Raymond J. Murphy, Jr, Esquire, is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of ArbJournal.  Mr. Murphy has 20 years of experience in risk arbitrage research and consulting, following and researching literally thousands of transactions. During this  tenure in the field, Mr. Murphy has worked in numerous capacities: economist, research analyst, attorney, consultant, entrepreneurial publisher and editor. This multifaceted background has provided Mr. Murphy with a deep, broad and historical perspective on the legal and regulatory issues germane to the practice of risk arbitrage.  ArbJournal was founded in the summer of 2004.

Mr. Murphy began his career as an Economist with the U.S. Department of Commerce (Bureau of Economic Analysis), where he worked on GDP statistics and the Input/Output table of the U.S. economy. He spent three years as an economic analyst and research assistant to the antitrust and federal regulatory group at Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in its Washington, DC office, concentrating on risk arbitrage research and analysis. Mr. Murphy worked for two years as a trial lawyer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where his practice included antitrust litigation and counseling, federal and state regulatory matters and civil and criminal litigation, including several jury trials. Prior to founding his original research service, Takeover Stock Report, in 1996, Mr. Murphy worked for two years as an attorney with a boutique consultancy in Washington, DC, advising arbitrage and distress-investment funds on legal and regulatory matters.  Mr. Murphy received a B.A. in Economics from Marquette University and a J.D. from Duquesne University, where he was a member of the Duquesne Law Review for two years and won the law school's annual trial moot court competition (Gourley Cup). He also holds an LL.M. in Securities Regulation from Georgetown University.

Joining Mr. Murphy on the ArbJournal editorial team are the following Editors:

Nathy Dunleavy, Editor-in-Chief, Europe, joined ArbJournal in the summer of 2011.  Mr. Dunleavy is an accomplished and seasoned attorney with ten years of practice experience in M&A transactions and EU competition law.  His experience includes four years in the New York, London and Brussels offices of Shearman & Sterling, where his practice focused on Antitrust and M&A transactions.  Mr. Dunleavy also spent four years in the London office of Sullivan & Cromwell, again focusing on Antitrust transactions and litigation. He is a part-time tutor on EU law at Trinity College Dublin and has recently published a 950-page practitioner textbook on European Competition Law (Competition Law:  A Practitioner's Guide covers EU, Irish and U.K. Competition Law, Bloomsbury Professional, published December 2010).  Mr. Dunleavy has been a frequent speaker at conferences on EU Competition Law.  Mr. Dunleavy received an LL.B from Trinity College Dublin and holds an LL.M in EU Law from University of Maastricht.  He is admitted to practice law in New York, Ireland, England and Wales.  A representative list of transactions that Mr. Dunleavy has worked on includes the following:

• Rio Tinto Limited on the EU and US antitrust aspects of its ultimately abandoned combination with BHP Billiton
• Instrumentarium in its Euro 2 billion acquisition by GE (in-depth investigations by both EU and US investigators)
• Chiron Corporation in its acquisition by Novartis AG
• R.R. Donnelly & Sons in its acquisition of Banta Corporation
• Bank of New York in its acquisition of Mellon Bank

Karl Betz, Esquire, Executive Editor, joined ArbJournal in the spring of 2005.  Prior to that, he was an Editor at Takeover Stock Report, where he researched and reported on both U.S. and European merger arbitrage situations. While at the Takeover Stock Report, he spearheaded the Report’s coverage of banking and insurance deals and was the lead editor on many other deals, including PeopleSoft, Concord EFS, GulfTerra, and many others. Mr. Betz is an attorney with more than six years of combined practice and consulting experience. He began his career as a staff attorney with the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, DC, where he helped draft a number of the OCC’s regulations implementing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and worked on a number of the agency’s Y2K and electronic banking initiatives. He then spent two years as an associate with Clifford Chance in New York, advising major U.S. and international financial institution clients on complex bank and broker-dealer legal and regulatory issues, and derivatives and structured finance transactions. At Clifford Chance, his practice ranged from analyzing the implications of the proposed Basel II bank regulatory capital rules to drafting and negotiating securities lending and repurchase agreements. Mr. Betz earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Christopher J. Hagert, Esquire, Executive Editor, joined ArbJournal in the fall of 2005 and is also a veteran of the Takeover Stock Report, where he was engaged in the coverage of both U.S. and European merger arbitrage situations for almost two years. While Mr. Hagert's focus at Takeover Stock Report was primarily on banking and oil deals, he researched and reported on a number of deals in a wide range of industries, and was the lead editor on such deals as Premcor/Valero, Southtrust/Wachovia, Riggs Bank/PNC and Caesars/Harrahs. Before joining Takeover Stock Report, Mr. Hagert spent two years as in-house corporate counsel for the First North American National Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary credit card bank of Circuit City, in Richmond, Virginia. While at FNANB, Mr. Hagert helped facilitate numerous regulatory examinations of the bank, was involved in the development and implementation of the bank's compliance program, and managed a wide variety of commercial litigation. Prior to going in-house, Mr. Hagert spent three years as a law clerk and associate attorney in the Washington, DC area law firm, Fossett & Brugger, where he was engaged in various aspects of the firm's diverse corporate practice. Mr. Hagert received his undergraduate degree in History and English from the University of Delaware, and his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Katherine B. Bain, Esquire, is an ArbJournal Contributing Editor. Prior to joining us, Ms. Bain spent four years with the Richmond law firm BrownGreer PLC as counsel for a Fortune 200 Company and its litigation and settlement liability in a complex national class action settlement. While at BrownGreer, Ms. Bain monitored and reported on the status of the claims in the settlement trust, developed and implemented a national opt-out program in compliance with a $1.5 billion amendment to the settlement agreement, and helped develop and manage a national program to settle outstanding litigation against the company. Prior to her time at BrownGreer, Ms. Bain spent 3 years as a law clerk and associate attorney in the Richmond law firm, Crews & Hancock, where she practiced with the firm's professional liability insurance team, and in addition to a general corporate and insurance coverage practice, worked with insurance and other regulators on licensing and merger issues. Immediately following law school, Ms. Bain was a law clerk to United States Magistrate Judge James E. Bradberry in Norfolk, Virginia. Ms. Bain received her B.A. in Spanish from the University of Virginia, and her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law.

E. Brooke B. Baxter, Esquire, is an ArbJournal Contributing Editor. Prior to joining ArbJournal, Ms. Baxter spent several years as an associate in a law firm serving as counsel on a complex national class action settlement. In that role, she managed a legal and medical team to evaluate over 1,000 claims seeking compensation from multi-million dollar fund. She helped design and implement the claims review process for meeting the medical and legal requirements for claims to receive benefits. Ms. Baxter also has served as an estate planning attorney, drafting Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and Advanced Directives and serving as an assistant executor to execute estate inventory, disbursement and filings with commissioner of accounts. As a business attorney, Ms. Baxter has provided advisement to Boards of Condominium Owners and establishing business registration. In a pro bono capacity, Ms. Baxter assisted a non-profit organization with its establishment and application to the IRS for a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Prior to law school, Ms. Baxter worked on Capitol Hill for a senior senator and various campaigns, primarily serving as the candidate's schedule. Ms. Baxter received her B.A. from Hollins College with a major in philosophy and her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law.

Petya Aladzhova is a Contributing Editor on ArbJournal's European content, joining the publication in the summer of 2011.  Ms. Aladzhova has several years of experience as a qualified attorney with law firms in Bulgaria and has recently received an LL.M. in Competition Law from University College London.  Her legal experience includes participation in due diligence exercises in the course of M&A transactions and the preparation of a regulatory notification for the acquisition of a Bulgarian telecommunications company.   While pursuing her LL.M., Ms. Aladzhova also participated in an e-Competitions project for the editing of a competition bulletin on national and European competition issues.  She has also worked as a trainee at the European Court of Justice at the European Union.  Ms. Aladzhova has a Master Degree in Law from Sofia University.  

Brian C. Burgess, Esquire, Contributing Editor on antitrust matters, has spent the last three years as a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, DC, where he has been a member of the Mergers II legal team. Of particular note is his recent participation in the FTC investigation into the proposed merger of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc. (RJR) and British American Tobacco p.l.c.’s U.S. subsidiary Brown & Williamson (B&W). In that investigation, Mr. Burgess interfaced with economic consultants, participated in FTC discussions with other governmental entities, led depositions of key executives and participated in all aspects of the development of the staff-level antitrust theory. His litigation experience includes FTC v. Libbey, et al., 211 F. Supp. 2d 34 (D.D.C. 2002), which resulted in a preliminary injunction and subsequent abandonment of a proposed acquisition. Mr. Burgess was awarded an Official Commendation by the Commission for his performance in the Libbey litigation. During his three years at the FTC, Mr. Burgess drafted legal memoranda, pleadings and witness declarations, negotiated nondispositive motions and discovery requests, developed witness testimony, and coordinated document production. His practice also included high-level participation in identifying and developing remedial solutions for transactions presenting antitrust concerns in the view of the FTC. Mr. Burgess earned his J.D. from Emory University School of Law. During law school, he served as a legal intern in the Atlanta office of the Federal Trade Commission. Mr. Burgess has a B.S. in Finance from Birmingham-Southern College, which he attended on a four-year Presidential Scholarship.