International law firm McDermott Will & Emery announced today that leading Private Equity and Direct Investing dealmaker Jeremy Dickens has joined the Firm as a partner based in its New York office. Mr. Dickens, who was previously Co-head of the Private Equity Practice at Shearman & Sterling, has nearly 30 years of experience in the Private Equity space, and throughout his career has been repeatedly top ranked by global, UK and US industry guides. He is also known as a top high yield debt and IPO lawyer.
Mr. Dickens is an experienced Private Equity and Capital Markets lawyer and has advised boards of directors and leading private equity firms and large family offices on a variety of complex matters including corporate governance, M&A, corporate restructurings, securities offerings, shareholder litigation and governmental and internal investigations. Mr. Dickens most recently represented Capital Z Partners in its acquisition of The Portfolio Group, a leading independent provider of finance and insurance products and services to automotive dealers across the country.
Mr. Dickens has a broad background as a lawyer. Prior to joining Shearman, he spent over 18 years at Weil Gotshal (in Dallas, New York and London), where he co-led the Capital Markets practice. As a capital markets lawyer, he focused on representing leading investment banks in high yield debt and initial public offerings.
While at Weil, Mr. Dickens represented Riverdeep Group in its 2007 $3.7 billion acquisition of Houghton Mifflin, and subsequently became President of the resulting company, Education Media and Publishing Group (EMPG), leading its $4 billion acquisition of Harcourt Education from Reed Elsevier PLC and its $750 million sale of its higher education publishing business to Cengage Corporation. In that role, he was responsible for M&A, corporate finance, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives. He served on EMPG’s board of directors and worked closely with its private equity backers. He returned to private practice at Shearman in 2013.
“We are very excited to welcome Jeremy to the McDermott team”, said Ira Coleman, global head of McDermott’s Corporate & Transactional Practice. “As a top Private Equity lawyer with a wealth of international experience and a spectacular client portfolio, he will be a valued addition to our dynamic Transactions practice. In addition, Jeremy has recently had a substantial amount of experience in the Direct Investing area, representing wealthy families in their private equity investing activities.”
David Goldman, co-head of the Firm’s New York office added, “We are impressed with Jeremy’s credentials and delighted to have him on board. His arrival will undoubtedly help us meet growing demand from our Private Equity and Direct Investing clients. Jeremy’s long experience with using the Capital Markets as a method of monetizing investments for Private Equity Funds is of specific interest to us. We are looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”
McDermott’s Corporate & Transactional Practice represents a wide spectrum of business interests around the world, from global corporations and industry-leading companies to privately funded and entrepreneurial driven enterprises, as well as the financial institutions that support them. Acting as strategic partners for our clients, McDermott advises on a full range of corporate needs.
The Firm’s private equity lawyers deliver pragmatic, strategic solutions to clients, providing sophisticated guidance to achieve the best outcome possible for any given transaction.
McDermott consistently ranks in the leading league tables, including Mergermarket, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and Pitchbook. We also are ranked nationally in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom by various Chambers guides, with The Legal 500 awarding the Firm “Team of the Year” for Middle Market M&A/Buyouts.
Source: www.mwe.com
