Insiders say these 8 deal lawyers are who big private equity firms are turning to help figure out how to put mountains of cash to work

Kirkland & Ellis; Simpson Thacher; Latham & Watkins; Ruobing Su/Business Insider

• Private equity firms will likely need massive amounts of legal firepower to help bring their deals to fruition in 2020.
• As PE firms look to spend billions in unused investor dollars, they have had to get creative in how to spend it, sometimes settling for minority stakes and other times targeting smaller companies.
• Business Insider identified eight lawyers who are among those private equity firms will likely turn to as they look to put all that money to work.
• They run the gamut, from a lawyer who just made partner and is off to a hot start, to partners who sit in firm leadership.
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Private equity firms will likely need massive amounts of legal firepower to bring their deals to fruition in 2020.

Business Insider decided to take a look at some of the lawyers advising PE firms who insiders consider the future of this clubby corner of the profession.

More money has been flowing into the private markets in search of yield, thanks to historically low interest rates, and PE firms are looking to spend billions in unused investor dollars. PE execs have had to get creative in how to spend it - particularly as competition drives asset prices higher - sometimes settling for minority stakes and other times going down-market, targeting smaller companies.

At the center of it all are teams of legal advisors to help wade through the complexities, from negotiating terms to drafting lengthy documentation to memorialize them.

Feedback from recruiters, lawyers, and PE executives, as well as a review of recent deal announcements to see who was particularly active, led us to eight lawyers to watch in 2020 and beyond.

Of course, many working in Big Law already know the most senior players. Names like Rich Capalouto, who represented Silver Lake when it partnered with Michael Dell to take computer company Dell private in 2013; Julie Jones, a longtime advisor to TPG Capital; and Taurie Zeitzer, Apollo Global Management's outside lawyer, all remain active on the industry's biggest transactions.

And then there are those who pioneered private equity deals in the 1980s. Some of these lawyers have occupied in-house roles with onetime clients, while others have stayed at their firms, transitioning to lighter duties.

What we really wanted to know, though, were the lawyers who have just started to hit their stride, keep popping up on high-profile deals, and appear to be nearing or have reached the prime of their practice.

Those names are lesser known, yet could help shape the future of private equity dealmaking. They are also of interest because these lawyers are big money producers for law firms, where the primary assets are people.

According to experts, private equity legal work can contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to firm revenue in a given year at the most prominent law firms. This business is led by a relatively small number of people in the context of how much revenue they command, with the most prominent partners single-handedly responsible for books of business in the tens of millions.

The lawyers sources identified run the gamut, from a lawyer who just made partner and is off to a hot start, to partners who sit in firm leadership.

For the purposes of this story, we focused our reporting efforts on U.S. deal lawyers and left other practice types for another day, such as fund formation lawyers and PE litigators.

We also spoke with firms themselves - such as The Carlyle Group, TPG Capital and Apollo - and asked them to put their best outside lawyers forward. The results included lawyers primarily in their 30s and 40s, though Business Insider did not place a limit on age.

After a vetting process, including cross-checking names with competitors and reviewing deals, the below list is a foundation of people-talent who will likely lead the private equity legal profession in the years to come.

Elizabeth Cooper, Partner, Simpson Thacher

Simpson Thacher

Elizabeth Cooper

Elizabeth Cooper, 44, has had her hand in some of the biggest private equity deals at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

This summer she hammered out terms of the $27 billion merger of data analytics company Refinitiv into the London Stock Exchange.

It was a deal she had been involved in from the get-go, back when Blackstone carved out Refinitiv from Thomson Reuters in 2018.

Now insiders say they expect to see Cooper take the lead in more PE deals as her reputation cements as a leader in the next generation at Simpson Thacher.

Although media outlets have recently recognized Cooper's accomplishments - The American Lawyer named her "Dealmaker of the Year" for 2019 because of her work for Refinitiv - her deal sheet shows she didn't come out of nowhere.

It was a decade ago when Cooper advised Xerox Corporation in its $6.4 billion acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services Inc. Since then, she has taken more of a private equity focus, taking on KKR, The Carlyle Group, and Blackstone as clients in some of their significant transactions.

This has included Oaktree Capital Management's sale of 62 percent of its business to Brookfield Asset Management, as well as Blackstone in its recapitalization of SERVPRO, a franchisor of residential and commercial property damage restoration services.

Cooper graduated Columbia Law School in 2001. Before that, she graduated Harvard University in 1997.

Peter Martelli, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis

Kirkland & Ellis

Peter Martelli

Martelli, 44, is a member of the firm's global management committee and is a go-to advisor for some of the firm's largest PE clients.

Martelli was behind one of the year's largest "consortium" deals, or transactions where there are multiple buyers to cover the equity check.

This happened when Martelli advised a consortium led by CC Capital in its $6.9 billion acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet, a provider of commercial data and analytics.

Blackstone is another one of Martelli's repeat clients, although he has also advised KKR and BC Partners.

For instance, when BC Partners announced its $2.1 billion take-private of Presidio, it was Martelli's name as legal advisor to the private equity firm.

Martelli graduated from New York University School of Law in 2000 and Cornell University in 1997.

Paul Kukish, Partner, Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins

Paul Kukish

Kukish, 40, caught our eye this year when his work appeared on a deal that made waves in the private equity world for reasons other than its size.

It was when BlackRock struck the first deal out of its recently-raised private equity fund in acquiring an $845 million stake in the company that manages Sports Illustrated.

While Simpson Thacher advised BlackRock on the transaction, Kukish appeared on the other side, advising the company Authentic Brands Group and private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners in selling down its stake to make room for BlackRock.

A closer look at Kukish's background shows that Leonard Green has been a repeat client, as has Ares Management and CVC Capital Partners.

Those contacts and the lucrative revenue streams that flow from them have helped place Kukish in the seat of global vice chair of the firm's corporate department.

Of all Kukish's clients, though, some of the most prominent deals have come from Leonard Green. This includes returning BJ's Wholesale Club to the public markets in 2018 after it was acquired seven years earlier by Leonard Green and CVC Capital Partners for $2.8 billion.

Justin Hamill, Partner, Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins

Justin Hamill

Latham & Watkins poached Hamill from Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in March and the investment has already led to a prominent PE deal in 2019.

In October, Hamill represented the technology-focused private equity firm Silver Lake in its acquisition of TEG, the live entertainment and ticketing company.

Hamill, 41, led the cross-border deal team working across more than six of Latham's offices including Hong Kong, New York and Century City.

Insiders expect big things from Hamill as he's been tasked with expanding Latham's reputation in PE dealmaking.

Previously, Hamill was considered one of the up and coming stars at Paul Weiss, where he led the firm's 2017 representation of Michael Kors in the fashion brand's purchase of British shoe designer Jimmy Choo and represented Hollywood agency William Morris Endeavor in its $2.4 billion acquisition of IMG Worldwide in 2014.

On the PE side, Hamill represented Vice Media in the $450 million investment it received from TPG Capital, among a number of other transactions.

Anthony Vernace, Partner, Simpson Thacher

Simpson Thacher

Anthony Vernace

Another Simpson Thacher lawyer who insiders say is among the firm's most active in PE deals is Anthony Vernace.

Vernace, 38, just recently surfaced on our radar when he advised Blackstone in its $3 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in MagicLab, the dating-app company that owns Bumble.

On this deal he worked with Blackstone's recent hire - Jon Korngold - who is targeting fast-growing companies.

But Vernace's work isn't confined to tech deals: Earlier in the year, Vernace advised Genessee & Wyoming, a railroad owner, in its $8.4 billion acquisition by asset manager Brookfield and GIC, a sovereign wealth fund.

With Vernace's blend of PE and M&A work, don't be surprised to see his name coming back on some of the prominent deals announced out of Simpson in the coming years.

Matt Abbott and Angelo Bonvino, Partners, Paul Weiss

Paul Weiss

Angelo Bonvino

Paul Weiss

Matt Abbott

Abbott and Bonvino are on the more senior end of lawyers considered for this list, but even though the pair have been around for decades, insiders don't expect their position at the epicenter of PE lawyering to change any time soon.

Bonvino, 48, has represented a smattering of PE clients from Oak Hill Capital Partners to Kohlberg & Company to Ares Management.

Abbott, meanwhile, age 46, has represented a mix of companies and asset managers who are not traditional PE firms but are significant investors, including BlackRock, Brookfield and General Atlantic.

Paul Weiss is well known for its representation of Apollo Global Management, but these lawyers have expanded the firm's presence to a wider swath of PE client.

This year, Abbott has advised General Atlantic on a variety of investments from an e-commerce platform to a digital bank, while Bonvino advised Oak Hill Capital in its role as lead investor in the recapitalization of Calero Software and a subsequent merger.

Laura Steinke, Partner, Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray

Laura Steinke

One trend we've seen in private equity is cash pouring into healthcare.

Laura Steinke at Ropes & Gray has placed herself at the center of it.

After just being named partner last year, the 35-year-old got to business in 2019 and co-led the $2.7 billion sale of Bain Capital's majority stake in healthcare technology provider Waystar, to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and private equity fund EQT.

It was one of the largest private equity deals Ropes & Gray handled this year for Bain, a repeat client.

To be sure, Steinke still has some runway to go as the youngest lawyer on this list, but her work has insiders eager to observe what her promising future in PE holds.

Steinke's track record points to the PE specialty of healthcare.

Ever since joining the firm in 2015 from the Sydney office of an Australian law firm, she has been busy working alongside partners in a number of deals.

She represented Surgery Partners Inc., a publicly held healthcare services company, in its acquisition of surgical facilities owner National Surgical Healthcare, from Irving Place Capital. She also advised Bain Capital in its investment in Navicure, a cloud-based health claims and payment platform, and its agreement to combine with ZirMed, another health information company.

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