Movers & Shakers

McCarter & English has announced that Jonathan Guest has joined the firm as a partner in the Boston office's Corporate, Securities and Financial Institutions Group. He joins the firm from Greenberg Traurig LLP, where he was a shareholder and formerly head of its Corporate and Securities Department in Boston.

Guest concentrates his practice in corporate and securities law including debt and equity finance (public and private offerings including shelf regulations, registered direct offerings, PIPEs and rights offerings), corporate governance (Sarbanes-Oxley compliance), and domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He has also advised early stage companies concerning matters of entity selection, capital structure, “angel” and venture capital finance, secured loans, executive compensation, intellectual property protection, and technology licensing.

Guest represents publicly traded U.S., Canadian, UK, and Australian companies involved in pharmaceuticals and drug development, oil and gas as well as natural resource exploration and production, and commercial real estate. He has also advised companies engaged in telecommunications, e-commerce, and software. In addition, Guest has extensive experience with federal and state securities law matters encountered by foreign companies seeking to raise capital and have their securities traded in the United States.

Guest earned his LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University School of Law and his J.D. from Cornell Law School. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Hereditary Disease Foundation.

Rosemary Becchi, a tax attorney with private-public sector experience, has joined Patton Boggs LLP's Washington, DC, office as a partner. In her new role, Becchi will provide strategic counsel on developing federal and state policy initiatives, developing strategic relationships, and long-term planning. She plans to counsel clients on financial service and tax issues.

After earning her masters of law from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, Becchi worked for the IRS in its Office of Chief Counsel, developing and drafting national tax policy.

As counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, Becchi worked on an array of tax issues, including corporate, tax-exempt, and tax accounting matters. She played a key role in developing legislation that created the 529 college savings account and Coverdell Education Savings Account ' legislation that has been the cornerstone of congressional efforts to help parents save for higher education expenses.

Becchi's experience includes working at Fidelity Investments, where she launched the company's first federal government relations office. She also worked at Citigroup and Arthur Anderson. Prior to joining the firm, Becchi founded and ran her own consulting firm where she counseled clients on business and government relations matters.

Becchi is also an active leader in the business community, serving as a member of the Tax Coalition, a volunteer professional organization providing a forum for the exchange of ideas among more than 150 tax-professional women. She is a previous chair of the Tax Coalition.