Joe Basile, Founder and Managing Director
Joe Basile is founder and managing director of Pari Passu M&A Mediation LLC, an independent specialist practice that focuses exclusively on mediating disputes relating to M&A transactions. Joe brings to mediation the subject matter expertise, market knowledge, experience and judgment acquired from over four decades of successful M&A deal making to help parties find solutions to M&A-related controversies and to create value in the process.
Joe is widely recognized as an expert in mergers and acquisitions. As an M&A lawyer he has amassed an extensive body of work advising corporations and private investment and sovereign wealth funds on complex transactional matters, including cross-border and domestic mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, control and minority investments and strategic alliances in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. His corporate clients have included global Fortune 500 companies, mid-market public companies, and private equity, venture capital and family-owned private companies. Joe’s experience includes negotiated, hostile and distressed M&A transactions and financial restructurings. He has represented both buy-side and sell-side clients and has significant experience in dealing with issues relating to representation and warranty insurance.
In addition to (but separate from) his dispute resolution work at Pari Passu, Joe is a Senior Advisor at Hogan Lovells US LLP, a 2,800-lawyer global law firm, where he provides strategic advice to the firm and its clients regarding M&A and governance matters. From 2014 to 2022, Joe was Co-Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Foley Hoag LLP. During his tenure at Foley Hoag, Joe spearheaded the firm’s recognition as a Tier 1 law firm by IFLR 1000 in corporate M&A. Joe joined Foley Hoag from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he was a partner in the firm’s M&A practice from 2008 to 2014 and managing partner of Weil’s Boston office from 2011 to 2014. Prior to Weil, Joe was a partner at Bingham McCutchen, LLP, where he was a member of the M&A practice.
Joe is perennially named as a leading lawyer for M&A and corporate law by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, IFLR1000 and Best Lawyers, and was named 2022 Boston M&A Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers. Joe is a recognized thought leader in mergers and acquisitions, having been a frequent speaker at events for many professional organizations, including the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, NYSE Governance Services, the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Society for Governance Professionals. He is also an author of numerous professional articles regarding mediation, M&A and governance.
Joe earned his JD cum laude from Harvard Law School and his AB summa cum laude from Stonehill College. He has also trained as a mediator with the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation executive education program.
Joe is a member of the bars of the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He serves as a member of both the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee and the Disputes Resolution Committee of the American Bar Association Business Law Section. In connection with his work on the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, Joe serves on the M&A Market Trends subcommittee. Joe is also a member of Mediation Committee of the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution.
