Global insights. One firm
Adi Herman

Looking across your practice, what are the major lessons you'd identify for clients?

Clients are navigating a mix of macroeconomic uncertainty, increased regulatory complexity, and shifting valuation expectations. This requires buyers to carefully calibrate deal terms, identify opportunities where others see risk, and move swiftly once the right target emerges. A lot of my advice revolves around solving for these risks and uncertainties and bridging valuation gaps, including through creative deal structures such as earnouts, rollover and minority stakes, co-investments and hybrid debt/equity solutions. Heightened scrutiny of tariffs and their impact on supply chains, cybersecurity, ESG-related risks and regulatory compliance means prolonged and more involved due diligence processes, and bespoke indemnity protections have become more common than the ‘fast-and-loose’ way of dealmaking at the height of the M&A boom.

What are the major trends you'd identify in your practice area?

There’s a noticeable uptick in creative structuring and attempts at generating partial liquidity in a period less conducive to full exits at desirable valuations. Continuation funds have become an established way to facilitate secondary transactions while allowing sponsors to hold on to valued assets during this time of uncertainty. In addition to the enhanced buy-side due diligence, I am also seeing a greater emphasis on jurisdictional planning and regulatory preparedness from the outset. Of course, cybersecurity and the opportunities and risks associated with the emergence of AI is top of mind as well, requiring practitioners to stay ahead of the curve. Now more than ever, clients expect their legal advisors to be commercial problem solvers who stay nimble and adapt to geopolitical, regulatory and economic uncertainties at an accelerating pace.

What’s your favorite thing about working in New York, and how does the city’s character shape your work or perspective?

New York is truly a place of hustle – in a good way. The city’s intensity, diversity, entrepreneurial energy is unmatched. New York’s fast-paced environment demands clear thinking, responsiveness, and adaptability—skills that are essential to my practice. It’s also a global melting pot of like-minded practitioners and dealmakers, which allows for frequent in-person interactions and endless business development opportunities.  

Adi Herman is a partner in our private equity practice, based in New York.