McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Whether to meet operational demands or to support growth opportunities, debt financing is a vital source of capital for businesses. Proper financing selection is the foundation of a company’s business strategy. The corporate financing team at McDermott Will & Schulte excels as a trusted advisor to clients on how best to structure and negotiate their financing transactions.

We represent a wide range of borrowers and lenders, ranging from privately owned companies to publicly traded corporations, private equity firms and their portfolio companies, and financial institutions of varying sizes. This diverse client base has enabled our finance team to amass experience and familiarity with the financing vehicles available in the market.

We are particularly skilled at supporting clients’ M&A needs. Working closely with our nationally recognized deal lawyers and tax practice, our lawyers deliver the full suite of business transactional legal services covering traditional M&A, project financing, private equity buyouts and add-on financings, as well as recapitalizations and restructurings. Over the past five years, we have closed more than four hundred transactional financings.

For borrowers, our service offering covers nearly every type of financing vehicle, including secured and unsecured lines of credit and debt instruments, high-yield notes and asset-based loans, and specialty financings such as tax-exempt bonds.

Supporting lenders, we possess demonstrated success structuring nearly every type of financing instrument. We represent a wide range of clients, including commercial banks, non-bank investors, asset-based lenders, business development companies, debtor-in-possession financiers, and holders of subordinated and mezzanine debt.

As a strategic partner, we support our clients’ financing needs by providing updates on market conditions, maintaining relationships with lenders and creating best practices in financing documentation. We work with our clients to secure the best financing possible to fuel their business growth.

Transactional Financings

Our financing lawyers work closely with the firm’s deal lawyers and tax practice to deliver a holistic legal package for transactional activities. For traditional M&A, we are skilled at structuring and negotiating the financing arrangement while securing preferred terms. For private equity, our lawyers understand the nuances of the industries of the portfolio companies and structure the deal accordingly. Over the past three years, the financing team has worked on more than 150 leveraged buyouts by private equity sponsors.

Recapitalizations

A growing financing option for private equity, recapitalization transactions free up capital for investors, allow the operating company to update its financing terms, increase borrowing thresholds and allow for further business growth. With numerous recapitalization transactions completed in the past few years, few firms possess the experience in recapitalizations that we do.

Cross-Border Investment

Whether you’re working on a deal in the U.S. or a cross-border transaction, with more than 150 lawyers across 20 global offices, we have the experience and capabilities you need to accomplish your objectives. In addition to helping our clients get deals done, we advise on tax issues, management incentive plans, health regulations, and multi-jurisdictional debt financing and restructuring.

ESG (Environmental, Social And Governance) Impact Investment

Impact investment initiatives seek to provide funding to organisations and projects that pursue a double bottom line – generating a sustainable financial return while creating measurable social and environmental benefits.

Our cross-disciplinary, multi-jurisdictional team is committed to making a difference to the lives of others through the support of ESG and impact initiatives, recognizing the dynamic growth in this industry and its transformative effect on capital markets. Our team regularly advises on a range of ethically responsible investment matters, including fund formation and creating innovative investment structures, social impact bonds and other capital market solutions. Our team consists of market leaders who have worked on some of the most innovative cross-border finance transactions delivering positive social impact aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

We represent organizations and individuals – including start-ups, investors, social entrepreneurs, financial institutions, social enterprises, and microfinance institutions – that are pioneering the development of solutions that address a variety of social needs. We have experience across a broad range of impact industries, including clean tech, education, welfare, and financial services.

Our global platform and full service capabilities – including structured finance, funds, M&A, corporate finance, capital markets, financial products, tax, and regulatory means that we are well-positioned to advise our clients, wherever they seek to deliver a positive social impact.

Every employment decision shapes how your workforce performs – impacting your culture, reputation, and revenue. Our employment lawyers help your business move forward by managing risk across the employee life cycle – from hiring and onboarding to performance management, retention, and separation.

We go beyond reactive advice by partnering with you to anticipate risk. By taking the time to understand your business and your industry, we stay attuned to emerging workplace trends. Our employment lawyers help you address issues early, reducing the likelihood of disputes or regulatory scrutiny that can be costly and disruptive to your operations.

We partner with you to develop workplace policies that limit legal exposure and strengthen culture, help you comply with ever-evolving laws and regulations around the world, and negotiate contracts designed to protect your interests and align incentives across your organization.

To support global workforces, our employment lawyers work together seamlessly from offices worldwide, providing coordinated, cross-border guidance. We advise on issues across the full spectrum of employment law – from day-to-day advice and policy development to C-suite and board advisory, as well as bet-the-company litigation.

When high-stakes disputes arise, we assemble teams with the specific experience required to litigate the claims at issue – including highly specialized and complex matters. This approach has contributed to our strong track record in labor and employment litigation.

Our employment practice supports your organization at every stage of growth. We provide guidance that is grounded in how your business operates, partnering with you to mitigate workforce risk so you can drive your business forward.

Compensation and benefits programs help you attract and retain top talent – but they are subject to significant regulatory risk and shareholder scrutiny. Our employee benefits lawyers partner with you to design, implement, and administer compensation and benefits programs that protect your interests across the employee lifecycle – from hiring to separation.

We support your business by structuring and managing programs that drive performance, control costs, and enable long-term growth. We advise you on all aspects of employee benefits and executive compensation, from plan design, administration, and compliance to workforce transitions, complex transactions, audits, investigations, and litigation.

As you manage your global workforce and expand into new markets, we advise you on international employee benefits, executive compensation, and cross-border employment matters. Our lawyers help you navigate complex regulatory frameworks across the US and Europe, including:

• Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
• Internal Revenue Code (IRC)
• Affordable Care Act (ACA)
• Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act
• US securities and disclosure requirements
• Other applicable US federal, state, and local laws
• European labor laws, including works council and consultation requirements

When matters come under regulatory scrutiny or give rise to disputes, we represent you in labor and employment litigation, as well as in arbitrations and mediations before federal and state trial and appellate courts, US administrative agencies, and international counterparts in Europe and Asia.

In the event of an audit or regulatory inquiry, our lawyers advocate for you before the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the National Labor Relations Board on employment, compensation, and benefits matters.

Your compensation and benefits programs play a critical role in the growth and performance of your business. We partner with you to develop and manage employee benefits and executive compensation programs that protect your talent investment, reduce risk, and support your business goals.

Energy and infrastructure projects sit at the intersection of capital, regulation, operations, and political risk. Our energy law team helps you navigate these pressures so you can deploy capital strategically. We partner with you to structure projects and investments that deliver value under changing market conditions, evolving energy policy, and shifting regulatory demands.

Our energy law team includes more than 70 lawyers worldwide. We help you operate in complex energy markets by integrating regulatory, financing, transactional, tax, and operational capabilities under a single platform. Our lawyers guide you through every stage of your energy and infrastructure project – from origination and financing through acquisition, development, construction, operation, and long-term asset management.

We help investors, developers, lenders, and operators structure and execute critical transactions across global markets. Our energy lawyers advise on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, project development, financing, project finance, commodities and trading matters, and strategic investments that span both conventional and renewable energy sectors. Our legal guidance is informed by the commercial realities of how stakeholders work together to finance, develop, optimize, and transition energy assets.

To support value creation and keep your projects moving forward under evolving market conditions, we help you maintain compliance with regulatory frameworks and manage operational and financial exposure. We leverage our global platform to guide you through regulations across jurisdictions while maintaining a consistent commercial and legal strategy.

Our team has deep experience guiding transactions in Africa – a leading market for renewable energy investment and infrastructure development. We help you navigate complex civil and common law requirements in 45 countries across the region, working closely with local partners to manage the geopolitical and operational risks that can impact project success.

With experience in how energy markets operate, we know where energy and infrastructure deals typically encounter friction. We draw on these insights to help you structure and close transactions that comply with regulations and deliver long-term value throughout the life cycle of your project or investment.

Family offices are unique and complex, and so is the way they invest. We serve wealthy families and family offices in creating tax and legal structures to optimize the investment of family capital in both public and private markets across all asset classes.

Our elite multi-practice team draws on the experience of our tax, private client and transactional lawyers to provide creative and holistic solutions at each of the three levels of a family wealth structure: individuals, trusts and private foundations; family offices and investment vehicles; and underlying investments including operating companies, private investment funds, private credit and other direct deals.

Top Level: Individuals, Trusts and Private Foundations

Thoughtful investment structures begin with creating tax and estate planning structures that help you optimize the ultimate beneficial ownership and succession of wealth. We take into account state, federal and international income tax efficiency; transfer tax efficiency; and your family’s charitable goals and objectives in designing and implementing trust structures, including the use of private trust companies, generation-skipping transfer (GST)-exempt trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) and a variety of charitable trusts and private foundations.

Second Level: Family Office and Investment Vehicles

The second critical element of our work on your behalf involves structuring the family office and family investment entities for maximum income tax and operational efficiency, often through profits interest planning (for both family offices and key employees). We also help family offices navigate various regulatory frameworks, such as securities law and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Our skilled team creatively structures family offices and closely held investment entities to craft simple outcomes around complex tax and investment objectives.

Lower Level: Underlying Investments

The third element of efficient investing is optimizing the underlying investment or asset itself and then executing the deal from start to finish. We leverage our vast experience in tax, private equity M&A, real estate, finance, executive compensation/benefits and other areas to ensure that the structure of the target investment seamlessly integrates into a holistic structure.

By taking this comprehensive, multi-level approach, we aim to achieve “tax alpha” for your family, creating incremental investment returns that would otherwise be lost when working with external advisors with a narrower lens.

Tapping decades of experience, an international footprint and a cross-practice platform, our team is ideally equipped to handle your most complex transactional needs, including family office formation, fund investments, credit transactions, FinTech investments, buying and selling professional sports teams, a variety of real estate matters, blockchain investments (both coins and direct investments) and other direct investing.

We take a 360-degree view of each investment, considering every aspect from an entity, family office, trust/beneficiary perspective. Based on our decades of experience in this space, our private client lawyers are deal- and income tax-savvy, just as our tax and transactional lawyers serving our high-net-worth clients have a deep understanding of trusts and estates. It is this multi-faceted lens that defines our market-leading family office practice and equips us to best serve your family’s interests.

Government policies shape how your business operates – but they are rarely clear-cut. How they are interpreted can matter as much as what they say. Our government and lobbying lawyers translate policies into commercially focused legal guidance. We combine strong government relationships with knowledge of how laws and regulations are shaped, interpreted, and enforced, helping you protect your interests in a complex regulatory environment.

With firsthand experience inside government, we partner with you to prepare for change – not just react to it. Our government and lobbying lawyers have served in senior roles within key regulatory agencies and maintain strong agency relationships across the United States, Europe, and China. We leverage this experience to help you navigate regulatory frameworks, engage strategically with policymakers, and manage risk while minimizing disruption to your business.

Our government and lobbying strategies team provides comprehensive guidance across state, federal, and global markets – advising you on laws and regulations governing commerce and trade, customs, competition, environmental issues, workplace safety, and employment. We also guide you through evolving areas such as privacy and data protection, so your business can stay aligned with shifting regulatory expectations.

We routinely represent clients in matters across highly regulated industries, including:

• Healthcare
• Life sciences
• Energy
• Aerospace and defense
• Agribusiness
• Food and alcohol

From securing FDA approval for medical devices and navigating TTB labeling rules to resolving WTO tariff disputes and obtaining renewable energy tax credits, we help you navigate regulatory frameworks so you can move your business forward.

We don’t just interpret regulations; we work to shape them. Partnering closely with you, we develop targeted lobbying strategies and engage with stakeholders and policymakers. Whether addressing immediate challenges or long-term priorities, we advocate for your interests.

Our government and lobbying strategies team brings the experience, judgment, and relationships needed to interpret government policies and help shape them. We translate regulatory complexity into actionable guidance – helping you take advantage of opportunities while reducing your exposure to risk.

Intellectual property is a core driver of enterprise value. Across every stage of your innovation life cycle – from development and protection to commercialization and enforcement – our intellectual property lawyers support your growth. We navigate the complexities of IP law to help you attract investment, strengthen your market position, and drive long-term value.

Our team includes more than 100 lawyers and professionals globally, and most of them hold technical degrees in science and engineering. We partner with you to secure, monetize, and defend the IP rights that drive your business forward – from patents and trade secrets to trademarks and copyrights.

Through a coordinated global strategy, we build IP portfolios designed to protect your core technologies, products, and brands across jurisdictions. We also develop frameworks to protect trade secrets and structure sophisticated licensing and enforcement strategies to help you monetize your IP assets.

When disputes arise, our IP lawyers represent you in high-stakes matters that can impact market access and put revenue streams at risk. We have significant experience enforcing and defending IP rights across key forums, including US federal district courts and appellate courts, as well as proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and US International Trade Commission (ITC). We also represent clients in courts across key jurisdictions in Europe and Asia.

In highly regulated sectors – including healthcare and life sciences – we guide you through the intersection of IP and regulatory frameworks to support commercialization and preserve access to critical markets. We also lead IP due diligence in high-value transactions where IP assets are central to valuation, including M&A deals, investments, strategic collaborations, and licensing arrangements.

In competitive markets, IP assets play an essential role in differentiating your business and protecting your market position. Through a comprehensive and integrated strategy, our IP lawyers help you build and sustain a competitive advantage across global markets.

Disputes can disrupt your operations, drain resources, and create uncertainty that affects business performance. Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers help you navigate high-stakes disputes while reducing uncertainty, managing risk, and protecting your long-term business interests.

Our litigation and dispute resolution practice is comprised of experienced litigators and trial lawyers throughout the US and Europe. Working across practices, we provide integrated counsel tailored to complex disputes. By combining industry- and practice-specific knowledge with trial and appellate experience, we assess how disputes are likely to evolve and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Our lawyers guide you through every stage of a dispute – from early case assessment through litigation, trial, and appeal. With a dedicated appellate practice that has handled hundreds of appeals, including matters before the US Supreme Court, we approach cases with trial and appellate strategies aligned from the outset.

When litigation is not the most effective path forward, we partner with you to resolve disputes through arbitration and mediation. Our lawyers represent you in proceedings before the American Arbitration Association (AAA), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and other arbitral bodies – helping you control risk, maintain confidentiality, and preserve business relationships.

In addition to commercial disputes, we advise you on sensitive investigations and government enforcement actions. We conduct internal investigations involving allegations of misconduct, compliance issues, and potential regulatory violations. We also represent you in proceedings involving the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), self-regulatory organizations, stock exchanges, and other state and federal agencies.

Our litigation and dispute resolution lawyers understand how disputes can affect your business and reputation. By combining litigation experience with practical business insight, we help you assess risk, reduce uncertainty, and determine the most effective path forward – whether through litigation or strategic resolution outside the courtroom.

A well-defined but flexible M&A strategy is critical for staying competitive in the global marketplace – and complex transactions require experienced mergers and acquisitions lawyers who understand your goals. Our corporate M&A team combines deep market knowledge with precise deal execution skills to help you achieve your strategic objectives.

Many deals have a cross-border dimension, and with more than 150 M&A lawyers across 20 global offices, we have the resources and footprint to represent your transactional needs worldwide. Our industry knowledge in key markets, including energy, food and beverage, technology, chemicals, life sciences, and healthcare, ensures that your deals drive measurable business growth and market expansion.

We provide comprehensive, skilled guidance in regulatory, antitrust, tax, labor and employment, intellectual property, and financing matters – along with litigation, when the need arises. Our M&A practice also focuses on IT outsourcing, merger integration, and ensuring seamless transitions that protect your operational continuity and financial value.

We advise on negotiated and unsolicited acquisitions, such as competitive auctions, tax-driven transactions, and cross-border deals. From our experience representing clients from publicly listed companies to private equity and family offices, we can anticipate different deal perspectives. Our approach ensures that you deploy the right strategy for any given situation, securing favorable terms and driving long-term profitability for your organization.

As a leading provider of M&A legal services, we have developed client-focused tools designed to streamline the transaction process and reduce your overall costs. We bring a practical approach to every matter, delivering efficient solutions that enhance your bottom line.

Managing substantial personal, family, and business wealth requires careful coordination across family dynamics, governance considerations, competing interests, and evolving legal and regulatory frameworks. Our lawyers help you navigate that complexity so you can preserve and grow your wealth and protect your legacy across generations.

Our private client lawyers advise individuals, families, and family offices across the full spectrum of private wealth matters. From tax planning to succession, we help you structure and manage wealth in alignment with your long-term goals. Our lawyers represent key stakeholders, including:

• Entrepreneurs, executives, and investment principals
• Closely held and family-controlled enterprises
• Multigenerational families and family offices
• Fiduciaries and private trust companies
• Philanthropic and charitable organizations

We advise on wealth structures that span borders, asset classes, and generations. Our private client lawyers coordinate across the firm’s global tax, corporate, real estate, litigation, and regulatory practices to deliver integrated, cross-border guidance. We also incorporate your philanthropic priorities into your broader strategy to support the legacy you want to build.

Our lawyers help you manage diverse assets, including closely held and international businesses, real estate holdings, marketable and private investments, digital assets, intellectual property, and other complex holdings. When business ownership and personal wealth are closely linked, we align business strategy with long-term wealth planning and succession goals.

For sophisticated wealth structures, tax planning is critical to preserving value. We develop domestic and international tax strategies designed to minimize tax exposure and facilitate efficient wealth transfer. We also help you navigate evolving regulations, cross-border obligations, and complex financial structures to support compliance and reduce operational disruption.

When disputes arise, we guide you through sensitive family, business, fiduciary, and regulatory matters with discretion. We pursue resolutions that de-escalate conflict through negotiation and mediation, while remaining prepared to defend your interests in court when necessary.

Our private client practice supports you through every stage of wealth creation, growth, and transition. We develop strategies informed by the interconnected nature of business interests and family dynamics. Our lawyers help you preserve your wealth, support continuity, and protect your legacy over the long term.

Our real estate practice helps you navigate complex property markets, using sophisticated strategies that reduce your risk and capitalize on high-value opportunities across the United States, Europe, and around the globe.

Our real estate acquisition and development team supports every phase of your project and protects your capital, from initial structuring to final disposition. We streamline complex real estate acquisition and development deals, accelerating your timeline to profitability and ensuring your assets generate long-term financial value.

Our real estate finance lawyers integrate tax, corporate, and regulatory strategies into your deals. With experience in all segments of mortgage, mezzanine, and construction lending from both the lender and borrower sides, we optimize your real estate financing and investment structures, lowering your cost of capital and securing favorable terms for your portfolio.

If and when real estate litigation threatens your assets, we resolve conflicts efficiently to minimize operational disruption. Our real estate finance litigation strategies protect your bottom line, preserving your asset value and keeping your business objectives on track.

Navigating global markets requires substantial experience in real estate law, and we draw insights from more than $300 billion in recent transactions and signature real estate projects globally. We connect you with market leaders and structure innovative solutions, empowering you to capitalize on emerging opportunities and achieve greater financial outcomes across your portfolio.

For clients ranging from financial institutions and private equity sponsors to developers, our real estate acquisition and development lawyers deliver results. We transform complex cross-border challenges into streamlined, profitable ventures that elevate your market position and secure the highest possible return on your real estate investments.

Tax considerations shape how your business structures transactions, financings, and international investments. Our lawyers advise you on global tax compliance and design tax strategies that support growth, help mitigate financial exposure, and strengthen your business operations across jurisdictions.

Our tax lawyers represent financial institutions, investors, and businesses – including more than half of the Fortune 100. Working across the US, Europe, and other major markets, we align tax strategy with your global business strategy while helping you anticipate regulatory and controversy risk.

Tax strategy is most effective when integrated early into decision-making. Our tax lawyers advise you on federal, state, local, and international tax laws that affect your transactions, investments, financings, restructurings, and cross-border operations. We also help you evaluate the tax implications of evolving business models, supply chains, and operating structures as your business expands internationally.

Our tax law practice includes advising on transfer pricing planning, advance pricing agreements, and cross-border tax controversies. We handle sophisticated transfer pricing disputes worldwide and engage with taxing authorities and organizations involved in international tax policy and enforcement – including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and tax authorities throughout Europe and globally.

Tax disputes can affect enterprise value. Our team includes former IRS administrators, Department of Justice (DOJ) Tax Division lawyers, Tax Court clerks, and legislative advisors who understand how tax policy is developed, interpreted, and enforced. This experience strengthens our ability to advocate before taxing authorities and guide you through examinations, administrative appeals, and litigation before trial courts, appellate courts, and the US Supreme Court.