Press Release
August 4, 2022

Goodwin Further Strengthens Secondaries Bench with Private Investment Funds Partner Robert Emerson in New York

Global law firm Goodwin today announced that Robert Emerson joined the firm’s Private Investment Funds practice as a partner, resident in the New York office.

“The secondaries and GP-led restructuring market is growing increasingly abundant with opportunities for our clients,” said Paul Verbesey, co-chair of Goodwin’s Private Investment Funds practice. “Rob’s deep experience in this space combined with his expertise in traditional fund formation and other fund transactional work make him an ideal match for our global team. We’re thrilled to have him on board as we continue to further enhance our preeminent funds offering in support of our clients’ success.”

Emerson advises private equity firms and their senior management on a wide variety of legal, compliance, and business issues. He counsels clients on fund transactional projects, having led numerous secondaries and strategic transactions on both the buy-side and sell-side in connection with portfolio companies, co-investments, and sponsor level transactions. Emerson also has extensive experience advising sponsors in their fundraising efforts having raised both domestic and foreign based products that span from smaller emerging managers to well-established sponsors with offerings in excess of $15 billion.

“Given the quickly expanding universe of fund transactional work, especially in secondaries with GP-led transactions, continuation vehicles, and preferred equity, the breadth of Goodwin’s investment funds and M&A practices provide an excellent platform on which to continue to advance my practice,” said Emerson. “I look forward to delivering best-in-class service to Goodwin’s incredible roster of clients.”

Goodwin's approximately 200-lawyer Private Investment Funds practice supports over 500 investment managers raising capital to invest in the private equity, real estate, technology, and life sciences sectors. In the past 18 months, the practice closed more than 60 funds totaling over $200 billion in raised capital. The firm was recently named the top law firm for fund formation by Law360, the Legal 500 UK Awards, IJ Global, and SuperReturn Awards. Goodwin was named the number one firm (by deal count) for global, U.K., and U.S. M&A, and global, U.S., and European buyouts by Mergermarket in the H1 2022 league tables.