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, special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) and de-SPAC transactions, and 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.

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.

notable-experiences

Previous Experience

  • Buckeye Partners and Nala Renewables in their acquisition of a majority interest in Swift Current Energy, a leading North American clean energy development and investment platform with a pipeline of over 6 GW of solar, wind, and energy storage projects.

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

  • EVgo Services, a LS Power portfolio company and an electric vehicle public fast charging network, in its $2.6 billion business combination with Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC.

  • Apollo Global Management in the formation of a joint venture with Altius Renewable Royalties to accelerate the growth of Great Bay Renewables, a leading provider of renewable energy development capital in North America.

  • 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.

  • The Lion Electric Company in its $1.9 billion combination with Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp., a SPAC.

  • 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.

  • Lilis Energy in an in-court sale process in which substantially all of the company’s operating assets were sold to Ameredev Texas LLC as part of its Chapter 11 cases involving approximately $400 million in total liabilities.

  • CTO Realty Growth Inc. in its conversion to a real estate investment trust (REIT).

  • RiceBran Technologies in its proxy contest defense against LF-RB Group.

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Previous Mergers & Acquisitions Experience

  • Khoros, a customer engagement software provider and a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company, in its acquisition of Flow.ai, a conversational AI platform for designing and managing chatbots.

  • Fox Corporation in its $440 million acquisition of Tubi.

  • 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.

  • GlaxoSmithKline in its $12.7 billion joint venture with Pfizer to combine their consumer health businesses.

  • The special committee of the board of directors of Spectrum Brands in connection with the $10 billion merger of Spectrum Brands and HRG Group.

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

  • 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.

  • Strayer Education in its $1.9 billion merger of equals with Capella Education Company.

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

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Previous SPAC Experience

  • Viking Global Investors as a lead investor in the $15 billion business combination of Ginkgo Bioworks and Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp., a SPAC.

  • Spartan Acquisition Corp. II, a SPAC sponsored by funds managed by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management, in its $1.3 billion business combination with Sunlight Financial, a premier U.S. residential solar financing platform.

  • Spartan Acquisition Corp. III, a SPAC, in its $3.14 billion business combination with Allego Holding B.V., a leading pan-European electric vehicle charging network.

  • First Reserve Sustainable Growth Corp., a SPAC, in its pending $675 million business combination with EO Charging, a leader in electric vehicle fleet charging.

  • Kadem Sustainable Impact Corporation, a SPAC, in its $175 million initial public offering of units.

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Previous Private Equity Experience

  • 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 Carlyle Group in a $374 million investment commitment to Amp Solar Group, a Canadian-based global renewable energy platform, to support its growth in core markets in North America, Japan, Australia, Spain, and the UK.

  • RLH Equity Partners in its investment in Astound Commerce, a global provider of digital commerce solutions.

  • Growth equity investor in its lead investment in a $150 million financing round for a leading banking-as-a-service software platform in Latin America.

  • Blackstone in its acquisition of Sabre Industries from The Jordan Company.

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

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Publications

Events