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Private Equity MVP: Gibson Dunn’s Jeff Chapman
By Chelsea Naso
Law360, New York (December 1, 2015, 3:31 PM ET) -- Law360, New York
(December 1, 2015, 3:31 PM ET) -- Gibson Dunn partner Jeff Chapman
steered some of the year’s most complex private equity transactions,
including Lone Star Funds’ $7.6 billion acquisition of Home Properties,
building off of a career-altering relationship that only recently brought his
focus to private equity and earning him a spot among Law360’s 2015
MVPs.
Chapman, co-chair of Gibson Dunn's global M&A practice, only hopped
into the private equity arena about five years ago, when he joined the firm
from Vinson & Elkins LLP.
His original plan was to continue steering Fortune 500 companies and
private equity portfolio companies through transactions and other
corporate matters. But the forces that be had a different path set out for
Chapman.
“A week after I arrived at Gibson Dunn, my wife discovered she had
pancreatic cancer. We had been married for 32 years at the time. It
became clear that she was not going to survive the illness,” he said.
Jeff Chapman
Gibson Dunn
Chapman took a step back from his new firm to care for his wife and family, knowing that the choice
could slow his career in the long run.
A former colleague from Vinson, however, had found success at a Texas-based private equity firm and
reached out to Chapman to check on his wife, Sheila. During the conversation, Sam Loughlin, who is now
president of Lone Star Funds’ Americas operations, asked Chapman if he had the bandwidth to handle a
transaction for the fund.
“It was a really wonderful call to get. It was the first time anyone had called me since Sheila’s diagnosis,”
he said. “That was the start of my private equity career.”
From then on, Chapman became the go-to partner at Gibson Dunn for Lone Star Funds’ deals. In the
past year alone, Chapman has led four acquisitions for the fund, including Lone Star’s $7.6 billion
play for Home Properties Inc., a publicly traded company that was organized like an up-REIT, in June.
To get the transaction across the finish line, UDR, a public company purchased some of the properties,
and some of Home Properties’ investors invested in a new UDR investment vehicle, instead of receiving
cash in the transaction.
“It was a very complicated acquisition,” he said. “But ultimately it was executed flawlessly and it was a
very good deal for Lone Star and I think the public shareholders were pleased as well.”
A fast-thinking Chapman also led Lone Star through the acquisition of Hanson Building Products, an IPObound unit of Germany-listed cement company HeidelbergCement AG, a $1.4 billion deal that was
negotiated in under 36 hours and signed on Christmas Eve.
“All of the deals I’ve done for Lone Star that involved private equity have moved at lightning pace. They
view that as a competitive advantage. They are just terrific at getting deals done,” he said.
The intricate details of such complicated and fast-moving transactions are enough to make any M&A
expert’s head spin, but for Chapman, complexity seems to be his comfort zone.
Just a few years earlier, the Harvard Law School graduate advised MetroPCS as it explored a
combination with Sprint before instead opting for a $1.5 billion merger with T-Mobile USA Inc., a deal
that had a $32 billion enterprise value.
“That was also very high profile, two of the largest deals of my career,” he said. “We were in the middle,
deep into the MetroPCS deal, when Sheila passed away.”
His ability to guide the MetroPCS deal and those early Lone Star transactions, which ultimately led to a
private equity-focused practice that includes the occasional public company, is a testament to his wife’s
strength, he said.
“It’s very much a tribute to my wife, who was obviously suffering greatly but deeply committed to my
career.” Chapman said.
While Chapman is hesitant to take credit for the noteworthy series of corporate and private equity deals
under his belt, the deal pro is known for being able to anticipate and outthink potential roadblocks
before they even pop up on anyone else’s radar.
“He’s always thinking several steps ahead of where everyone else is in the deal. He can look around
corners and see where issues are coming up and strategically plan,” said Robert Little, a Gibson Dunn
partner who trained under Chapman while they were both at Vinson.
“He’s frankly just a really brilliant lawyer,” Little added.
--Editing by John Quinn.
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