Michael Newquist

Michael L. Newquist is a Partner in, and Co-Chair of, our Private Equity & Venture Capital Group, focusing on all aspects of transactional corporate law, with a concentration in private equity and venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and restructurings.

Michael also serves as outside general counsel to several portfolio companies of private equity fund clients. Prior to joining the Firm, Michael was a Senior Associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago where he focused on complex private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to attending law school, Michael was an executive at the May Company, where he held several management positions and received company-wide awards for superior performance.

Representative Experience :

• Represented IPS Corporation and its private equity sponsor in its $700 million sale to Encapsys LLC, a portfolio company of Sherman Capital.
• Represented Hastings Equity Partners and a co-investor group in its acquisition of Southern Petroleum Laboratories, a Houston-based provider of services necessary for the accurate measurement of volume and composition of hydrocarbon products for the oil and gas production industry. Michael subsequently represented Southern Petroleum Laboratories in its sale to a private equity fund.
• Served as special counsel to Worldwide Express and its private equity and individual investors in its sale to Quad-C Partners. Worldwide Express is a global package and freight shipping firm.
• Represented Sleep Experts, a Dallas-based mattress retailer, in its sale to a subsidiary of Mattress Firm (NASDAQ: MFRM).
• Represented FFG Holdings, Inc. in its sale of its flavors business to a national foodservice company and its fragrances business to a private equity firm.
• Represented Nautic Partners in its acquisition of Reliant Hospital Partners, a Texas-based operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals.
• Advised private equity fund in its acquisition of a leading designer, importer and distributor of pet apparel and fashion accessories based in San Francisco, California.
• Represented Cavalier Telephone Corporation and its stockholders in its $460 million merger with Paetec Holding Corp. (NASDAQ GS: PAET)
• Represented HealthCor Partners Fund, L.P. in its Series E investment in ApaTech Limited, a UK-based company focused on the development of new bone growth technologies.
• Represented Halyard Capital in the formation of a limited liability equity structure and related acquisition of HCPro, Inc., a provider of informational, educational and advisory products in the areas of compliance, regulation and management to the U.S. healthcare industry.
• Recently represented two companies and management in sales transactions, in one case to a strategic buyer (shoe manufacturer business), and in the other to a private equity buyer (health benefits management business).
• Represented international manufacturing firm based in U.K. in its complex asset purchase of the fabrications operation business of the military aircraft manufacturing division of a major U.S. based defense contractor. Representation involved resolution of complex transition, labor and integration issues.

Professional Affiliations : Member, Rhode Island Bar Association

Education :

• J.D., magna cum laude, Saint Louis University School of Law
• B.A., Washington University in St. Louis

Admissions : Rhode Island