James F. Rogers retired from the partnership in December 2009. He was a corporate partner in our Washington, D.C. office, where he has practiced law from 1981 until 2010, during the last several years of which he chaired the firm's Mid-Atlantic Emerging Company Practice Group. James had a very broad-based corporate practice, counseling clients across a variety of legal and business issues, including the following:
- mergers and acquisitions, both private and public
- strategic partnerships and joint ventures
- private equity finance (venture capital, growth equity, and buyout)
- bank financings, vendor financings, and alternative financing structures
- initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, and high-yield debt offerings
- outsourcing and procurement, including government contracts
- employee benefits and executive compensation
- labor and employment matters
- FCC and other regulatory, licensing and compliance matters
- public company regulatory compliance and disclosure issues
- intellectual property
- bankruptcy and reorganization
His practice focused on technology-oriented companies (including communications and media, information technology, biotechnology and life sciences, and energy and clean technology), but it also included traditional industries such as restaurants, consumer products, real estate and professional services.
Prior to entering the practice of law, James served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles Clark, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, from 1979 to 1980 and the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, from 1980 to 1981. He also studied German language and literature at the University of Freiburg, Germany in 1974, and from 1970 to 1971 reached A-levels in physics, English and economics at Cheltenham College, Cheltenham, England.
James served as Co-Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Opinions of the Federal Communications Bar Association and as a member of the National Venture Capital Association's Model Document Working Group as well as a member of the Steering Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Associations Capital Connection. In the civic realm, he serves as co-chair of the board of directors of the Appleseed Foundation and previously served as president of the D.C. Preservation League.