Michael A. Woronoff

Woronoff established Proskauer's West Coast corporate and securities capabilities when he arrived at the firm 12 years ago. In 2011, he became managing partner of the Los Angeles office and co-head of the firm's mergers and acquisitions and private equity groups. He is the only one of the firm's seven-member executive committee to reside outside New York.

Since he arrived at Proskauer, the M&A and private equity practices have thrived, and the LA office has experienced significant growth, he said. "I'm very proud of what we've accomplished. Since I've been here, our office has grown from under 50 lawyers to close to 90." During his tenure, the LA-based corporate team has advised on transactions totaling more than $200 billion and has grown sevenfold to become the firm's largest practice area in California.

In the past 24 months, he has handled deals upward of $15 billion. Most recently, he serves as counsel to Ares Management in Ares Capital Corp.'s pending acquisition of American Capital Ltd. According to news reports, American Capital's shareholders will receive about $3.43 billion in total cash and stock, plus an additional $562 million for the separate sale of American Capital Mortgage Management LLC to American Capital Agency Corp.

"We are very fortunate to have significant clients such as Ares, which has had such rapid growth," Woronoff said. "When we started representing them, they had about $5 billion under management and that figure is now up to about $95 billion."

Woronoff's work for Ares Management in its 2012 $975 million acquisition of Smart & Final Stores Inc. led to further work for the chain. He recently served as counsel for Smart & Final in its $68 million acquisition of 33 store leases and related assets from Haggen Holdings LLC. Woronoff also advised the chain on its 2014 initial public offering.

The Daily Journal named the Ares and Smart & Final IPOs as two of the top 10 IPOs in California in 2014, Woronoff noted. "That's 20 percent of the top IPOs, yet we don't have 20 percent of the capital markets lawyers in the state. This demonstrates the high level at which our practice operates," he said.

Woronoff said Proskauer has successfully and strategically recruited top lawyers to his firm. "We are not trying to grow just for the sake of growth and strive to identify top-level talent that will benefit our clients. For example, I spotted Bart Williams on the Daily Journal's Top 100 list last year and reached out," he said of his move to nab Williams and Manuel F. Cachán from Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. Williams and Cachán, who worked together at Munger Tolles, are well known and experienced litigators. "Because it is such a great firm, it's very difficult to get people to leave Munger," Woronoff said.

— John Roemer