Mr. Parness has broad experience counseling alternative investment management firms on transactions and other matters of strategic importance and is a frequent author and speaker on topics affecting the private equity and alternative asset management industry.

Prior to joining Weil, Mr. Parness spent over six years at Goldman Sachs where he was responsible for executing strategic M&A on behalf of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and advised multiple business units (growth equity, secondaries and GP-stakes) on investing activities and private fund matters.

Experience*

Asset Management and Financial Services

• Regular representation of sponsors and the “buy-side” on GP-led secondary transactions and GP-stake sales
• TPG Global in various matters, including its agreement with Sixth Street Partners, to become independent, unaffiliated businesses, with TPG retaining a passive minority economic stake in Sixth Street
• Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in its approximately $4.8 billion acquisition of a 61.2% stake in Oaktree Capital Group, LLC
• Genstar Capital in its acquisitions of Orion Advisor Solutions (a portfolio company of TA Associates) and Brinker Capital, creating a wealthtech advisory services company
• InfraRed Capital Partners in its $396 million sale of a majority stake to Sun Life Financial Inc.
• Thomas H. Lee Partners in the sale of THL Credit Advisors LLC to First Eagle Investment Management, LLC
• Goldman Sachs (as in-house counsel) in connection with its acquisitions of Rocaton Investment Advisors, Aptitude Investment Management, Honest Dollar, Imprint Capital, Pacific Global Advisors’ OCIO business, Verus Investors’ OCIO business and Deutche Bank’s stable value business and the dispositions of GSAM Australia’s equity business to TA Associates and GSAM India’s mutual fund business to Reliance Capital
• Allied Capital Corp. in its $650 million all-stock merger with Ares Capital Corporation
• IPC Holdings in its $1.7 billion sale to Validus Holdings
• Sempra Energy in the sale of its RBS-Sempra natural gas and power trading joint venture to J.P. Morgan

Consumer

• Campbell Soup Company in its $2.2 billion sale of Campbell International to KKR and its sale of Kelsen Group A/S
• AB InBev in connection with its sale of Busch Entertainment to Blackstone Group for $2.3 billion
• Gildan Activewear in connection with its acquisitions of GoldToe Moretz from Blackstone for $350 million and its acquisition of Anvil for $88 million

Healthcare

• Alcon and Alcon’s independent directors in connection with its sale of Nestle’s Alcon stake to Novartis and Novartis’ acquisition of the remaining publicly held minority interest in Alcon for $52.9 billion
• UnitedHealth in connection with its acquisition of XLHealth from Matlin Paterson

TMT

• AT&T in the sale of its Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive businesses to Cerberus
• CIC International, Boyu and CITIC Capital, as lead investors, in connection with the equity financing of Alibaba’s repurchase of Yahoo!’s stake in Alibaba
• Verifone Systems in its $1 billion acquisition of Point and the acquisitions of ChargeSmart, Global Bay Mobile Technologies and the assets of Show Media

Mr. Parness is named a 2020 Secondaries “Next Generation Leader” by Secondaries Investor, where clients note he is “…a star and would not consider a transaction without him as counsel.”

Mr. Parness received his J.D., magna cum laude and as a member of the Order of the Coif, from New York University School of Law and his B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Delaware.

*Includes matters handled prior to joining Weil.