Insights

Choate Announces New Practice Group Leaders

Choate today announced that John Pitfield has been named co-chair of the firm’s Business Technology Group and John Ventola has been appointed co-chair of its Finance & Restructuring Group.

Pitfield, who is a member of the firm’s Hiring Committee, will serve as co-chair of the Business Technology Group with current co-chair Brian Goldstein.  The highly regarded group includes attorneys with expertise in life sciences and technology, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and securities.  According to Chambers USA, “this is a team that places a real emphasis on relationships; clients of all sizes enthused about the attention they received and likened the relationships to those with in-house counsel.”

Ventola, who is on the firm’s Executive and Hiring Committees, will serve as co-chair of the Finance & Restructuring Group with current co-chair Doug Gooding.  The group, which is ranked by Chambers USA as one of the leading practices in sophisticated financial transactions, represents leading financial institutions, debt funds, institutional investors, private equity sponsors, borrowers and issuers in a full range of secured and mezzanine financings, and junior capital investments.

“We are excited to have John Pitfield and John Ventola take on these important management roles,” said Charles Cheever, co-managing partner at Choate.  “They are both strong leaders at our firm, in their fields, and with clients, and we look forward to their continued leadership of these core practice areas.”

Pitfield brings nearly 20 years of experience in public/private US and Canadian corporate transactions, mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and going private transactions to his new role.  He was named the 2016 Boston “Lawyer of the Year” for Securities Regulation by Best Lawyers, and a “2016 Client Service All-Star” by the BTI Consulting Group in the M&A and Securities and Capital Markets categories.  Pitfield received his LLB from the University of Toronto Law School in 1997 and his BA, first class distinction, from Queen’s University in 1994. 

Ventola has practiced in the finance and restructuring industry for more than 20 years, focusing on bankruptcy and restructuring, finance and junior capital, and private equity. He was recently named one of the world’s leading bankruptcy attorneys by the Guide to the World's Leading Insolvency and Restructuring Lawyers.  Ventola received his JD, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from Boston College Law School in 1994 and his BS, magna cum laude, from Boston College in 1990.