Latham Named Private Equity Group of the Year
Latham & Watkins has received recognition as Private Equity Practice Group of the Year from Law360, which highlighted the firm “securing several big-ticket deals” during 2020 despite challenging market conditions.
In a feature article, Law360 noted that “private equity is big business at Latham,” with “hundreds of attorneys scattered across the globe, ready to drop into any private equity issue at a moment's notice.”
Paul Sheridan, Global Chair of the firm’s Private Equity Practice Group, noted that by September 2020 Latham attorneys had advised on more than 240 deals with a combined value of US$310 billion this year. “We've been a pioneer in private equity and private equity continues to be one of our largest premier practice groups,” he told Law360.
The firm’s deal work often involves Latham’s market-leading private equity lawyers working closely with colleagues across practice areas to execute complex deals. “They understand the sensitivity of a private equity transaction, the nature of an acquisition or disposition or joint venture,” New York partner Howard Sobel explained. “They're not just practitioners in intellectual property or environment — they're really transactional lawyers with a specialty area that just contributes greatly.”
Law360 highlighted Latham’s recent representation of CPA Global, a portfolio company of Leonard Green & Partners and leader in intellectual property software and tech-enabled services, in its US$6.8 billion combination with Clarivate Plc — a cross-border transaction that had the deal team "working literally around the clock" — as well as the firm’s advice to family tracing company Ancestry® in its acquisition by private equity funds managed by Blackstone for a total enterprise value of US$4.7 billion.
The Ancestry sale was structured as a club deal because the company was owned by several different private equity firms, which challenged the Latham team to “make sure everyone's goals are accomplished and at the same time making sure the buyer gets to where it needs to be,” said New York partner Justin Hamill, who led the deal team.