Charles Sipkins
Charlie Sipkins is a Managing Director and heads the Los Angeles office of Sard Verbinnen.
He provides transactional, media relations, corporate and crisis communications counsel to clients across a broad range of industries, including technology, media, transportation, energy and the financial services sectors. He advises management and boards on high-profile engagements, including friendly and contested M&A, management changes, litigation, regulatory actions and other special situations.
Recent engagement and representation highlights include:
- Pandora with its management change announcement
- News Corporation on crisis and financial communications, including the separation of its entertainment/media & publishing assets as well as events resulting from phone hacking in the United Kingdom
- The Groupon Board of Directors on ongoing issues, including its management change announcement and IPO
- Handling corporate communications for The Chernin Group
- A consortium participating in the bidding process for the Los Angeles Dodgers
- Wynn Resorts with the redemption of its largest shareholder dispute and related litigation
- The Yahoo! Board of Directors announcing its strategic review, proxy fight, CEO and Board changes and sale of its stake in Alibaba
Charlie has advised clients on communications related to earnings, restructurings, activists and proxy fights, in addition to class-action, antitrust, environmental and employment litigation. He has also counseled clients during SEC, DOJ and multi-state attorneys’ general investigations as well as product recalls and physical disasters.
Mr. Sipkins previously was a managing director focused on M&A/financial and crisis communications at The Abernathy MacGregor Group in Los Angeles. He also worked at Fleishman-Hillard and Hill & Knowlton in New York.
Mr. Sipkins began his career as a legislative assistant to Representative Martin Sabo (MN) in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and serves on the Board of Directors of Imagine LA and CityLA.