Valerie E. Stevens
Valerie Stevens is the managing partner of the Hodgson Russ New York City office and the leader of the firm’s Private Equity and Antitrust, Trade Regulation & Anticorruption Practices. She advises her clients on their most challenging transactions. Her work spans mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, internal reorganizations, and other transformative transactions across a variety of industries, including financial services, environmental services, manufacturing, construction services, and other regulated industries.
With nearly two decades of experience, Valerie guides clients through all stages of the transaction process. She is a hands-on practitioner, routinely representing private equity clients and platform companies as lead counsel in platform and follow-on acquisitions, as well as exit transactions. In addition, she regularly advises banks and other financial institutions in the purchase and sale of non-bank assets and business divisions. Valerie has been involved with a number of high-profile transactions, including acting as lead counsel to various large financial institutions in connection with non-bank business acquisitions and divestitures, with transaction values ranging from $150 million to nearly $1 billion.
Once the deal is done, Valerie typically continues her representation of portfolio companies throughout the full investment lifecycle, serving as a trusted advisor to sponsor representatives and management teams on commercial operations and day-to-day risk management. Drawing on her deep and varied experience, she regularly negotiates operational and commercial agreements, supply and distribution arrangements, joint venture agreements, and other matters essential to achieving company growth objectives. In addition, she regularly provides clients with strategic guidance on a range of non-transactional issues, offering practical advice to help clients balance legal risk and business priorities.
Finally, Valerie has substantial experience counseling clients in a variety of antitrust matters, most notably pre-merger clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. She has also worked with clients to manage antitrust risk in the context of competitor collaborations, licensing, and distribution arrangements.
Representative Work
- Represented a U.S. publicly-traded financial institution in the acquisition of a U.S. equipment lending company.
- Represented founders of a U.S. consumer products business in the sale of the company to sponsor buyer.
- Represented partner in a U.S. consumer products business in connection with the exit of the equal partner.
- Represented sponsor-owned European portfolio company in the acquisition of a U.S. manufacturing corporation.
- U.S. counsel to sponsor-owned EU industrials business in connection with its sale to a non-U.S. publicly-traded buyer.
Recognitions
- Former associate editor, Wagner Review
- Martin L. Friedland Prize for best student article and Cassels Brock & Blackwell Prize for best article in the issue award, University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review, 2006
- Associate editor, University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review, 2005
