Steve Napolitano is co-chair of the firm’s US Private Equity practice and maintains offices in both Chicago and New York. His practice spans the full range of private equity representation, from leveraged buyout transactions in mature industries to venture capital and growth equity financings in emerging growth technology companies. Mr. Napolitano also serves as a member of DLA Piper’s firmwide Policy Committee.

He focuses his national practice on representing private equity funds and corporations in connection with mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and going private transactions, as well as public and private equity, mezzanine, and senior debt financings. He also has substantial experience representing private equity sponsors, corporations, and senior management teams in connection with a broad range of management equity arrangements.

Mr. Napolitano regularly counsels corporations and their boards of directors in general corporate law, corporate governance, business, and fiduciary duty matters. He has particular experience with private equity transactions in the heavily regulated for-profit health care industry, where he has served as lead counsel in numerous private and public transactions involving complex federal and state health care regulatory considerations.

Recent representative transactions include:

• Representation of Wind Point Partners in connection with the leveraged buyout of Railworks Corporation
• Representation of Cortec Group Fund IV, LP in connection with the leveraged buyout of CGI Windows and Doors, Inc.
• Representation of Arbor Private Investment Company L.P. in connection with the sale of ISI Commercial Refrigeration, LP to a portfolio company of Brazos
• Representation of Prairie Capital III, LP in connection with the leveraged buyout of Plastimayd, Inc.
• Representation of Wind Point Partners in connection with the sale of Arr-Maz Custom Chemicals, Inc. to GSO Capital Partners
• Representation of the management of Berry Plastics Corporation with regard to their equity co-investment made in connection with Apollo’s leveraged buyout of Berry Plastics Corporation
• Representation of Wind Point Partners in connection with their leveraged buyout of Santa Maria Foods Corporation
• Representation of Wind Point Partners in connection with the leveraged buyout of Omniflight, Inc. and affiliates
• Representation of Arbor Investments II, L.P. in connection with the leveraged buyout of National Provisions, Inc.

Mr. Napolitano has received a number of prestigious professional commendations. Since 2003, he has been named by the respected English research firm Chambers & Partners in both Chambers Global: World’s Leading Lawyers for Business and Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as one of the leading private equity and corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyers in the United States. Mr. Napolitano was cited in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 editions of The Best Lawyers in America as a leading lawyer in the fields of private equity law and leveraged buyouts. He also has been recognized by Euromoney Legal Media Group as one of the leading mergers and acquisitions and private equity lawyers in the United States. According to the Leading Lawyers Network, Mr. Napolitano is a top Illinois lawyer in mergers and acquisitions, securities and venture finance, and health law. He also has been recognized since 2004 as an Illinois Super Lawyer in mergers and acquisitions. In October 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times profiled Mr. Napolitano as one of the top five private equity lawyers in Chicago.

Mr. Napolitano received a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1981, where he was named to Omicron Epsilon Delta, a national economics honor society. He completed graduate work in monetary theory at the London School of Economics. He received a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1985, where he was an editor of American Journal of Law & Medicine, an American Jurisprudence Award recipient, and a G. Joseph Tauro Scholar.

ZULASSUNGEN

• Illinois

Mitgliedschaften

• American Bar Association 
• Association for Corporate Growth 
• NovaMed, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVA), Board of Directors
  

Seminars

Mr. Napolitano has spoken extensively on private equity and mergers and acquisitions topics. His presentations include the “General LBO Panel” at the University of Chicago’s Fifth Annual Private Equity Conference (panel moderator); the “Private Equity Outlook” panel at The Deal’s Annual Private Capital Symposium in both 2006 and 2007 (panel moderator); and the “Use of LLCs in Buyout Transactions” workshop at the 34th annual ACG InterGrowth Conference in April 2005 (co-chair).

Ehrenamtliche und gemeinnützige Tätigkeiten

• Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States, Board of Directors
• United Cerebral Palsy of Chicago, Chairman, Board of Directors; Member, Executive and Operating Committees
• Coach, Youth Football, Oak Park River Forest Youth Huskies