Sheppard is pleased to announce that Garry Padrta has joined the firm as a partner in the Corporate practice group and the Private Equity team in Los Angeles.
Padrta joins from Kirkland & Ellis, and his move follows nine private equity partner hires this year across Chicago, London, Dallas and New York as the firm continues its Private Equity team expansion.
“We are pleased to welcome Garry to the firm,” said Luca Salvi, chair of Sheppard. “Garry is a deal lawyer with a track record of getting transactions across the finish line, and we are excited to have him join the team.”
Padrta has extensive experience representing private equity sponsors, their portfolio companies and privately held businesses on middle-market mergers and acquisitions (M&A), including structuring and executing leveraged buyouts, platform acquisitions, joint control and other consortium deals, add-on acquisitions, carve-outs and divestitures. He also advises private equity sponsors on GP-led continuation vehicle transactions and other secondaries transactions, and represents borrowers in planning and implementing liability management exercises and other capital structure solution transactions.
John Tishler, co-leader of Sheppard’s Corporate practice group, added, “Our clients will benefit from Garry’s ability to craft practical, creative solutions that address the needs of multiple stakeholders. In addition to his M&A practice, his experience with GP-led secondaries, including continuation vehicle transactions, strengthens our ability to help private equity clients navigate complex transactions and pursue liquidity solutions.”
“The combination of Sheppard’s national platform, rapidly expanding corporate and private equity groups, rich history advising on middle-market transactions and deep California roots makes it the perfect fit for my institutional and strategic clients and the right place to continue growing my M&A practice,” said Padrta. “I look forward to leveraging Sheppard’s platform to help clients in pursuing their acquisition and portfolio growth strategies and implementing other creative liquidity and capital solutions.”
Padrta earned his B.A. from the University of Southern California and his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
About Sheppard’s Corporate Practice
Sheppard’s Corporate practice delivers strategic, partner-led counsel on complex transactions and corporate matters for clients across industries and jurisdictions. With more than 230 corporate lawyers, the team advises on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, public offerings and corporate governance, bringing deep transactional experience and commercial judgment to matters ranging from early-stage growth to multibillion-dollar exits. Corporate lawyers collaborate seamlessly with colleagues in tax, employment, intellectual property, privacy, real estate, environmental and litigation to provide coordinated, efficient support through a single, experienced deal team.