Mr Kenneth Wallach > Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Offices
425 LEXINGTON AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10017-3954
NEW YORK
United States
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Mr Kenneth Wallach
Work Department
Corporate/Capital Markets
Position
Co-Head of the Firm’s Global Capital Markets Practice, Ken Wallach represents clients including Weight Watchers, Dell Technologies, Mars/Wrigley, Cooper-Standard, Thrive Market, Xerox, CAVA, Drummond, Candela Medical, Cole Haan, First Advantage, Zero Motorcycles, Frontdoor, Garda World Security and Global Blue. He regularly advises private equity sponsors, including Silver Lake, Apax and Invus, in connection with high yield and bridge financings, hybrid securities and restructurings. His equity experience includes Issuer’s Counsel for the IPOs of CAVA, First Advantage, Blue Buffalo and K2M. Ken also represents investment banks in IPOs, follow-on equity offerings and high yield and investment grade debt offerings, including as designated underwriters’ counsel for Cinemark and MEG Energy. Ken is also widely recognized as a leading expert on corporate governance issues, including ESG matters. Ken currently serves as a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee.
Career
Joined Firm in 1993: Partner, 2004.
Education
B.A., magna cum laude, Duke University, Phi Beta Kappa (1990); J.D., University of Virginia School of Law (1993).
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP remains an established leader in DCM, with an outstanding record in investment grade debt, high-yield debt, convertible bonds, equity-linked instruments and derivatives transactions. It is equally highly-rated for both issuer and underwriter engagements. The New York-based team has a fine background in representing first-time issuers and repeat issuers thanks to its expertise in high-yield debt and IPOs. In 2022, it continued to advise on a series of bulge-bracket and headline deals, including representing the underwriters in two public offerings by UnitedHealth Group totalling $15bn. It also advised the initial purchasers and selling security holders in AT&T’s $30bn senior notes offering in connection with the combination of WarnerMedia with Discovery. Kenneth Wallach is an experienced capital markets specialist with a fine record in investment grade debt and convertible bond offerings. Roxane Reardon is rated for investment grade debt, convertible debt and equity-linked securities. Ryan Bekkerus and John Ericson are also key partners. The seasoned Arthur Robinson retains an outstanding reputation.
United States > Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
(Leading lawyers)Despite having a smaller capital markets team than many of its direct rivals, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is a longstanding leader in high-yield debt, both for issuers and underwriters. The firm – which is at the forefront of leveraged finance and standalone high-yield debt transactions – represents many of the marquee private equity houses in the market, along with their portfolio companies. It also boasts an extensive public company and underwriter client base, and is noted for ESG and sustainability-linked offerings and for representing issuers moving towards investment grade status. Kenneth Wallach is a leading figure in private equity-related deals and technology sector transactions. Arthur Robinson is a seasoned capital markets specialist with rich pedigree in high-yield debt, including in the healthcare sector. John Ericson and David Azarkh are also key figures in the team. Named partners are based in New York.
United States > Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is at the pinnacle of capital markets, representing issuers and underwriters on many of the headline deals in the sector. It has capitalised on its connections to private equity houses, corporate issuers and investment banks. This has earned a sizeable share of the SPAC market and continues to make progress in tech sector offerings. It advised Dell Technologies on its spin-off its 81% equity ownership interest in VMware, which included an $11.5bn to $12bn special cash dividend to all VMware stockholders immediately prior to the spin-off. It also represented the underwriters on Braze’s $572m IPO. The firm has multiple senior practitioners in the team, including outstanding lawyers Kenneth Wallach, Joshua Ford Bonnie, Joseph Kaufman and Roxane Reardon. Ryan Bekkerus and Hui Lin are also key names, along with William Brentani in Palo Alto. All named partners are based in New York unless stated otherwise.
Lawyer Rankings
- Capital markets: debt offerings United States > Finance
- Capital markets: equity offerings United States > Finance
- Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings United States > Finance
- Leading lawyers United States > Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Insurance > Advice to insurers
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: global offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- International Trade > CFIUS
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Environment > Environment: transactional
- Dispute resolution > Financial services litigation
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
- Energy > Energy transactions: oil and gas
- Tax > Not-for-profit (nonprofit and tax exempt organizations)
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
- Investment fund formation and management > Private equity funds (including venture capital)
- Real estate > Real estate
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
Firm Rankings
- Antitrust > Cartel
- Energy > Energy transactions: electric power
- Tax > International tax
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Investment fund formation and management > Mutual/registered/exchange-traded funds
- Real estate > Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
- Energy > Renewable/alternative power
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Corporate governance
- Energy > Energy transactions: oil and gas
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Insurance > Insurance: non-contentious
- Finance > Project finance
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Dispute resolution > Leading trial lawyers
- Dispute resolution > Leading trial lawyers
- Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products
- Dispute resolution > Appellate: courts of appeals / Appellate: supreme courts (states and federal)
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- Finance > Fintech
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)