Overview
Bill Schwab is Chair of the Boston Office and a partner in the Private Equity practice at Paul Hastings.
Bill focuses his practice on advising leading private equity funds and their portfolio companies in connection with mergers and acquisitions, early and late-stage private equity investments, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, co-investments, and secondary transactions. Bill regularly represents searchers, search fund investors, and search fund companies, advising on fundraising, acquisition, company operations, and exit strategies. Bill also provides outside general counsel to early-stage and mature private companies, assisting with debt and equity financings, corporate governance, commercial agreements, and employment matters.
Bill’s representative clients include Great Hill Partners, Goldman Sachs, Sixth Street Partners, M/C Partners, Gurnet Point Capital, Luxor Capital Group, Humble Growth, and Housatonic Partners, among others. Bill is also general outside counsel to a number of private companies, including Bombas, Connectivity Wireless, CustomInk, QMC Telecom International, and Second Nature, among others.
Education
- Harvard Law School, J.D., 2003
- Carthage College, B.A., 1996 (summa cum laude)
Representations
Bill’s representative transactions include:
- Great Hill Partners’ investments in Bombas, CustomInk, Second Nature, Notonthehighstreet.com, and subsequent strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
- Sixth Street Partners’ US$40 million preferred equity investment in Medsphere Systems, Inc. and significant minority investment in Keyfactor, Inc.
- Gurnet Point Capital in multiple early and later-stage investment transactions and recapitalizations.
- Housatonic Partners’ growth investment in Key Media, a multi-national B2B media business.
- Great Hill Partners and Spectrum Equity’s joint acquisition of Varicent Software from IBM.
- Connectivity Wireless’ acquisition of a wireless infrastructure developer.
- Connectivity Wireless’ acquisition of wireless infrastructure manager Simplifi Wireless.
- Luxor Capital’s growth equity and debt investments in multiple US, LatAm, and European internet and social media businesses.
- Global investment banking, securities, and investment management company in numerous investment and sales transactions and recapitalizations.
- Thayer Street Partners in multiple secondary investments in private media and technology companies.
- US-based venture fund in connection with its investment in Flixbus.
Matters may have been completed before joining Paul Hastings.
Engagement & Publications
§ Speaker, “ETA Over Time Panel,” MIT’s 8th Annual ETA Conference, Cambridge, MA, February 16, 2024.
§ Speaker, “Growth Equity Panel,” Wharton Private Equity and Venture Capital Conference, New York, NY, March 31, 2023.
Involvement
- Bill is a member of the board of trustees of the Albanian-American Development Foundation, an NGO with a mission to facilitate the development of a sustainable private sector economy and a democratic society in Albania, and to contribute to stability in Southeastern Europe. Bill is also active in his local community, volunteering his time for pro bono matters such as coordinating a benefits assistance project for wounded combat veterans and representing children in immigration matters as a part of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).
- Bill served as co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Committee on Venture Capital and Emerging Companies.