The relatively new arrow in private equity’s quiver is gaining staying power, and so have the lawyers handling the unique offerings.
What do former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, one-time Trump chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, and Oakland A’s executive vice president Billy Beane have in common?
The three have all recently taken leadership roles in SPACs, also known as “blank check” companies. Similar to traditional initial public offerings, these “special purpose acquisition companies” raise capital, but they do so specifically for the purpose of acquiring another business, whose identity is unknown at the time of formation.
But while the list of luminaries attaching their names to these vehicles keeps growing, much of the grunt work behind these transactions remains in the hands of a small group of lawyers who’ve been in the game for well over a decade. While most of them have been entrenched in their current firms for years, White & Case made a splash in June when it hired a three-partner team led by Joel Rubinstein from Winston & Strawn.
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