Corporate, securities and finance.
Harvard College, A.B. 1961, cum laude; Harvard Law School, LLB, 1964, cum laude. Admitted to California Bar 1965.
Mr. Connell is a nationally recognized expert in securities laws, and advises the firm’s clients on disclosure and broker-dealer matters. He also has had more than 35 years of experience in handling mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructurings, venture capital investments and advisory assignments to boards of directors and special committees. By virtue of his many years representing various foreign and domestic business interests, he has a broad range of experience in asset backed securities, lending, equipment leasing and finance transactions.
In 1978 Mr. Connell joined the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC. During the latter half of 1978, he served in the Office of the General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 1979, he became the Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance for Legal Affairs, where he was responsible for the preparation and adoption of the Commission’s integrated disclosure forms, including both new reporting forms and new registration forms. He also had responsibility for all other activities relating to the adoption and interpretation of the rules administered by the Division of Corporation Finance, including those relating to the registration and sale of securities, tender offers, proxies and insider reports. Mr. Connell left government service in 1980 and returned to private practice in Los Angeles.
State Bar of California, American Bar Association
Mr. Connell’s community activities include service as a director and President of the Michael J. Connell Foundation; director and Treasurer of the Good Hope Medical Foundation, director of Value Schools, the operator of Los Angeles-based charter schools, and director of Community Television of Southern California, a Los Angeles based non-profit PBS broadcasting and production affiliate. Mr. Connell was a trustee of Occidental College from 1984 to 1989. He was a director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association from 1983 to 2001, where he was President from 1985 to 1987 and Chairman of the Board from 1987 to 1989. He was Chairman of the Board of Community Television of Southern California from 2001 to 2003. He was a director of the Colburn School, a Los Angeles based school for young musicians, from 1998 to 2001. Mr. Connell is a frequent lecturer for a number of organizations sponsoring continuing education programs on topics ranging from securities laws to professional ethics. Recently Mr. Connell has been a frequent lecturer on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
Mr. Connell has been listed for multiple years in Best Lawyer in the practice areas of Corporate Law and Securities Law in Southern California's Best Lawyers. Click here to read more about this distinction and to download a copy of this publication.
