The Week at Ropes & Gray

This week, Ropes & Gray helped clients with a variety of private equity and M&A transactions, and filed a pro bono lawsuit with Project Citizenship in Massachusetts. The firm also co-hosted an event and released podcasts on timely legal issues, and provided commentary on developments in e-discovery and health care. Here’s a summary of the week’s highlights:

• Our clients were active across a range of industries:
• Global private markets investment manager Partners Group sold its minority stake in Action, a European non-food discount retailer valued at €10.25 billion. Ropes & Gray represented Partners Group in the transaction.
• TJX Companies, Inc., the off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions, acquired a 25% minority ownership stake in Familia, Russia’s only major off-price apparel and home fashions retailer. Ropes & Gray advised TJX in the transaction.
• Advent International, the global private equity investor, acquired Olaplex, a prestige and professional hair care brand. Ropes & Gray advised Advent on the acquisition.
• Teradyne, a developer and supplier of automatic test equipment, acquired autonomous mobile robots supplier AutoGuide Mobile Robots. Ropes & Gray advised Teradyne on the acquisition. 
• Cabinet manufacturer and distributor acpi® has agreed to acquire Masco Cabinetry. Ropes & Gray advised acpi® on the acquisition and a related financing.
• Ropes & Gray and Project Citizenship filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The lawsuit challenges a rule change recently imposed by USCIS that eliminates the primary means by which low-income legal permanent residents can become eligible for a citizenship application fee waiver. Approximately 70% of Project Citizenship’s clients—and tens of thousands of similarly situated individuals throughout the country—rely on this fee waiver in order to apply for citizenship. Without it, thousands of legal permanent residents will be unable to apply for citizenship, despite being otherwise qualified, and the application process will be needlessly burdensome.
• Rapid, complex changes at the intersection of privacy, data and compliance have made it more challenging for companies to manage their risk and serve their customers. To address these challenges, Ropes & Gray and the Association of Corporate Counsel co-hosted an interactive workshop for in-house counsel on rethinking privacy and fundamental aspects of integrating emerging technologies. The seminar, which took place at Ropes & Gray’s Boston office, brought together more than 100 legal executives and business leaders in the Boston area.
• Our partners were featured on podcasts covering cutting-edge legal issues:
• Asset management partners Mike Doherty and Brian McCabe, and securities & public companies partner Paul Tropp, discuss important regulatory developments and current issues affecting business development companies.
• Asset management partners Isabel Dische and Melissa Bender, and tax and benefits counsel Morey Ward, provide an overview of key considerations for family offices and foundations as they consider whether, and how, to integrate ESG factors and impact investing into their investment processes.
• E-discovery has become a standalone practice area in the legal field as the amount and type of information stored electronically by parties to litigation has grown. E-discovery counsel Shannon Capone Kirk examined the emergence of e-discovery as a legal specialty in a Law Practice Today roundtable.
• The Trump administration has put forward two rules to compel hospitals and insurers to release secret negotiated rates and other pricing information. Health care partner Tom Bulleit offered analysis on how hospitals plan to challenge the administration’s price transparency plan in court in Healthcare Dive.
• Ropes & Gray expanded its California offices with the addition of Ellen Sueda, an experienced executive compensation and benefits attorney. She joins the San Francisco office as counsel in the firm’s benefits practice.
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