Alison S. Ressler

Ressler is a leading authority on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and capital markets. She counsels corporations, private equity investors, boards of directors and financial advisers on a range of transactions in many industries.

Ressler, who leads the firm's practice in California, said she's had an incredibly busy year. Though funding activity ground to a halt when COVID-19 hit, other areas ramped up to address the new business environment.

"There was a dramatic slowdown in the normal course of activity for certain areas, including M&A, private equity, IPOs and normal financings, all of which went on pause," she said. "But you did have an immediate, significant uptick in certain other areas, such as restructuring, bankruptcy and financings to provide needed liquidity, as companies started to evaluate the consequences of COVID and figure out what that meant they needed to be doing."

Ressler advised Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing LLC this year on its $1.5 billion acquisition by Stanley Black & Decker Inc. . Her client designs and produces hardware and fastener solutions for aerospace applications worldwide. It is controlled by Sullivan & Cromwell's client Tinicum LP and affiliated partnerships managed by Tinicum Inc.

"It was a significant strategic transaction for Stanley Black & Decker to expand into the aircraft parts business," Ressler said. "We were able to get the deal closed Feb. 24, literally right before the world fell apart. Obviously, the airline industry, and therefore people's willingness to spend a lot of money on parts for the aerospace industry, was and remains severely hit. So I think getting the sale done for [Consolidated Aerospace Manufacturing] and its owners right as this was unfolding was a terrific outcome for them."

During that early period of the coronavirus crisis, many merger and acquisition transaction parties abandoned significant deals, and some of these went into litigation, Ressler said.

Now, however, she sees deal activity returning to normal.

"Much like what's going on socially, I think corporate America has gotten tired of being in a pause mode," she said. "In the last six weeks, there has been a very big uptick in normal M&A activity. Things are getting restarted, deals are getting announced, and IPOs and other strategic transactions are back. People are basically saying we can't put everything on hold indefinitely."

-- Jennifer Chung Klam