Emily Roberts

Roberts represents revolutionaries. The companies she most likes to guide as they raise funding or go public are ones that are shaking up their own industries.

She is very proud of working with electric-vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors because it is "bringing new technology to the market trying to revolutionize the car industry," she said. Roberts advised Lucid in its highly complex, $11.75 billion merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in July, a deal that included the largest ever SPAC-related common stock PIPE.

Another such business is Affirm Holdings Inc., which she said is "trying to revolutionize ways that consumers can finance purchases" as a leader in "buy now, pay later" lending at the point of sale, especially for online shoppers. Roberts co-led the team that advised underwriters for Affirm's $1.39 billion IPO in January 2021.

She also co-led teams that advised underwriters last year in IPOs for companies that are upending their industries to benefit ordinary consumers, Poshmark Inc., in retail, and Robinhood Markets Inc., in stocks.

Poshmark is a "social marketplace" where users can buy and sell second-hand clothing and accessories online. Its initial public offering, also in January 2021, was for $318.8 million of stock. The company's share price shot up 141% the first day.

Robinhood pioneered commission-free stock trades by mobile app for ordinary consumers. Its $2.1 billion IPO in August was unusual for setting aside as much as 35% of the shares for its own customers. The company "has been on the leading edge of doing really interesting things and engaging with pretty novel legal problems," Roberts said.

This year has been quieter, but she did work with AN2 Therapeutics on its nearly $100 million IPO in March.

And Roberts continues to advise digital infrastructure giant Equinix Inc., on "green" bond offerings, in which the company vows to use the revenue in environmentally sound ways. In addition to a €1.1 billion offering last March and a $1 billion offering two months later, this April she worked on a $1.2 billion offering. The total puts the company among the top five issuers of green bonds in the world, she said.

- Don DeBenedictis