Type Of Business:
Law Firm
Expertise:
Mr. Hackett's expertise includes transactional corporate, securities and banking law, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity.
Major Product/SVS:
Legal Services including Corporate Securities and Banking Law
Favorite Business Publication:
The Wall Street Journal; Financial Times; Forbes; The Economist; BusinessWeek
Hobbies/Sports:
Spending Time with his Family, Sports, Reading, Traveling
Education Degrees:
JD, Duke University (1967); Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (1964)
Affiliations Awards:
Maricopa County Bar Association; Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations; American Bar Association; Editorial Board Member, Duke Law Journal (1967); Former Board of Directors, Alumni Association, Duke University School of Law; Former President, Phoenix Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth; Former Chairman, Securities Section, State Bar of Arizona
Children's Names:
Robert Jr., John, Kathryn
What do you feel separates you from the rest of the professionals in your industry?:
Mr. Hackett’s respect, communication, diversity, balance, recognition, integrity, excellence and public service separate him from his peers.
What has been the most outstanding thing you have done thus far in your career?:
Mr. Hackett’s greatest career achievement was with his client, Bank of Montreal, the lead bank serving as agent for the Canadian banks, Western Savings & Loan Association of Phoenix and NuWest Corporation of Canada. Western and NuWest were publicly held. The CEO of Western, Gary Driggs, assembled one lawyer each from each of several firms: Streich Lang served as counsel to Western, O'Connor Cavanaugh was counsel to NuWest and I served as counsel to the Banks. I was a partner at Evans, Kitchel & Jenckes at that time. The Western CEO asked that we document and close within 13 days a complex transaction that would enable Western to report to FSLIC that it was in compliance with the minimum net capital requirement applicable to Western and all other savings institutions. The transaction involved a swap of NuWest real estate in exchange for Western's equity securities. Bank of Montreal was asked to release its lien on the NuWest real estate. He negotiated and drafted various documents to protect the Banks and to enable that lien release and exchange to occur, including a new loan agreement between the Bank and NuWest negotiated and drafted by him during an all night negotiation session with NuWest's CEO. The documents were signed and placed in escrow on the 12th day after the initial meeting with the CEO. The closing occurred soon thereafter. The transaction was named as one of the ten largest and most important deals in the United States by the National Law Journal for that month. Western was able to communicate to FSLIC that it was in compliance with FSLIC's net capital requirements as a result of the transaction. Another difficult and challenging transaction involved an individual client who sought his advice and counsel regarding a dispute with his former employer, a large publicly held corporation based in Los Angeles. His client was accused of wrongdoing by the LA company. After reviewing and analyzing the facts and applying applicable legal principles to those facts, he concluded that his client was innocent of the charges made by the LA company. His client held an option on the stock of a subsidiary of the LA company. The assets of the subsidiary were very valuable. The exercise price of the option was well below the fair market value of those assets. His client needed financing to exercise the option. He arranged the financing from a local Arizona based bank and then had his client exercise the stock option after the stock market closed on a Friday afternoon. He knew the LA company could not permit his client to exercise the option and purchase the stock, since those assets were not only very valuable but also were central to the LA company's business plan. On the following Sunday, they signed the settlement agreement, relinquished the option, executed mutual releases and then their client received a check from the LA company for several million dollars. The loan to the Arizona bank was repaid within the next few days. A final interesting case involved Hospital Corporation of America, who sent their senior vice president to engage him to bring HCA into the Arizona healthcare market. At that time hospital clients were required to appear before a certificate of need panel, which was charged with the responsibility to select one of the hospital companies to develop, own and operate the new hospital. The company decided to enter into the Phoenix certificate of need process against stiff competition from most of the local hospital companies. Even though they were the underdog in that competition, the Phoenix CON exercise enabled them to assemble a team of HCA healthcare and financing experts, develop their arguments and build their case so that they would be ready for the Tucson certificate of need proceeding which was expected to occur within a few months after the completion of the Phoenix CON process. When the Tucson proceeding started, their team was ready. They prevailed in that proceeding so that HCA was able to build, own and operate Northwest Tucson Hospital in Tucson, Arizona.
Throughout the duration of your career, what was the one highlight that stood out the most?:
The most gratifying aspects of his career are representing six different prominent companies. He represented Phelp's Dodge Corporation on its acquisition of Chino Mines Company from Kennecott Corporation, including the financing of that acquisition from a production payment carved out of Phelps Dodge’s Morenci, Arizona mine. He represented Merrill Lynch Trust Company before the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions to obtain a license to serve Arizona investors as a trust company. During his career, he was retained by ASARCO Incorporated to represent the company in connection with an $80 million tax exempt bond offering placed by Bankers Trust Company to finance pollution control facilities at the company's Hayden, Arizona smelter. Mr. Hackett also represented The Chase Manhattan Corporation, now J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., regarding its $89 million cash acquisition of the stock of Continental Bancorp and its subsidiary Continental Bank of Scottsdale, Arizona. In addition, he represented Chase as lender's counsel to the bank's oil and gas division on numerous multi-million dollar loans to many prominent members of the oil and gas industry, including companies such as Quaker State Oil, Crown Central Petroleum and United Refining Co., among many others. He also represented Simula, Inc. (NASDAQ) with respect to the issuance to Levine Leichtman Capital Partners of Los Angeles, California of $20 million in Senior Secured Notes and Warrants for the purpose of restructuring Simula’s balance sheet, to provide funds to redeem Simula debentures held by the public and for working capital. Mr. Hackett also represented Simula on SEC filings following the LLCP closings. Lastly, he was engaged by The FINOVA Group Inc. to provide advice to its Legal Department on compliance with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including various proxy statements and other SEC filings.
Charity:
Xavier Preparatory High School for Young Women; Local Catholic Charities; Duke Law School; Rutgers University Football Program
Number Of Years In Profession:
40
Number Of Years In Current Position:
5
What Does He/She Attribute Success To:
He attributes his success to the fact that his father John and mother Marie raised him and his brother John to respect authority, to be helpful to other people, to cherish friendships, to become productive members of society, to deal fairly and ethically with others and to stay true to their Roman Catholic faith and principles.
Why did you become involved in your profession or industry?:
He decided to become a lawyer after meeting with the chairman of the Rutgers University political science department, Professor Benjamin Baker, while a senior at Rutgers University. He advised Professor Baker that he was considering applying for the masters program in political science, with the goal of achieving a Ph.D. in political science and then becoming a professor. Dr. Baker encouraged him to attend law school and introduced him to Dean Elvin Latty of Duke Law School. Dr. Baker's advice and his introduction of Bob to Dean Latty changed his life. Dean Latty encouraged Mr. Hackett to apply to Duke Law School in 1964. Following this, Roy Haberkern, the senior banking law partner during that time period at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy of New York, interviewed Bob at Duke Law School and then recruited him to MTH&M, where he worked as an associate in the corporate, securities and banking law areas for several years. Eventually he joined Evans, Kitchel & Jenckes, a prestigious law firm in Phoenix where Chief Justice William Rehnquist had practiced before Bob's arrival at E,K & J. The lessons he learned and the skills he developed at those two firms have benefited him in countless ways. There is really no way for him to adequately express his gratitude to the many fine lawyers that he has had the opportunity to work with in those two firms, subsequently at Fennemore Craig and now Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix. It is especially pleasing to Mr. Hackett that lawyers at Milbank as well as a Milbank alumnus at another firm continue to send transactional work to him at JS&S.
Extended Bio Profile:
Mr. Hackett along with his spouse have tried to impart values and attitudes to their two sons, Bob, an Intel engineer, and John, a physician with Valley Anesthesiologists in Phoenix, and their daughter Kate, who is an associate lawyer with another highly respected Phoenix law firm. Their sons and daughter lead lives that inspire him to continue their family's traditions.
Position Responsibilities and Duties:
Negotiating and Drafting Documents for Corporate, Securities and Banking Law Transactions, Representing Securities Issuers, Securities Broker Dealers, Venture Capital Firms, Investment Banking Companies and Lending Institutions
Awards/Honors:
America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Chambers USA (2004-2009); Marquis Who's Who in America (1999-2009); Marquis Who's Who in American Law (1999-2009); Southwest Super Lawyer Award (2007); Editorial Board, Duke Law Journal (1967); AB Top Lawyer Award, Arizona Business Magazine; AV Rated Lawyer, Martindale-Hubbell