Eric L. Issadore

Issadore focuses on private equity transactions as a partner at Ropes & Gray. He joined the firm amid chaos in the financial world--it was the day in 2008 when Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy. "We were at a hotel in Boston for new associates orientation," he said. "The capital markets shut down." It soon became clear that as the Great Recession took its toll, "for a corporate lawyer there was very little going on in private equity."

So Issadore broadened his skill set, "doing anything anybody would let me do" at the firm. He learned IP licensing, litigation and securities offerings. As his workflow stabilized, he moved to Ropes & Gray's new London office to work on high-yield debt offerings and finance work. He was finally able to shift to his core interest when he relocated to San Francisco in 2013.

"There are parallels now to that recession," he said. "Being flexible then shaped my success. When the pandemic arrived I was able to pivot seamlessly to see potential opportunities in the public market space."

Clients include private equity leaders Silver Lake Management LLC, Golden Gate Capital, The Blackstone Group Inc., Gryphon Investors Inc. and H.I.G. Capital LLC.

Issadore represented Silver Lake as it made major investments in two high-profile Alphabet Inc. companies: Waymo LLC, the Google self-driving car enterprise; and Verily Life Sciences LLC, which gained national attention for its Covid-19 testing venture through its Project Baseline, highly touted by the Trump administration.

"Silver Lake invested in Verily two years ago, at a time when of course we were unaware that a pandemic was on the horizon along with the software screening issues that would arise," Issadore said. "We were the second investor. Investing in a subsidiary of a public company--the deal was a unique structure, having a public company as your counterparty."

The March 2020 Waymo deal marked the company's first external investment round. Issadore represented Silver Lake as well as the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz Capital Management LLC; Waymo raised about $3 billion.

"Deals are happening," Issadore said. "Overall, it's slower than it was. Retail was hit hard, but health care deals are getting done. The debt markets have tightened. It's difficult to get financing because people don't know how to value companies now. Recently, I've seen some take-private opportunities. There's an opportunity for there to be a busy fourth quarter, but it is certainly a challenge as Covid cases remain on the rise."

-- John Roemer