Global 50 law firm Goodwin announced today that Stephen E. Lee has joined the firm’s Private Equity Practice as a partner in the Los Angeles office. Lee joins A.J. Weidhaas, co-chair of the practice, who expanded Goodwin’s private equity platform to Los Angeles when he moved there last year.
“Steve’s arrival is the latest step in our strategy to bring Goodwin’s premier middle market private equity platform – which is already a recognized leader in Northern California, on the East Coast and abroad in London, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Paris – to our Southern California clients,” said Weidhaas. “Steve’s extensive network and significant experience in middle market transactions will be invaluable as we continue to hire and expand in Los Angeles.”
Lee focuses on private equity deals and M&A transactions with a particular emphasis on the manufacturing industry, including aerospace, automotive and medical devices, and the technology industry, including SaaS and healthcare-related software. He counsels strategic buyers and sellers on general corporate matters with considerable expertise in public and private mergers and acquisitions. Lee regularly structures and negotiates a wide array of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, asset and stock acquisitions, mergers, carve-outs of business divisions, and tender offers.
“Steve, A.J. and other lawyers to come are poised to build a significant private equity practice in our Los Angeles office, which opened with a real estate focus in 2006 and has been on a growth trajectory ever since,” said Dean Pappas, Los Angeles office chair and a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Industry Practice. “Their arrival complements our existing practice in Southern California, which also includes a focus on real estate capital markets, technology, securities litigation/white collar defense, consumer financial services, and complex business litigation.”
Lee joins Goodwin from K&L Gates in Los Angeles, where he was a partner. He is admitted to practice in California and New York. Lee earned his J.D. from Cornell Law School and his B.S. from Princeton University. He is a member of the California and New York State Bar Associations and serves as the Secretary and a member of the board of the Association for Corporate Growth in Los Angeles and its Private Equity Committee, a resource for middle-market dealmakers and business leaders who invest in growth and build companies.
Lee can be reached at StephenLee@goodwinlaw.com or (213) 426-2621.
Goodwin’s internationally recognized Private Equity Practice focuses on buyouts, recapitalizations, growth equity investments, and portfolio company transactions in the United States and internationally with a leading position in the US middle markets and growth equity. With a team of over 100 lawyers, the practice covers the full life cycle of clients’ investments – from fund formation to exit and everything in between.
The firm’s Los Angeles office was established in 2006 and is home to more than 30 lawyers focused on real estate, private equity (especially in the areas of life sciences and renewable energy), complex commercial litigation matters, securities litigation and white collar defense, and defense of financial institutions in consumer financial services class actions.