PacWest, Banc of California Deal Guided by Four Big Law Firms

Four of Wall Street’s top law firms are aiding the sale of PacWest Bancorp to its smaller rival Banc of California in an all-stock deal.

Sullivan & Cromwell is representing Los Angeles-based PacWest while Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advising Banc of California.

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is advising Warburg Pincus, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is acting as legal counsel to Centerbridge Partners. Centerbridge and Warburg are investing $400 million as a part of the deal and will own about 20% of the combined company.

Beverly Hills-based PacWest struggled to regain its footing after clients fled amid this year’s banking crisis. The deal with Banc of California announced Tuesday is expected to be completed late this year or early 2024.

Sullivan & Cromwell, and its senior chairman H. Rodgin Cohen who worked on 17 deals stemming from the 2008 banking meltdown, have been one of the go-to law firms in during the most recent banking crisis, advising Credit Suisse in its sale to UBS Group AG for $3 billion, First Republic in its bailout, and New York Community Bancorp in its purchase of Signature Bank.

Sullivan & Cromwell partners Patrick Brown and Mark Menting along with Cohen helped lead the team in the PacWest deal. The team also included tax partner S. Eric Wang, executive compensation partner Matthew Friestedt and regulatory partner Frederick Wertheim.

The Skadden team includes financial Institutions partners Sven Mickisch, Brian Christiansen, Bao Nguyen and Matthew Nemeroff, counsel Timothy Gaffney, and associates Makala Kaupalolo and Seulbee Lee.

The Simpson Thacher team was led by New York-based M&A partners Lee Meyerson, Sebastian Tiller and Jihyun Chung.

Wachtell’s team was led by Edward Herlihy, who recently represented the PGA Tour in its merger with Saudi Arabia-based rival LIV Golf and the European DP World Tour, as well as partners Richard Kim, Mark Veblen and Mark Stagliano.