Private Equity

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.

Financial markets evolve quickly – reshaping how capital is raised, deployed, and managed. Our financial services lawyers guide you through banking and financial services law across transactions, regulation, and disputes, so you can execute strategies, access capital, and adapt as market conditions change.

We focus on the decisions that shape how your platform grows, operates, and deploys capital. With an integrated team spanning regulatory, tax, transactional, and litigation capabilities, we bring clarity to complex decisions and support execution across jurisdictions and market cycles.

Private capital is reshaping today’s financial services landscape. Asset managers, credit platforms, and financial institutions are expanding into new products, structures, and markets. We advise across a broad range of financial services transactions, financing structures, and capital strategies, including:

• Fund formation and capital raising
• Private credit and direct lending strategies
• Fund finance solutions, including subscription, NAV, and hybrid facilities
• Leveraged finance, acquisition financing, and capital markets transactions
• Structured finance, securitizations, and specialty finance arrangements
• Asset-backed lending, derivatives, and hybrid financing arrangements
• Strategic transactions, joint ventures, and platform investments
• As traditional and nonbank finance converge, financing structures are becoming more complex. We align structuring, documentation, and regulatory considerations so financing solutions work in practice and support your commercial objectives.

Regulatory, tax, and transactional decisions are closely connected, and choices in one area can affect outcomes in another. We advise across securities, banking, and investment management regulation, as well as on M&A deals, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, cross-border approvals, and tax structuring for funds and financial products. Our integrated approach supports transactions that align with regulatory expectations and investor priorities.

Transactions, disputes, and restructuring events often intersect, particularly during periods of market volatility. We represent you in strategic transactions, investigations, enforcement matters, restructurings, workouts, and litigation involving financial products and market activity. Our cross-disciplinary transactional, regulatory, and dispute capabilities help protect value, manage risk, and maintain momentum through market volatility.

Financial markets will continue to evolve – and your ability to adapt will shape your success. Our financial services lawyers bring a practical, integrated approach to banking and financial services law. We develop strategies that support capital strategy, transaction execution, and long-term growth.

McDermott Will & Schulte is the only firm we would call when working on a private equity transaction, especially within the healthcare space... they continually bring that diverse deal experience to every new engagement.
– Legal 500 US

Among the most active markets in private equity, the healthcare industry provides ripe investment opportunities for funds that can navigate the complex regulatory landscape. As the industry’s top-ranked law firm for health and life sciences ventures, we understand key regulatory issues, communicate clearly with regulators and counsel on the other side of the table, and close deals in a cost-effective, timely manner to maximize value.

Partnering with you to create the future of the industry

We collaborate with those at the forefront of health industry innovation to foster the unique partnerships and business ventures that are transforming healthcare. Our cross-functional legal counsel removes the false barriers that often arise between transactional and regulatory issues. Thus, we’re able to minimize due diligence redundancies, assist financing sources so that legal questions are handled appropriately, and move deals swiftly from negotiation to implementation. Whether you’re working on a deal in the US 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.

Our experienced private equity team has advised on hundreds of healthcare deals covering the gamut of clinics, hospitals, inpatient/outpatient services, practice management, laboratory services, information technology, managed care, devices and supplies, business processing outsourcing, revenue cycle management and more.

We are the only firm ranked in the top tier by all of the major rankings and directories, including Chambers USA, which has named us “Health Law Firm of the Year” three times. We work hand-in-hand with our top-ranked private equity practice, which means private equity funds can rely on us as a comprehensive legal solution.

Our clients have the confidence to execute because they know they have the full weight of the leading health
care law firm behind them. We offer counsel on the full range of investment and financing activities, including growth investments and buy-and-build strategies; control, non-control and minority investments; buyouts and recapitalizations; auction processes; strategic dispositions and exit strategies; and bankruptcy, out-of-court restructurings and workouts.

Skilled at helping private equity firms and their portfolio companies acquire distressed assets, our global restructuring and insolvency team offers strategic advice on navigating the peculiarities associated with asset sales in Chapter 11 and 7 bankruptcy cases, UCC Article 9 foreclosures and out-of-court restructurings. Our clients rely on our experience when acquiring assets through a debtor’s plan of reorganization in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases because of our skilled handling of the various associated legal complications. We’re also successful with section 363 bankruptcy sales and pursuing “stalking horse” status for our clients.

Our finance team provides critical legal services during healthcare buyout transactions. Our solid relationships with numerous lenders active in the private equity marketplace allow us to think creatively in evaluating financing approaches. We are particularly skilled at tailoring multilayered financing packages to meet the unique characteristics of each deal, thanks to our vast experience with structuring acquisitions, recapitalization, refinancing and disposition of portfolio companies, as well as transactions for add-ons and restructurings.

We also serve as general counsel for portfolio companies, advising on major transactions and day-to-day legal matters, as well as providing efficiency and continuity for platform acquisitions, bolt-on transactions, operational and compliance issues, and sales.

Masters of the facts and legal developments. They are collaborative in developing strategy and very responsive to case developments. – Client testimonial, Chambers USA

In the high-pressure environment of private equity deals, disputes are inevitable. Competing stakeholder interests often lead to disagreements over deal terms, governance, post-closing obligations, and working capital and other purchase price adjustment disputes.

Backed by one of the most active transactional practices in the US, the firm’s market-leading litigators leverage deep knowledge of the private equity industry to resolve disputes, both routine and complex, so you can get back to what you do best – drive growth and maximize investment returns.

Private equity funds and their portfolio companies turn to our private equity litigation and enforcement team to protect their interests across the entire fund lifecycle, from formation to exit. At each stage, our lawyers work in tandem with clients to pursue their business opportunities while mitigating litigation risk. We also advise portfolio companies on how to strengthen their compliance programs to reduce regulatory risk and provide greater defense in the face of a government inquiry.

To protect private equity clients’ confidentiality, we propose strategic alternatives to litigation, including mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. This approach allows our clients the flexibility to resolve disputes outside of the courtroom, preserving ongoing business relationships and minimizing reputational impact.

When alternative dispute resolution is not possible, our first-chair trial lawyers leverage courtroom-tested strategies to defend our clients’ interests in state and federal courts. Our trial lawyers allow clients to leverage litigation as a tool to drive business value and preserve and expand returns on investment.

The firm has over 200 litigators across the US, including a dedicated team in Wilmington. With significant experience in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the leading venue for private equity cases, we are a go-to firm for high-value business disputes.

Areas of focus

Our lawyers handle a broad spectrum of key litigation issues for private equity firms and their portfolio companies, including:

• Accounting irregularities
• Bankruptcy
• Breaches of representations and warranties​ insurance (RWI) policies and RWI claims
• Class-action claims
• Corporate governance​ disputes
• Delaware litigation
• Earnout disputes
• ​Founder disputes
• Investigations
• M&A indemnification​
• Trade secrets​ disputes
• Working capital and purchase price adjustment disputes