Russell Franklin
Russell Franklin counsels private and publicly held companies in connection with complex strategic transactions, including structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions (M&A), minority investments, and joint venture transactions for strategic and financial clients. His practice also includes general stock and asset transactions, and purchases and sales resulting from bankruptcy and out-of-court restructurings. Russell routinely partners with life sciences transactions (LST) lawyers on life sciences M&A and matters that include one or more equity components. Russell is a member of the firm’s SPAC Task Force and has counseled clients contemplating SPAC and de-SPAC transactions.
By focusing on understanding what clients are looking to achieve, and leveraging his experience, Russell strives to provide creative solutions that allow clients to meet their business objectives. In some instances, this amounts to Russell providing advice to clients throughout the entire lifecycle of a target including acquiring the asset, managing the asset, and, where applicable, ultimately disposing of the asset. Russell counsels clients across numerous industries including healthcare, life sciences, retail, financial services, and media.
- Comtech Telecommunications Corp. in the $40 million sale of its Power Systems Technology product line to Stellant Systems, Inc., a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners
- Mitsui & Co. in its acquisition of Dermaceutical Laboratories, a provider of innovative product development and manufacturing in the cosmetics space
- Eli Lilly and Company in its $309 million acquisition of Sigilon Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that seeks to develop functional cures for patients with a broad range of acute and chronic diseases
- Prudential Financial, Inc. in its strategic relationship agreement with LPL Financial designed to enhance the customer and financial professional experience for Prudential’s retail wealth management business, Prudential Advisors, and accelerate growth for both firms
- Bullish in its acquisition of CoinDesk, a media, events, indices and data company for the global crypto economy, from Digital Currency Group
- Bristol Myers Squibb in its acquisition of a Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher from bluebird bio, Inc. for $95 million
- American Regent in its acquisition of HBT Labs, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that has a pipeline of generic and 505(b)(2) pharmaceutical products that target various treatment indications including cancer and central nervous system disorders
- Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in its cross-border, multi-asset externalization transaction with Oak Hill Bio under which Takeda will receive an upfront payment, an ownership stake in Oak Hill Bio and potential milestones and royalty payments in exchange for six acquired and licensed programs
- Shiseido Americas Corporation in its $700 million sale of three cosmetic brands - bareMinerals, BUXOM, and Laura Mercier, to AI Beauty Holdings, an affiliate of Advent International
- The New York Times Company in its $550 million acquisition of The Athletic, a global digital subscription-based sports media business that provides national and local coverage of more than 200 clubs and teams in the United States and around the world
- Axispoint Technology Solutions Group, Inc. in its acquisition of dinCloud, Inc., a cloud service provider
- Far Peak Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company, in its merger with Bullish, a technology company that develops financial services for the digital assets sector whereby Bullish will become a public company
- PTC in its $715 million acquisition of Arena Solutions, Inc., a software as a service product lifecycle management platform provider
- Platinum Equity, with local counsel in Australia, in connection with the sale of Sensis, an Australian digital, marketing and directory services provider, to Thryv Holdings, Inc.
- Far Peak Acquisition Corporation in connection with its $550 million initial public offering of units consisting of ordinary shares and warrants
- The New York Times Company in its acquisition of Serial Productions, the company that produces the “Serial” podcast, and its strategic alliance with “This American Life” that will enable it to continue to collaborate on long-form audio stories with Serial Productions
- Henry Thayer Company in the sale of substantially all of its assets and liabilities to L’Oréal USA, Inc.
- Perrigo Company in its $113 million acquisition of the oral care assets of High Ridge Brands
- The New York Times Company in its acquisition of Audm, a subscription-based audio app that offers listeners longform journalism read aloud by celebrated audiobook narrators
- Far Point Acquisition Corp in its $2.6 billion acquisition of Global Blue (Switzerland), a payment services company for international shopping
- A pharmaceutical company in its bid to acquire certain assets of another specialty pharmaceutical company through a 363 bankruptcy sale
- Hostess Brands, Inc. in its $65 million sale of Superior Cake Products, Inc., an in-store bakery business, to Sara Lee Frozen Bakery
- Perrigo Company plc (Ireland) in its $750 million acquisition of Ranir, LLC, an oral care company globally, with a comprehensive portfolio of more than 300 highly customized oral care solutions, including power toothbrush heads, power toothbrush handles, whitening strips, manual toothbrushes, floss, mouthwash, dentures, and travel kits
- Harvard Law School, 2007, J.D.
- Cornell University, 2004, B.A., Government and Economics, with distinction
- New York


Notable Practitioner, M&A, United States, IFLR1000 (2025)
Member, The National Black Lawyers Top 100 (2023)
Rising Star, New York Law Journal (2022)
Recommended, M&A/corporate and commercial: M&A: large deals ($1bn+), The Legal 500 US (2020, 2021)
Executive Board, Cornell Black Lawyers Alumni Network
