Winston & Strawn’s Private Equity Practice Praised in Mergermarket

Winston & Strawn’s efforts to strengthen its private equity (PE) practice—a heavy undertaking for any law firm—have been documented in Mergermarket. The news service highlighted the firm’s 10-place jump in its PE league table, putting Winston in tenth place. Winston’s PE practice advised on 31 buyouts in 2020, compared to 17 in 2019.

Eva Davis, former co-chair of the PE practice and current chair of the Transactions Department, credits her team’s success to its middle-market strategy, strong market knowledge, and deliberate approach to lateral partner hires.

“Our private equity deal work has really accelerated,” Eva said, who joined Winston in 2014 as part of the firm’s PE growth strategy under former Transactions Chair Dominick DeChiara and PE Co-Chair Brad Vaiana.

Eva is looking to hire PE partners who can transition sponsor clients to the firm. She is specifically interested in candidates with market knowledge and experience. Eva believes that attorneys can only know the market if they routinely advise PE clients on acquisitions.

“If the partner only handles sell-side deals or only represents portfolio companies. . .then that partner will have difficulty in a pitch meeting with a private equity fund prospect. The partner needs to be able to talk the talk or the partner will be found out in the first five minutes of the meeting,” she told Mergermarket.