William L. Barnard

Will Barnard focuses his practice on private equity and strategic transactions across a wide range of industries. He represents clients on corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, asset purchases, business divestitures and financings.

Will works across business sectors, including insurance, energy, infrastructure, banking, private equity, food and beverage and technology, on a variety of corporate transactions such as private placements, public financings and mergers and acquisitions. He also represents clients with respect to making securities filings and meeting corporate governance requirements imposed under securities law and stock exchange rules.

Prior to attending law school, Will was an investment banker specializing in technology M&A.

Will’s experience includes the representation of:

• Domestic and foreign insurance carriers in connection with their corporate formation and regulatory licensing support
• A publicly traded issuer of fixed annuities and life insurance policies on a wide range of corporate matters and SEC filings
• A health insurance technology company on general corporate matters relating to its bankruptcy and post-emergence business activities
• An insurance agency on the sale of its trucking insurance business line
• An insurance agency on its acquisition of a casualty insurance firm with licenses to write insurance in 25 states
• Smart & Final Holdings, Inc., an operator of over 260 grocery warehouse stores and an affiliate of Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), in its $620 million sale to Grupo Comercial Chedraui, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: CHDRAUI)
• Smart & Final Holdings, Inc., an affiliate of Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), in its $970 million sale of its Smart Foodservice Warehouse Stores business to US Foods Holding Corp. (NYSE: USFD)
• Lake AIV, LP, a portfolio company of Basalt Infrastructure Partners, in its sale of Upper Peninsula Power Holding Company, the owner of a regulated electric utility in Michigan, to Axium UP Holdings LLC, a portfolio company of Axium Infrastructure
• Black Bear Transmission LLC, a portfolio company of Basalt Infrastructure Partners, in its acquisition of Ozark Gas Transmission, LLC, the owner of an interstate natural gas pipeline, and Ozark Gas Gathering, LLC, the owner of a natural gas gathering system, from a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc.
• New State Capital in its investment in Computer Data Source
• New State Capital in its investment in a steel building construction company specializing in the self-storage market
• A private equity client on the sale of a provider of backup generation to commercial and industrial customers throughout Texas
• A private equity client on the purchase of a provider of emergency response and strike security, risk management and business continuity services
• A provider of a tech-enabled financial crime identification and investigation platform on a sale of the business for approximately $40 million
• A student lender on the sale of the business for $400 million
• A financial advisory business on its acquisition of a retirement benefits consulting business line
• A cutting-edge e-commerce business on a sale of the business for $900 million
• ENMAX Corporation in its $1.3 billion acquisition of Emera Maine, a regulated transmission and distribution utility in Maine, from Emera Inc.
• Hydro One Limited in its proposed $5.3 billion acquisition of Avista Corporation, a regulated electric and gas utility in the Pacific Northwest
• Great Plains Energy in its stock-for-stock merger of equals transaction with Westar Energy, Inc., creating Evergy, Inc., a company with a combined equity value of approximately $15 billion with nearly 13,000 MW of generation capacity and more than 51,000 miles of distribution lines
• Talen Energy Corporation in its $189 million sale of Interstate Energy Company LLC, the owner of a natural gas and oil pipeline in Pennsylvania, to Adelphia Gateway LLC, a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources Corporation
• An American energy company on a $165 million acquisition of a retail energy company
• A private equity client on an acquisition of a 600 MW transmission asset
• A Fortune 500 company on its $1.1 billion acquisition of an animal health distribution company and the $715 million divestiture of its medical distribution business
• A privately held bank on its $183 million sale to a public banking corporation
• A publicly traded bank on a $140 million merger
• A publicly traded bank on a $40 million acquisition of a private bank
• Two private equity real estate sponsors on the formation and financing of multiple funds
• A technology company on three rounds of private placements