Nicholas P. Panos

Nicholas P. Panos is a Senior Special Counsel in the Office of Mergers and Acquisitions at the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance in Washington, D.C. His responsibilities include administering and interpreting the federal regulatory provisions governing international and hostile business combinations, proxy contests for corporate control and going-private buyouts initiated by management, affiliated parties or investment funds. Mr. Panos is a contributing author to an SEC Interpretive Release on tender offers that are not required to be filed with the SEC, such as tender offers for non-convertible debt and certain limited partnerships. In 2009, Mr. Panos engineered exemptive relief needed to assist General Motors’ attempt to buyback $28 billion in public debt, and was instrumental in helping Citizen’s Republic Bancorp navigate compliance requirements in their effort to reduce indebtedness and increase Tier 1 capital. Mr. Panos has also been credited with helping to develop a short sale disclosure system of limited duration in response to the financial crisis, and for authoring parts of proposed (and adopted) reforms to the SEC proxy solicitation rules. Mr. Panos is a two-time recipient of the SEC’s Law and Policy Award for contributions relating to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, and recently helped finalize disclosure rules applicable to the use of security-based swaps by large equity holders. Mr. Panos graduated from Colgate University with a B.A. in Economics. He obtained his law degree from the University of Denver where he was a member of the Law Review and earned a research credit in a West Publishing textbook on the law governing administrative agencies. He also holds an MBA degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.