Sheppard Mullin

Strategically located in New York, California, Washington, D.C., Chicago and in several locations in Asia, Sheppard Mullin's Private Equity team serves the legal needs of the private equity community. We represent private equity and leveraged buyout firms of all sizes in connection with acquisitions, divestitures and restructurings of their portfolio investments, including structuring the transaction and preparation and negotiation of documentation, exit transactions, including initial and follow-on public offerings, going private transactions and other mergers and acquisitions transactions. We provide a complete range of services at all stages of the investment cycle from start-up or "seed" capital to growth capital, mature private equity, and management buyouts.

Sheppard Mullin Private Equity team offers unique advantages to Private Equity clients, such as, senior attorneys’ full attention to the Private Equity client’s transaction and other legal needs and the ability to work with a dedicated Private Equity team on their matter which ensures continuity and efficiency of the transaction process.

We also established a Private Equity Portfolio Company Program for the benefit of our Private Equity clients and their portfolio companies’ management teams. This Private Equity Portfolio Company Program offers clients a dedicated team of senior experts in all practice areas assigned in advance to handle any legal matters of the portfolio companies during the Private Equity fund’s ownership period, making it easier for the portfolio company management to handle day to day legal matters and more cost-efficient for the Private Equity fund which translates into an increase in the portfolio company’s bottom line and sale value.

Our transactional experience includes acquisitions of portfolio companies (platform investments) and add-on acquisitions by portfolio companies, recapitalizations, investing in and/or recapitalizing financially distressed companies, mergers, strategic investments, restructurings, dispositions, multinational divestitures, and initial public offerings. Our lawyers are experienced with all stages of investments (including venture, growth, and buy-outs) as well as with the entire balance sheet of a portfolio company (including equity, private investments in public companies, mezzanine capital, and structured financing solutions).

We can also assist private equity clients to structure innovative financing arrangements. We advise clients on how to comply with an array of legal requirements, develop disclosure documents and contracts, devise sound tax strategies and exercise practical judgment on a broad spectrum of law-related issues. Our experience encompasses the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and related state laws and regulations.

Because of the complexity of certain transactions, our lawyers draw on the expertise of lawyers in other practice areas of the firm, including tax, finance, securities, labor, litigation, intellectual property, real estate, employee benefits, and bankruptcy.

We provide our clients with comprehensive solutions, from the initial letter of intent to the closing of the deal and beyond. Our private equity lawyers have represented clients in making investments in a variety of industries, including retail, aerospace and defense, food and beverage, e-commerce, technology, manufacturing, real estate, telecommunications, biotechnology, financial services, entertainment and media, transportation, energy, construction, healthcare, consumer products, apparel and agribusiness.

"As Sheppard Mullin continues to grow, it is important that we not lose sight of the need to recruit women, attorneys of color and others of diverse backgrounds."
-Guy Halgren, Chairman of the Executive Committee

At Sheppard Mullin, we make every effort to recruit the finest lawyers and nurture their talents. The firm recognizes the importance of diversity and the need to create a workplace of inclusion. We need ¿ and our clients demand ¿ a team of attorneys that is as diverse as our increasingly global client base. Achieving and maintaining diversity is key to great client service ¿ a core value of our firm. What distinguishes good intentions from results is a commitment by senior management to find the best attorneys possible coupled with the sincere belief that people with diverse backgrounds bring valuable attributes to the firm. At Sheppard Mullin, the Executive Committee, Diversity Committee, and the lawyers in each of our offices work hard to ensure that all attorneys who join our firm fit in seamlessly and are encouraged to succeed.

Members of our Diversity Committee include ethnically diverse attorneys and a representative from the firm's Executive Committee. Diversity Committee members have served on the Boards of the Anti-Defamation League, the Black Women Lawyers Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Charles Houston Bar Association (northern California). Women and minority attorneys participate on key committees of the Firm (Executive Committee; Compensation Committee; Diversity Committee; Recruiting Committee; Professional Personnel Committee; Associate Issues Committee). Four of the Firm's nine Office Administrative Partners are women, one of whom is African-American and another is multi-racial.

"Serving on the firm's Diversity Committee is one of the most important things I do. I firmly believe that we must be vigilant in our efforts to recruit talented women attorneys and attorneys of color. Our success in this area has a positive effect our firm's culture, practice and client relationships."
-Joan Story, Member Executive Committee and Diversity Committee

Below is a description of just some of our outreach efforts.

• The firm participates in and financially supports the California Minority Counsel Program and the ABA Minority Counsel Program, as well as several minority bar associations. These groups are dedicated to increasing access for and promoting and retaining minorities in the legal profession.
• The firm actively recruits law students of color, e.g., we participated in the National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) of the Western Region job fair held at UCLA School of Law.
• Sheppard Mullin contributes to the Minority Corporate Counsel Association; California Women Lawyers; Queen's Bench; Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles; and the National Black Law Students Association, among others.
• We actively participate with other major Los Angeles law firms in the Diversity Directors Roundtable, a group that is committed to promoting diversity in the legal profession and in our firms.
• The firm received the Law Firm Award from the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Foundation for its strong commitment to the promotion of community and pro bono activities.
• Multicultural Law magazine named Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP as one of "The 2011 Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity."
• Sheppard Mullin helped underwrite the production of a motion picture project entitled "Soul of Justice: The Life and Times of Thelton Henderson." The film chronicles the life of respected African-American jurist Thelton Henderson, a crusading civil rights litigator and role model.
• The firm signed the Bar Association of San Francisco's "No Glass Ceiling Initiative," BASF's "Minority Goals and Timetables," the New York County Lawyers' Association Diversity Statement, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Diversity Statement.

Much of our pro bono work relates to the diversity of the communities in which we practice; sample clients include:

• Constitutional Rights Foundation
• Domestic Violence Project, Los Angeles Bar Association
• Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights
• Task Force for the Women's Resource Fair, City of San Diego
• Tolerance Through Education Program, Beverly Hills Barristers Associations
• Violence Against Women Act Program, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

Awareness of diversity enables us to understand the value of differences. At Sheppard Mullin, we are committed to hiring top tier attorneys, without regard to race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.