Katten announced today that Emily K. Watson has joined as a partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions/Private Equity practice in Chicago, building on the deep bench of experienced and skilled attorneys structuring and closing middle-market deals.
“Emily has the exemplary skills required to thrive in high-pressure, sophisticated transactions,” said Kimberly T. Smith, global chair of Katten’sCorporate department. “She brings considerable experience that enables her to jump right in at Katten to meet the needs of our clients and get deals closed.”
Watson represents private equity sponsors, closely held businesses, entrepreneurs, investors and management teams across a range of industries, including health care, business services, insurance, and manufacturing and distribution. Her practice focuses on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, private equity and general corporate matters, including leveraged buyouts, divestitures, joint ventures, control and growth equity financings, non-control and co-investments, and other complex commercial transactions.
For private equity clients and their portfolio companies, Watson serves as an outside general counsel, assisting in executing strategic, financial and commercial objectives and advising on executive employment and employee equity incentive plan arrangements.
Prior to joining Katten, Watson was a partner in the corporate group at Levenfeld Pearlstein and a corporate transactions and private equity partner at McDermott Will & Emery where she spent the majority of her legal career.
Katten is a full-service law firm with approximately 700 attorneys in locations across the United States and in London and Shanghai. Clients seeking sophisticated, high-value legal services turn to Katten for counsel locally, nationally and internationally. The firm’s core areas of practice include corporate, financial markets and funds, insolvency and restructuring, intellectual property, litigation, real estate, structured finance and securitization, transactional tax planning, private credit and private wealth. Katten represents public and private companies in numerous industries, as well as a number of government and nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit katten.com.