Biography
Mark E. Thierfelder is chair of the firm's corporate and securities group, chair of the global private equity practice and member of the firm’s Policy Committee. He concentrates his practice on private equity transactions and domestic and international mergers and acquisitions throughout North America, Europe and Asia. In particular, Mr. Thierfelder represents leading private equity funds and their portfolio companies in a full range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations, leveraged financings, restructurings, and reorganizations. In addition, he negotiates, structures, and executes corporate transactions on behalf of strategic buyers and sellers, and has significant experience representing banks and other institutional lenders in leveraged financings and restructurings.
Over the course of his 25+ year career, Mr. Thierfelder has acted on some of the most significant transactions in the market. In fact, he played a lead role advising on the two largest private equity-backed acquisitions globally in the past three years, according to Thomson Reuters, including his representation of GIC in the acquisition by a Blackstone-led consortium of a majority stake in Thomson Reuters’ Financial & Risk business at an overall valuation of US$20 billion, and his representation of SK hynix as part of a consortium in the US$18 billion acquisition of Toshiba Corporation’s NAND flash memory and solid-state drive business.
Mr. Thierfelder is consistently recommended by legal directory Chambers USA, where he is listed as a leading lawyer for Corporate/M&A in New York and Nationwide Private Equity Buyouts. In recent editions of Chambers, he has been described as “a businessperson's attorney,” who “has a great sense of deal dynamics and what's really going on,” is “very knowledgeable and understands the nuances involved in everything he handles” and “gets the best deal possible.” Clients have noted he is a “go-to for high-level advice on complex M&A matters" and is "a trusted partner to help navigate not only legal issues, but also business issues that arise during every negotiation." Clients have also commended him as “a fantastic leader” and “one of the most sophisticated lawyers” who “possesses a command of the entire deal process, has great commercial awareness and a good temperament for negotiating with the other side.” He has also been listed as a top private equity and mergers and acquisitions lawyer for the past eleven years by The Legal 500 (U.S.), which singled him out as an “outstanding business lawyer,” “exceptional strategist” and a “recognized expert in private equity transactions.” The Legal 500 (U.S.) has also stated that he does a “stellar job” with “very good commercial sense” and that clients “value his advice and his commitment greatly.” In addition, Mr. Thierfelder is recognized by the IFLR1000, where he is one of only 36 lawyers in the United States named a Market Leader for Private Equity and M&A.
He is also a frequent speaker and author on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate and securities topics. He has been published or featured by CNBC and Bloomberg Markets as well as in The Deal Pipeline, New York Law Journal, Mergers & Acquisitions magazine, Investment Dealers’ Digest, Law360, Private Equity Online and other prominent media outlets. In addition, Mr. Thierfelder was recently selected to attend the Harvard Law School Leadership in Law Firms conference, a six-day intensive program for senior law firm leaders around the world to develop perspectives and skills necessary to be effective law firm leaders.
Mr. Thierfelder has extensive industry experience representing clients in sectors including technology, consumer products, defense, energy, infrastructure, retail, media and communications, healthcare, restaurants, life sciences, fishing, semiconductors, software, manufacturing, financial services and food and beverage. As a result, he can anticipate and address industry-unique issues that often arise in the transaction process and structure the transactions efficiently.