Private Equity & Buyouts

Our Services

Sonnenschein lawyers have deep and broad experience meeting the legal needs of private equity investment firms.  We do comprehensive financial and investment work for companies with a core focus in the following areas:

• Portfolio company acquisitions and dispositions
• Senior and mezzanine financing
• Tax structuring of management incentive compensation
• Fund formation
• Leveraged recapitalization transactions
• Acquisition of distressed companies and restructuring transactions

We add value to our clients by providing practical advise on business matters and by structuring transactions in a manner that maximizes business, strategic and tax efficiencies.

Our work involves capital-raising, portfolio company investments, disposition transactions, structuring of debt, mezzanine and equity financings, regulatory compliance and tax planning for private equity funds and their portfolio companies.  Specialized work for clients includes the use of tax-efficient structures and tax-free rollover transactions and expertise with media and technology sector companies.

We have advised and consulted with respect to related securities, investment company, tax laws, Small Business Investment Company (SBIC), ERISA plan asset and UBTI issues, and use of on- and offshore, master-feeder and side-by-side fund structures.  Our clients include financial institutions and major investment banks as well as major corporations that have formed private equity and venture capital vehicles.  We have advised on the following:

• Fund management issues, including vesting and retention and creating deferred compensation structures and multiple-profit interest structures to provide favorable tax treatment to portfolio company managers. 
• Tax implications of various structures and administration issues.
• Securities regulatory issues affecting private equity funds.
• Issues common in international investment transactions.
• Public policy issues bearing on regulatory matters that involve funds and other financial institutions.

Our Value

We meet clients’ life-cycle needs with our considerable depth and breadth of expertise in all types of private equity transactions.  Our practice uses a collaborative team approach that features the following benefits:

• Experience representing multiple constituencies with different viewpoints, enhancing our ability to consummate transactions.
• Expertise with foreign funds.
• Deep understanding of interrelated tax, executive compensation and management incentive plan issues.
• Experience representing a wide range of lenders making loans to private funds, enabling our clients to leverage their investments or gain faster access to capital than may be available through a capital call.
• Strong personal relationships that help establish our credibility as a trusted transactional advisor and resource.  Clients regard us as a true partner in their growth strategies.
• Cross-practice expertise in Corporate, Environmental, Tax, Real Estate, Employee Benefits and Bankruptcy & Restructuring to provide our fund formation clients with innovative, value-added transactional solutions.
• Strict confidentiality to protect clients’ interests and enable them to rely on our team to handle transactional details so they can focus on the next deal.