The Debevoise Private Equity Group continues to lead the field, in an industry it has helped shape for decades.
Contacts
Kevin M. Schmidt
Jonathan Adler
European Private Equity Blog
Ranked as a leading law firm for global-wide capabilities in Private Equity by Chambers Global (2024).
Debevoise offers strong expertise in each geography covered.
They are truly valued advisers and have worked on some of our most challenging and complex transactions.
They’ve seen pretty much every issue we encounter and know how to solve it.
A strong platform alongside substantial global depth.
They have a great practice and are a stellar historical name.
—Chambers Global
No matter is too complex … we go to Debevoise for our highly complicated transactions.
They’re trusted advisors with real commercial sense.
They’re highly creative in complex structuring.
The firm has pretty much unmatched market knowledge, and is able to creatively tackle the toughest problems and get to a commercial outcome.
—Chambers USA
The Debevoise team has significant experience in the full range of PE transactions.
—The Legal 500 US
The cooperation with them has always been very robust and perceptive, and for the Asia-Pacific region they are definitely a top-tier law firm for this market.
—Chambers Asia-Pacific
They have a depth of resources, are pragmatic and hands-on, and have good judgement of what is commercially important for the client.
—Chambers UK
For more than 45 years, Debevoise has been the firm of choice for the world’s leading private equity players, representing more than half of the top 50 largest private equity firms ranked in the PEI 300 (2024). From heavy-hitting private equity giants to financial sponsors investing in the mid-market or emerging markets – our unique close-knit partnership brings a breadth of resources to solve complex problems, enabling us to be a seamless presence globally at every state of the private equity life cycle.
Comprised of approximately 500 lawyers (including 100+ partners), our interdisciplinary Private Equity Group is able to seamlessly deliver to clients, collaborating across global offices and practice groups, and offering collective experience and commercial insights in everything from fund formation to M&A and leveraged finance, to tax, as well as cyber security, litigation and regulatory enforcement matters.
Private equity clients also rely on Debevoise’s wealth of industry-specific experience to successfully navigate the high regulatory risk inherent in areas such as healthcare and insurance and other active and emerging areas for private equity across the technology spectrum.
The scope and focus of the Private Equity Group make it extraordinarily market wise.
A proprietary database assembled over decades of sponsor-side and buy-side fund formation work allows Debevoise lawyers to track fund terms and investors’ records and requirements. And a constantly updated global survey of securities and investment management laws that affect private equity funds in over 70 jurisdictions keeps Debevoise funds lawyers on top of the global regulatory environment.
Similarly, systematic surveys of key deal terms and documents help the firm’s M&A and finance teams pinpoint market moves and ensure clients have the best and most up-to-date advice.
The team is constantly innovating – numerous practices now commonplace in fund documents, private equity financing arrangements and M&A agreements were pioneered by Debevoise private equity lawyers.
The market knowledge of Debevoise's private equity lawyers is gathered quarterly in the Debevoise & Plimpton Private Equity Report. The Report’s circulation includes more than 24,000 private equity professionals, and it has been widely regarded since its publication in 2000 as a leading source of commercial, sophisticated thought leadership with respect to the latest legal developments in the private equity sector.
The Group’s strong track record, leading-edge insights, deep bench and commitment to unified, agile teams are why, year after year, clients quoted in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and PEI cite Debevoise for our close-knit partnership, breadth of resources and relentless focus on results.