is knowledgeable in business-related aspects of the world’s legal systems, as well as in business practices and cultures of many countries. In addition to M&A, Fred also represents clients in joint ventures, technology transactions and other commercial relationships such as licensing, teaming, research and development, distribution and supply. He spends most of his time assisting clients in planning, negotiating, documenting and implementing these transactions, often in conjunction with a team of BCLP lawyers and lawyers from other firms which he has assembled for the specific project. He also advises clients on international antitrust and trade issues. He practices law in both the English and German languages.

Fred, a partner resident in the St. Louis office, began practicing with Bryan Cave in 1983. He conducted his international transaction practice from the Firm’s New York office from 1986 to 1989 and he maintained a European-based transaction practice and managed the Firm’s German office for six years beginning when he moved to Frankfurt in 1990. After he returned to St. Louis in 1996, his practice continued in cross-border M&A and other international transactions, and in addition to the US and Europe, also involved extensive matters in Asia and Latin America.

Fred has also been active in firm leadership, having managed at various times the firm’s offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris, in addition to the 6 years he spent in Frankfurt, and being responsible from 2007-2016 for the overall coordination of the firm’s practice matters in Europe. He also served on the firm’s Executive Committee from 2008 to 2014 and chaired the committee responsible for promotion of partners. Fred is recognized by The Best Lawyers in America and he also is listed as one of America’s leading lawyers for business in Chambers USA. He passed the CPA examination in 1979, and he worked on the audit staff of a large public accounting firm before attending law school. He also studied German and European law at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt. Fred currently co-manages the firm’s global network of preferred law firms in over 145 countries.