Joel L. Rubinstein

Partner, New York

Biography

Joel “impresses clients with his years of expertise and his strong deal portfolio in the SPAC market” and is described by clients as a “leader in the SPAC market and very easy to work with. He is always available to discuss questions and emerging topics to get ahead of potential issues”
Chambers USA, 2021-2023

Overview

Joel Rubinstein is a partner at White & Case, and a member of the Firm's Capital Markets Practice.

Joel has particular expertise in advising issuers, underwriters and investors on the IPOs of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), as well as SPACs, target companies and investors in de-SPAC business combination transactions. He has been advising clients on SPAC transactions since 2005. Since 2020, Joel has represented clients in more than 130 SPAC IPOs, raising aggregate gross proceeds of more than US$40 billion, and in more than 50 business combination transactions with an aggregate enterprise value of more than US$90 billion.

Joel also represents public companies in initial public offerings and follow-on offerings, as well as offerings of convertible notes and PIPEs, and in mergers and acquisitions.

Bars and Courts
New York State Bar
Education
JD
University of Michigan Law School
BA
Wayne State University
Languages
English

Experience

Joel's experience includes:

SPAC Initial Public Offerings

  • Represented Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. in its US$1.725 billion IPO and six prior Eagle SPACs raising an aggregate of US$2.43 billion
  • Represented Landcadia Holdings, Inc. I through IV, co-sponsored by Jefferies and Tilman Fertitta, raising an aggregate of US$1.64 billion
  • Represented dMY Technology Group, Inc. I through IV raising an aggregate of US$1.15 billion
  • Represented underwriters in dozens of SPAC IPOs including Citigroup and the other underwriters in the IPOs of Churchill Capital Corp. I through VII raising an aggregate of US$6.93 billion and Goldman, Sachs & Co. and the other underwriters in the US$500 million IPO of Slam Corp.

SPAC Business Combinations

  • Represented Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. in its US$15 billion business combination with Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc. (pending)
  • Represented Diamond Eagle Acquisition Corp. in its US$3.3 billion business combination with DraftKings Inc. and SBTech
  • Represented CM Life Sciences, co-sponsored by Corvex Management and Casdin Capital, in its US$2 billion business combination with Sema4 (pending)
  • Represented REE Automotive Ltd. in its US$3.1 billion business combination with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp.

Other Representations

  • Represented Goldman, Sachs & Co. in multiple follow-on public offerings, including two separate US$1.6 billion primary and secondary offerings of shares of Class A common stock of DraftKings Inc. and the US$418 million primary and secondary offering of ordinary shares of Genius Sports Limited
  • Represented Golden Nugget Online Gaming (Nasdaq: GNOG) in its US$1.56 billion merger with DraftKings Inc. (Nasdaq: DKNG)
Speaking Engagements

"SPACs – Where do we go after the inflection point?" Reuters webinar June 21, 2021

"SEC focus on Cybersecurity in the Financial Services Industry," PLI program, January 2017

"SPACs Debut in Canada and Continue in the United States: Trends in SPAC IPOs and Business Combinations on Both Sides of the Border," Practical Law Canada, January 2016

"SPACs: Overview," Practical Law, Practice Note, December 2015

Publications

"SPACs Are Back, And With Friendlier Terms," Buyouts, June 2010

"New SPAC Structure Holds Promise for Private Equity Exits," June peHUB, 2010

Awards and Recognition

Star Individual, Chambers USA, 2023, SPACs

Band 1, Chambers USA, 2021-2022, SPACs

"500 Leading Lawyers in America," Lawdragon Magazine, 2020

"Notable Practitioner" for Capital Markets: Equity, M&A, and Private Equity, IFLR1000, 2019

2019 Finance, Banking, and Capital Markets Trailblazer, The National Law Journal, 2019