Henali Patel

Picture1.jpg

Henali Patel

$0.00

Henali is a rising 3L and is originally from Houston, Texas. She serves as the communication officer for Student Ambassadors and as a student attorney for the Community Economic Development Clinic. Henali loves European football, particularly Liverpool, but can watch any game and have a great time. When she’s not spending time studying, she enjoys long boarding and doing all things related to the mountains. Henali’s legal areas of interest include a variety of transactional work including corporate, commercial tax, and cannabis law.

 

Add To Cart
Student and Faculty Blog of University of Denver Sturm College of Law
After Its IPO Flubbed, WeWork Jumps On The SPAC Train

After its failed 2019 Initial Public Offering (“IPO”) attempts, WeWork announced, on March 26, 2021, it has agreed to go public with a special purpose acquisition company (“SPAC”). (Reuters Staff, Reuters). This past year, SPACs have become the hottest trend in finance. (Tom Huddleston Jr., CNBC). According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis, roughly 230 SPACs went public in 2020, raising about $71 billion in funding, a new record for SPACs in a single year. (PricewaterhouseCoopers). The number of SPACs that have gone public in 2021 is more than the annual total for IPOs in past years for both traditional IPOs and SPACs combined. (Rani Molla, Vox). Companies like DraftKings, Nikola Motor Co., Opendoor, and Virgin Galactic have all used the popular method of taking companies public through SPACs. (Tom Huddleston Jr., CNBC). SPAC mania is still booming, and WeWork is just one of many newbies on the expanding list of companies targeted by SPACs. Id.

Third-Largest Pension Fund in the U.S. Purges its Portfolio of Fossil Fuel Companies

New York City (“NYC”) announced, the week of January 25th, 2021, three of its five public employee pension funds will pull out a collective $4 billion previously invested in fossil fuel companies. (Alex Wittenberg, Bloomberg). According to city officials, this divestment from fossil fuels is not only one of the first in our nation but is expected to be one of the largest environmentally conscious divestment efforts in the world. (Rachel Koning Beals, MarketWatch). The million-dollar question, or better yet, the $4 billion question is: Is it acceptable for custodians of these massive funds to risk losing profits for the beneficiaries of the fund over a moral disagreement with the investment?