The Week at Ropes & Gray

In The News
February 14, 2020

This week, Ropes & Gray attorneys guided clients on private equity transactions and provided commentary on key developments in IP and health care law. The firm also released two podcasts—one on credit funds and a second featuring insights from a Ropes & Gray alum. Here’s a summary of the week’s highlights:

  • Clients announced private equity deals in the real estate, health care, energy, shipping and retail sectors:
    • Primary care provider network Iora Health announced an investment of $126 million as part of its Series F funding round. Ropes & Gray advised Iora Health on the investment.
    • SaaS and data analytics energy company Enverus acquired RS Energy Group, a technology firm focused on the upstream oil and gas industry. Ropes & Gray represented Enverus in the acquisition.
    • Bulk freight shipping services provider Rand Logistics, an affiliate of American Industrial Partners, is acquiring American Steamship Co. from GATX Corporation. Ropes & Gray is advising Rand Logistics on the acquisition.
    • TSG and Privé Revaux have sold a majority stake in Privé Revaux to the Safilo Group. The overall consideration for the 61.34% controlling interest in Privé Revaux was $67.5 million. Ropes & Gray represented TSG and Privé Revaux in the sale.
    • TravelCenters of America announced the closing of a $16.6 million mortgage loan financing on its Greenwich, Rhode Island travel center. Ropes & Gray advised TravelCenters of America on the financing.
  • Litigation & enforcement co-chair Gregg Weiner was featured in The American Lawyer’s “Litigation Daily” section as its latest Litigation Leader. In the Q&A, Gregg highlights the track record, talent and cross-practice collaboration that distinguishes Ropes & Gray’s litigation group.
  • Ropes & Gray released two new podcasts:
    • In a new podcast focused on credit funds, finance partner Leonard Klingbaum is joined by Colin Adams, a managing director and senior professional at the investment and advisory firm M-III Partners, to discuss attention to documentation. The podcast explores the prevalent concerns lenders and borrowers face regarding voting provisions, pro rata provisions and EBITDA, as well as the opportunities that arise when these areas are reviewed competently.
    • In the latest installment of Ropes & Gray’s Alumni @ RopesTalk podcast series,health care partner Christine Moundas interviews former colleague Jennifer Bealer, who left Ropes & Gray in 2017 to become executive vice president and general counsel of fertility benefits management company Progyny. Jennifer shares insights about the challenges and rewards of transitioning to an in-house position, executing an IPO and running the day-to-day legal operations of a mission-driven startup.
  • Attorneys offered their insights on major developments in IP and health care law:
    • Biotechnology companies are increasingly seeking to team up with drugmakers to promote products under a single brand name—a strategy that allows them to build their sales force with the help of an established drug company. IP transactions partner Megan Baca and IP transactions associate Georgina Jones Suzuki explored how negotiators tailor these collaboration agreements to win deals and provide data on market trends in Bloomberg Law.
    • While the public debate on prescription drug costs has focused largely on federal initiatives, state governors and legislatures have been quietly leading the charge on drug pricing initiatives. Health care partner Deborah Gardner examines various state efforts to control drug prices, and the constitutional and federal limits on those reforms, in Law360.
  • Law360 profiled Ropes & Gray’s asset management practice as a “Fund Formation Group of the Year.” Asset management practice chair Bryan Chegwidden told Law360: “We like helping our clients do innovative things and be creative. But our ability to do the innovative projects and be creative is largely the result of being able to have a practice that’s of really tremendous scale.”
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