Sidley – a global law firm with 2,300 lawyers, annual revenue of $3.2 billion, and experience that spans 158 years – announced the names of its 38 newly-elected partners and 27 newly-promoted counsel listed below by office and area of practice. These attorneys will become partners and counsel at Sidley effective January 1, 2025.
The new Sidley partners are as follows:
Boston
— Kenyon Hall (Securities Enforcement and Regulatory) focuses her practice on representing individual and corporate clients in connection with investigations and enforcement proceedings brought by the SEC, FINRA, and various state and federal regulators. Kenyon also represents clients in employment disputes in arbitral forums.
Century City
— Ryan M. Hicks (Private Equity) represents private equity firms and public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions and divestitures. He provides strategic counsel to clients across various industries, including entertainment, sports, media, and healthcare.
— Diana Ovsepian (Real Estate) represents private equity firms, REITs, hedge funds, lenders, financial institutions, investment banks, institutional investors, hotel management companies, operators and other real estate investors in all facets of domestic and cross-border real estate, hospitality, and finance transactions. She counsels various commercial real estate asset classes, including hospitality, multi-family, industrial, office, retail, senior and assisted living, healthcare, and mixed-use properties.
Chicago
— Andrew C. Adair (Global Finance) focuses on the representation of issuers, fintech companies, private equity funds, specialty credit funds, banks, real estate investment trusts, insurance companies, corporate borrowers, alternative asset funds, and others in a wide variety of asset securitization, warehouse, forward flow purchase, secured lending, special situations, and other commercial finance transactions. And acquisitions and financings of personal loans, debt settlement loans, point-of-sale consumer loans, small business loans, residential mortgage loans, and other receivables comprise a significant portion of his practice.
— Sara N. Africano (Insurance) focuses her practice on helping clients in the insurance industry navigate complex insurance and financial regulatory issues and achieve their strategic goals. She represents insurance companies and financial services institutions on insurance regulatory and corporate matters concerning various transactions, including M&A, corporate reorganization, joint venture, reinsurance, structured finance, and insurance holding company transactions.
— E. Kyle Barnett (Technology and Life Sciences Transactions) focuses his practice on technology and life sciences transactions. He counsels clients primarily in intellectual property and technology transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, IP licenses, software development and licensing, outsourcing, and other commercial arrangements.
— Morgan Branch (Product Liability and Mass Torts) represents clients in their most crucial trial and litigation matters. She has diverse experience representing and advising pharmaceutical, medical device, manufacturing, commercial, and consumer goods clients in complex product liability and commercial litigation matters in state and federal courts.
— Richard M. Chen (IP Litigation) focuses on complex patent litigation with experience spanning its most critical phases and has applied his litigation experience in matters involving various technologies, emphasizing biologic medicines, wireless data standards, and computer software. He has developed and assessed infringement and validity theories, managed and conducted expert and fact discovery, and worked as a member of a successful trial team.
— Jessica M. Day (M&A) focuses her practice on representing buyers and sellers in public and private mergers and acquisitions across a wide range of industries and private equity transactions. She also regularly advises publicly traded and private companies regarding corporate governance matters and state corporate law.
— Jackson T. Garvey (Restructuring) represents debtors, secured lending syndicates, bondholder groups, equity holders, purchasers, sellers, and individual creditors in all aspects of restructurings — both in and out of court — distressed asset dispositions and acquisitions, as well as bankruptcy-related litigation. He also maintains an active pro bono practice focusing on veteran issues and Section 1983 litigation.
— Ryan A. Lee (Real Estate) focuses his practice on transactions in the healthcare sector. These include joint ventures, acquisitions, restructurings, public-private projects, and sale-leaseback transactions. He regularly represents REITs, insurance companies, institutional investors, private equity funds, closely held real estate companies, and developers in connection with matters involving various healthcare, office, retail, and industrial assets. He has handled transactions involving U.S., Canada, and Europe properties.
— Paige A. Levitt (Insurance) focuses her practice on various corporate, securities, and regulatory matters involving the insurance and financial services industry. She regularly represents insurance companies, private equity firms, and other industry participants in connection with domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, public and private securities offerings, the formation and capitalization of domestic and offshore insurance and reinsurance companies, related ventures—including sidecars and other alternative capital vehicles—and regulatory matters.
— Brad Meissen (Investment Funds) represents private equity and venture capital firms in connection with their organization, operations, management, capital raises, portfolio investments, and other strategic transactions. He has significant experience representing both large, sophisticated global asset management firms and emerging startup managers that operate and invest in different geographies, both in the U.S. and abroad. He raises and deploys capital across multiple private equity asset classes, primarily focused on leveraged buyouts, growth equity, venture capital, real estate, secondary, private credit, and sports.
— Jaime R. Simon (Product Liability and Mass Torts) represents clients in their most crucial trial and litigation matters. She has diverse experience litigating product liability, mass tort, and toxic tort actions, False Claims Act/qui tam matters, criminal cases, insurance class actions, and financial services disputes.
— Graeme R. Waller (Emerging Companies and Venture Capital) provides strategic counseling to emerging and high-growth companies at all life cycle stages, from formation to IPO and acquisition. He has extensive experience representing companies in venture capital financings, joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions. He regularly advises companies on general corporate and governance matters, including employment law, equity compensation, and intellectual property law.
Dallas
— Chelsea A. Priest (Commercial Litigation and Disputes) focuses her practice on commercial litigation and disputes in federal and state courts across various industries. She is a trial lawyer with significant experience handling arbitration, class action, energy, and intellectual property matters.
Houston
— Blair B. Belsky (Global Finance) focuses on a broad range of structured finance transactions, including warehouse credit facilities, forward flow purchases, asset securitization, and other term financings for various asset classes. Her practice also focuses on financings and acquisitions of marketplace loans, small business loans, point-of-sale loans, home improvement loans, and other consumer receivables.
— Mahalia S. Doughty (Energy and Infrastructure) focuses on private equity, financing transactions, and debt restructurings. And she has extensive experience representing private equity funds, public and private companies, financial institutions, and public and private issuers in a wide variety of financing transactions in both the United States and abroad, with a concentration on acquisition financing, investment grade lending, asset-based lending — including reserve-based lending for oil and gas transactions — and general working capital facilities.
— Chris Folmsbee (Energy and Infrastructure) focuses on representing public and private businesses and private equity and infrastructure funds with investment transactions, primarily in the energy and infrastructure space, including experience representing clients with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, debt and equity financings, and investments in distressed companies. His experience spans the energy sector, including upstream, midstream, energy transition, and transportation.
— Samantha C. Seley (Energy and Infrastructure) represents funds, management teams, and strategic investors in their investments in the energy, transportation, and infrastructure industries, including energy transition, oil and gas, energy storage, digital infrastructure, telecommunications, rail, other infrastructure, manufacturing, and emerging technologies. She assists clients in private equity investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, project development, equity financings, and other corporate matters.
London
— Dr. Chris Boyle (Food, Drug, and Medical Device) advises and litigates in the highly regulated fields of human and veterinary medicinal products, medical devices, biocides, chemicals, food, and feed. In addition to his advisory and litigation work, he coordinates multi-jurisdictional compliance projects. He supports complex life sciences corporate transactions and private equity deals by providing valuable legal and industry insights and specialist due diligence.
— Dhevine Chandrapala (Restructuring) focuses on cross-border restructurings, advising sponsors, debtors, creditors, and strategic investors on restructurings of stressed and distressed businesses. He also advises private equity and credit houses, hedge funds, and investment banks in their review and diligence of European and Asian investment opportunities in par, stressed, and distressed transactions.
— Christopher Lock (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy) advises clients on their most complex regulatory challenges arising out of international trade, including sanctions and export controls, foreign investment screening, trade remedies and tariffs, supply chain regulations, WTO law, and trade-related aspects of UK sustainability regulations. He is also experienced in providing supplementary counseling to clients working through transactional matters including mergers and acquisitions, contract review, and capital investment.
Los Angeles
— Rara Kang (Commercial Litigation and Disputes) represents clients in commercial litigation and disputes and provides counsel as a full-service litigator in various industries, including consumer products and services, energy, oil and gas, apparel, food and dietary supplements, and real estate. Her experience spans all phases of litigation, from advising on pre-suit litigation risk management to guiding business decisions through fact investigation, discovery, and dispositive motion practice to trial and post-trial motions.
New York
— Robert Garritano (M&A) focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, and shareholder activism. He has represented publicly listed companies, private equity sponsors, and investment firms in various strategic transactions, including mergers, cross-border acquisitions, corporate restructurings, divestitures, joint ventures, and proxy contest defenses.
— Melissa H. Goldschmid (Global Finance) focuses on various global finance transactions. These include structured finance and asset securitizations, leveraged and acquisition financings, and real estate financings for underwriters, major financial institutions, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, local development corporations, and other market participants.
— Samuel S. Goldstein (Real Estate) focuses his practice on the representation of financial institutions in real estate finance and development, with particular emphasis on construction lending and credit enhancement of tax-exempt bonds to finance affordable multifamily housing. He has experience representing private equity investors in the formation and operation of joint ventures, and his representative clients include major global investment banks and financial institutions.
— Matthew J. Kutner (Investment Funds) focuses on representing registered investment funds in regulatory, transactional, and compliance matters. He regularly advises clients on the establishment, registration, and operation of registered open-end and closed-end funds, including the development and offering of new funds, as well as providing advice regarding investment activities, sub-advisory arrangements, and other service provider relationships, exemptive relief, compliance programs, and governance matters.
— Justin C. Nowell (Corporate Governance) counsels public and private companies and boards of directors across industries. He advises on various corporate matters, including corporate governance, shareholder activism and preparedness, takeover defense, environmental, social and governance (ESG), mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, and related legal matters impacting their business and key stakeholders.
— Daniel M. Philion (Global Finance) advises clients on debt finance transactions focusing on leveraged and acquisition finance. He represents lenders, including alternative lenders, asset managers, and traditional banks, as well as borrowers, including both corporate and private equity borrowers, in a variety of secured and unsecured, domestic, and cross-border financing transactions.
— Michael David Williams (Real Estate) focuses his practice on three primary areas. He represents financial institutions in construction lending and equity investment, including low-income housing tax credit investment for affordable multifamily housing and economic development projects. He also advises on sports real estate transactions, including the development and renovation of stadiums and arenas, and represents private equity clients in connection with real estate financing transactions.
San Francisco
— Ellen E. Hunter (M&A) advises clients on a wide range of corporate and securities issues, including mergers and acquisitions involving public and private entities, capital markets transactions, asset acquisitions and dispositions, and corporate governance. She has represented public companies on a range of securities law matter,s including SEC periodic reporting obligations, proxy disclosures, stock exchange requirements, and corporate governance matters.
Washington, D.C.
— Brittany A. Bolen (Environmental) assists clients with a full suite of regulatory matters, including comments on agency proposals, engagement with regulators, enhancements to internal compliance programs, and enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxic Substances Control Act, among other environmental laws. She also advises clients on federal funding opportunities, voluntary programs, and tax provisions under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act; contributes to environmental diligence for transactions and joint ventures; and provides strategic counseling related to climate change and sustainability matters.
— Allison C. Davis (Transportation) represents railroads before federal courts and federal agencies such as the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). She also advises parties in transactions involving rail lines or other transportation assets and counsels clients on compliance with federal transportation regulations.
— Daniel J. Hay (Regulatory Litigation) represents individuals and corporations in all stages of complex and high-stakes litigation, including critical motions practice, oral argument, discovery, trial, and appeal. He has extensive experience in commercial disputes and government-facing litigation,n including matters defending against government enforcement actions and challenging federal regulatory actions under the Administrative Procedure Act.
— Jillian Sheridan Stonecipher (Commercial Litigation and Disputes) represents clients in a wide range of litigation in trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. These matters involve constitutional and administrative law, intellectual property, and contracts.
— Kristin S. Teager (Banking and Financial Services) represents a range of fintech companies, cryptocurrency businesses, payment processors, money transmitters, prepaid program managers, depository institutions, and retailers in connection with providing innovative payments products and other financial services. Her practice includes negotiating and drafting complex commercial agreements, with a focus on the provision of financial services through strategic partnerships, including private label and co-brand credit card program agreements, servicing agreements, and payment processing agreements.
— Sara M. von Althann (Capital Markets) focuses on various disclosure and regulatory matters, reporting obligations, corporate governance and compliance issues, and capital markets transactions critical to public companies, boards of directors, and broker-dealers. She advises clients in their interactions with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, (FINRA), and exchanges with respect to requests for no-action relief, interpretive guidance, reviews, regulatory requests, inquiries, and investigations.
The following lawyers will be counsel effective January 1, 2025.
Brussels
— Justine Fassion (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy) advises and represents companies, governments, and trade associations on a wide range of international trade law matters, focusing on economic sanctions, export controls, and investment screening. She also assists clients in complex cross-border transactions with sanctions or national security implications resulting from foreign investment control in the EU and globally and conducts legal and compliance due diligence in the context of those corporate transactions.
Century City
— Anthony James Friedman (Private Equity) represents private equity firms and public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions and equity investments. In addition, he has experience representing investors and emerging growth companies on venture capital investments and private financings.
— Zachary Shub-Essig (Private Equity) represents clients in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, equity offerings, and other financing-related transactions, representing public and private corporations and other entities in various industries throughout the United States and abroad, including the technology and industrial sectors. He provides corporate guidance to directors, officers, and other executives on board governance, investor relations, and employment matters.
Chicago
— Elizabeth T. Burns (Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation) advises clients concerning executive compensation and employee benefits aspects of corporate transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and financings. Her practice also includes designing and administering equity incentive plans and employment, severance, retention, deferred compensation, change in control, and other compensation-related arrangements.
— Christine Duque (Corporate Governance) focuses on advising the board of directors and senior management of large U.S. public companies, foreign private issuers, private equity firms, institutional investors, and non-profit organizations. She counsels clients across multiple industries on various corporate governance matters.
— David Meehan (Private Equity) advises public and private companies, as well as private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, in various transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations, and minority investments. He has extensive experience in lower-to-middle market private equity transactions. He often provides general corporate counseling, advising on commercial contracts, executive employment and incentive arrangements, management agreements, corporate governance, and other general transaction-related matters.
— Catherine D. Stewart (Healthcare) focuses on representing companies in both internal investigations and enforcement actions brought by federal and state authorities, including the Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s offices, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and state Attorney General Offices. She works with various clients, including pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, pharmacies, premarket life science companies, electronic health software manufacturers, e-commerce platforms, and private equity firms focused on healthcare acquisitions.
Dallas
— Nick DeAngelis (M&A) represents buyers and sellers in M&A transactions, as well as public and private companies and investors in fundraising transactions. He represents several life sciences and biotechnology companies in public and private offerings, including IPOs, underwritten offerings, registered direct offerings, PIPE offerings, and ATM offerings.
— Adam M. Nelson (Global Finance) represents private equity sponsors, corporate borrowers, and financial institutions in various financing transactions. These include acquisition financing, asset-based and leveraged lending, investment-grade lending, mezzanine financing, subordinated debt financing, restructurings, and work-outs across a broad spectrum of industries.
— Melanie B. Schaschl (Investment Funds) focuses on counseling investment managers in forming and offering private equity funds across diverse strategies and is a member of Sidley’s Latin America team. She has assisted clients in launching various investment structures ranging from co-investment vehicles, separately managed accounts, and funds-of-one to single-asset funds, fund-of-funds, and real estate investment trusts.
— Hong KongSophia Tong (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy) focuses on international commercial arbitration and cross-border dispute resolution. She has acted for clients in international arbitration cases conducted under various institutional and ad hoc rules, including the ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, and CIETA, and in a wide variety of areas, including shareholders disputes, biotechnology, “bet-the-company,” and investments.
— Dennis Wu (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy) focuses his practice on international commercial arbitration, emphasizing disputes with an Asian nexus. He has advised clients in various matters, including private equity, M&A, pharmaceutical, construction, and technology, and has acted in ad hoc and institutional proceedings conducted under ICC, HKIAC, SIAC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL arbitration rules.
Houston
— Jeff Kinney (Energy and Infrastructure) focuses on the various sectors of the energy and infrastructure industries, including representation of sellers and buyers in all aspects of a transaction. He has particular experience with the acquisition and divestiture of renewable and conventional energy and infrastructure projects at all stages of development, as well as the formation of joint ventures in support of project development.
— John W. Stribling (Energy and Infrastructure) advises clients on a broad range of transactional matters including various capital markets transactions, corporate governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring transactions. His capital markets practice includes representing public and private issuers, investment banks, and private equity firms in connection with initial public offerings, private placements of equity and debt securities, and registered offerings.
London
— Samantha Cumming (Securities Enforcement and Regulatory) focuses her practice on government litigation, white collar defense, and investigations. Her extensive litigation experience includes acting on complex and multijurisdictional commercial litigation and judicial review in the High Court and the Court of Appeal, as well as arbitral proceedings conducted under ICC, LCIA, and UNCITRAL arbitration rules, with seats in London and Singapore.
Miami
— Lauren E. Gumerove (Product Liability and Mass Torts) focuses her practice on representing pharmaceutical, medical device, and consumer product manufacturers in high-stakes, complex product liability and mass tort cases in federal and state courts nationwide. She has experience handling and managing all phases of litigation, including pre-suit matters, coordination of initial pleading and briefing strategy, successful dispositive and non-dispositive motion practice, coordination and management of fact and expert witness discovery, and representing clients at hearings, as well as depositions of fact and expert witnesses, trial preparation, trial, representation of clients in settlement negotiations, and appeals.
Munich
— Thomas Komanek (Private Equity) advises on all aspects of business and corporate law, particularly national and cross-border private equity and M&A transactions, corporate reorganizations, and restructurings. He represents private equity funds, strategic investors, and domestic and international corporate clients about leveraged buyouts, management buyouts, management incentive plans, debt and equity restructurings, and distressed investments.
— Anna-Shari Melin (Food, Drug and Medical Device) focuses on EU and German regulatory, compliance, environmental, social and governance (ESG), as well as private equity/M&A. Her clients include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, food, cosmetic, and other consumer goods companies.
New York
— Dustin R. Anderson (Tax) focuses on federal, corporate, and partnership taxation. He also advises clients on the structuring of alternative investments and the formation of alternative investment vehicles, including hedge funds, private equity funds, and real estate funds. He works extensively with regulated investment companies, including open-end funds and exchange-traded funds.
— Rose Ding (Capital Markets) focuses her practice on corporate and securities law matters. She represents issuers and underwriters in public and private debt and equity securities transactions with a focus on structured notes.
— Eric M. Grosshandler (Tax) advises clients on tax structuring and other U.S. tax considerations in domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. His practice includes public and private mergers and acquisitions, tax-free reorganizations, stock and asset sales, internal corporate restructurings, and international tax planning.
— Daniel N. Hill (Real Estate) focuses his practice on the representation of financial institutions in real estate finance and development, with particular emphasis on construction lending and credit enhancement of tax-exempt bonds to finance affordable multifamily housing. He has experience representing private equity investors in the formation of joint ventures.
— Nikita Ponomarev (M&A) focuses on various commercial and transactional matters. These include mergers and acquisitions, fund investments, and corporate governance matters.
— Garret W. Wade (Capital Markets) focuses his practice on corporate and securities law matters. He represents issuers and underwriters in public and private debt and equity securities transactions, with a particular emphasis on structured products.
Washington, D.C.
— Aaron M. Applebaum (Global Arbitration, Trade and Advocacy) focuses on advising companies on all aspects of U.S. customs law, including compliance counseling and planning, responding to government inquiries and enforcement actions, and customs-related litigation. He frequently works with colleagues in other disciplines and offices to help clients navigate legal complexities across practices and borders.
— Lauren Kitces (Privacy and Cybersecurity) provides business-oriented privacy and cybersecurity advice to many clients. She has strong international experience that she uses to help translate preexisting international efforts into U.S. regulatory compliance.
— Michael F. Proctor (Securities Enforcement and Regulatory) advises broker-dealers, hedge funds, and other financial services firms on various regulatory, enforcement, compliance, and transactional matters. In this capacity, he has represented clients before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and various state securities regulators.
KEY QUOTES:
“This class of partners and counsel reflects the continued growth of our practices across the Sidley platform. Our clients are looking to us for guidance on a wide range of matters, and this group of lawyers is stepping up to meet those challenges.”
- Mike Schmidtberger, Chair of Sidley’s Executive Committee
“This combined group of 65 lawyers is the largest class we’ve elected and promoted in Sidley’s nearly 160-year history. We are proud to recognize this group of world-class Sidley lawyers with exceptional business acumen ready to lead in the boardroom, courtroom, and in their communities. We are grateful to our clients who make these promotions possible. Congratulations to this outstanding group of lawyers on their election to partner and promotion to counsel.”
- Yvette Ostolaza, Chair of Sidley’s Management Committee
