Julia Petty’s practice focuses on executive compensation and benefits matters.

She advises clients in domestic and cross-border business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs and divestitures, public offerings, as well as restructurings and other reorganizations. She routinely counsels clients on disclosure, governance, and shareholder outreach related to compensation and benefits programs, with a particular focus on periods of corporate change, including transaction preparation, senior leadership turnover, shifts in corporate strategy and direction, and shareholder activism, including key clients such as Con Edison, Eastman Chemical, Fox, GSK, Levi’s, Post Holdings, and Vale.

Julia handles a wide range of other compensation and associated securities, tax, and corporate governance matters, including the design, disclosure, and implementation of equity and cash incentive programs, executive employment and severance arrangements, change in control protections, deferred compensation plans, and retention programs.

Julia joined the firm as a partner in 2022 from another international law firm.

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Notable Experience

Notable Experience

  • Medtronic in the pending separation of its diabetes business.

  • Levi Strauss & Co. in the sale of its Dockers brand to Authentic Brands Group for up to $391 million.

  • GSK in its up to $2 billion acquisition of Boston Pharmaceuticals’ lead asset efimosfermin alfa, in its $1.4 billion acquisition of Aiolos Bio, and in its $12.7 billion joint venture with Pfizer to combine their consumer health businesses.

  • Solventum in the $4 billion sale of its purification and filtration business to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

  • Heidelberg Materials in its $600 million acquisition of Giant Cement Holding Inc. (GCHI).

  • Synopsys in its $35 billion acquisition of Ansys, in the up to $2.1 billion sale of its Software Integrity business to Clearlake Capital and Francisco Partners, and the sale of its Optical Solutions Group to Keysight Technologies.

  • General Mills in the $2.1 billion sale of its U.S. and Canada yogurt businesses, including popular brands Yoplait, Liberté, Go-Gurt, Oui, Mountain High, and :ratio to Lactalis and Groupe Sodiaal.

  • An ad hoc group of 28 leading institutional bondholders of Brazilian airline Azul S.A., in an agreement to provide up to $500 million of funding to Azul and to broadly reorganize its capital structure (which has over US$5 billion in total debt and debt-like instruments), including in connection with existing bond debt, convertible debentures, and obligations to lessors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), among other stakeholders.

  • Amundi S.A. in its acquisition of a stake in Victory Capital through the transfer of 100% of its indirect interests in Amundi US to Victory Capital.

  • Ecolab in the $950 million sale of its surgical solutions business to Medline.

  • Roquette in its acquisition of IFF’s Pharma Solutions business.

  • OCI in its $3.6 billion strategic sale of its indirect interests in its large-scale U.S. greenfield nitrogen fertilizer facility Iowa Fertilizer Company to Koch.

  • Komatsu in its acquisition of American Battery Solutions.

  • Atlassian in its $975 million acquisition of Loom.

  • Sysco in its acquisition of Edward Don & Company.

  • Artémis in its acquisition of a majority stake in CAA from TPG.

  • Thales in its $3.6 billion acquisition of Imperva.

  • Vale in its $26 billion strategic partnership with Manara Minerals, a joint venture between Ma’aden and PIF, pursuant to which Manara Minerals invested in Vale’s energy transition metals business.

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Previous Experience

  • Jonah Energy in an out-of-court restructuring involving a deleveraging of the company’s balance sheet by approximately $580 million through a rights offering, tender offer, and redemption of non-tendered notes, together with an amended and restated credit agreement of Jonah’s $750 million credit facility.

  • Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in its investment in the Arthur Kill Terminal project, a major offshore wind energy staging and assembly port under development in New York.

  • TPG Growth and The Rise Fund in their majority investment in Greenhouse, a hiring software company.

  • The management team of Arcis Golf in the sale to Atairos Management LP of a substantial ownership position in the company, with Fortress Investment Group LLC maintaining a significant ownership stake.

  • Noble Energy in its $13 billion sale to Chevron.

  • Vitamin Shoppe in its sale to Liberty Tax and in its defense against a full slate proxy contest by Vintage Capital and its agreements with Vintage Capital and Shah Capital regarding the composition of the Vitamin Shoppe board of directors.

  • General Motors and GM Cruise Holdings LLC, GM’s autonomous vehicle (AV) business, in a series of transactions including a $2.25 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund, at a $11.5 billion valuation, and a $2.8 billion investment from Honda, at a $14.6 billion valuation.

  • Marriott Vacations Worldwide in its $4.7 billion acquisition of Interval Leisure Group.

  • Equity One in its $15.6 billion merger with Regency Centers Corporation, creating the preeminent shopping center REIT in the U.S.

  • Sycamore Partners in its $2.7 billion acquisition of Belk.

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Publications

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