Profiles of Lexis Practice Advisor Journal™ Advisory Board Members - Matthew Merkle & Scott Semer

Matthew Merkle: Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

MATTHEW MERKLE IS A CAPITAL markets partner in the London office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Matthew represents private equity sponsors, issuers, and investment banks in high-yield debt offerings in connection with leveraged buyouts and other complex financings in Europe, the United States, and emerging markets.

Matthew has represented many private equity sponsors in cross-border financings, including Bain Capital, Advent International, The Carlyle Group, KKR, TowerBrook Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking, Altor, Apollo, The Blackstone Group, Cinven, and Lion Capital, as well as numerous underwriting investment banks. Most recently, Matthew represented a consortium of private equity funds comprised of Bain Capital, Advent International, and Clessidra on an offering of €1.1 billion of high-yield bonds issued to finance the consortium’s acquisition of an Italian payments and banking group. This transaction was named “High Yield Deal of the Year” at the 2015 International Financial Law Review Europe Awards.

Matthew received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor and business manager of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and his B.A. in Asian Studies from Vanderbilt University. Matthew is licensed to practice law in New York.

Scott Semer: Partner, Torys LLP

SCOTT L. SEMER IS A PARTNER AT the New York office of Canadian-based Torys LLP. He specializes in advising foreign pension funds and private equity funds, and in the taxation of crossborder investments and derivatives, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate joint ventures.

He advises international clients on infrastructure projects in the United States and worldwide, both directly and through infrastructure-targeted private equity funds. He also advises multinational corporate clients on a wide variety of international transactions, including public and private mergers, reorganizations, restructurings and acquisitions. Scott also structures hedge funds and private equity funds and his practice focus includes structured products, and a variety of financial derivatives.

Scott is an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School where he teaches a seminar called the Deals Workshop, which examines how complex commercial transactions are designed to share  risks and rewards to maximize each deal participant’s opportunities to succeed.

Scott is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where  he was Review and Essay Editor of the Columbia Law Review, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where  he was a film major. He is the co-author of Structuring Real Estate Joint Ventures with Private REITs and his articles appear regularly in a variety of journals