Proskauer Rose Continues Global Expansion of Private Investment Funds Practice with Addition of Daniel Schmidt & Olivier Dumas in Paris

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Proskauer Rose LLP, an international law firm with more than 750 lawyers worldwide, announced today that one of Europe’s most prominent groups of private equity lawyers, led by Daniel Schmidt and Olivier Dumas, have joined the firm’s Paris office and global Private Investment Funds Group.

The founder of Paris-based SGDM, Mr. Schmidt focuses on investment fund, venture capital, merger and acquisition, and restructuring matters for a range of clients from established venture capital and investment fund players to start ups. He also specializes in taxation issues relating to investment funds and is the author of "Venture Capital Trusts and Investment Trusts: Legal and Tax Principles” and “Venture Capital Companies Tax Aspects,” which are widely regarded as the definitive treatises in the field. Mr. Dumas has been working for nearly ten years with Daniel Schmidt. He specializes in private equity transactions and fund formation in addition to transactional work. They are joined by Mireille Mull-Jochem, Arielle Halimi, and Estelle Piazza.

“We are proud to welcome Daniel and Olivier’s group to the firm. They have long been a leading presence in the European private equity and venture capital worlds and their addition continues our expansion in the region and the growth of our global private investment funds practice, a cornerstone of the firm’s strategy,” said Allen I. Fagin, chairman of Proskauer.

“Daniel and Olivier are an exciting complement to our already robust Paris corporate practice, led by Delia Spizer and Guillaume Kellner. We are excited to capitalize on their experience and reputation in the field,” said Yasmine Tarasewicz, head of Proskauer’s Paris office.

“Proskauer Rose has a first-class reputation in the private equity market, with internationally recognized lawyers and clients. I look forward to working with them to grow and expand the practice in Europe,” said Mr. Schmidt.

Mr. Schmidt has served as president of the Code of Ethics Committee of AFIC, the French private equity association, and was an important contributor to the drafting of the AFIC and AFG-ASFFI code of ethics in addition to serving as the AFIC’s representative to the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers –Financial Markets Authority) and to the French Finance Ministry for the regulation of the private equity in France. Prior to founding SGDM, he was a partner at ASA Strasbourg. He is a graduate of Montpellier University. Mr. Dumas also served as a member of the AFIC Code of Ethics Committee. He is a graduate of Paris IX Dauphine University.

The addition of Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Dumas to Proskauer’s Paris office is the latest development in the firm’s ever-expanding representation of the private equity community. In 2006, Proskauer’s Private Investment Funds Group represented sponsors in closing 83 private equity funds with $24.4 billion in committed capital and closed over 450 investments in private equity funds representing over $16.5 billion. The practice has been consistently ranked as one of the world’s best by Chambers and numerous other legal directories, was named one of the world’s most active by Dow Jones’ Private Equity Analyst, and Robin Painter, the group’s co-chair, was recently named one of the 30 most influential lawyers practicing in global private equity by Private Equity International magazine.

In addition to the expansion of the firm’s private equity capabilities in Paris, Proskauer recently announced the opening of its São Paulo office and has made a number of other additions to its firm-wide corporate and transactional capabilities. They include Trevor Chaplick, a noted corporate and transactional attorney and former head of the Washington, D.C. office of Wilson Sonsini, who joined Proskauer as co-head of its Washington, D.C. office, and veteran real estate finance attorneys Louis Eatman, Douglas Frank and Andrea Ascher and capital markets attorney Stuart Bressman, who have joined as partners.

About Proskauer Rose

Proskauer Rose, founded in 1875, is one of the nation's largest law firms, providing a wide variety of legal services to clients throughout the United States and around the world from offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, Boca Raton, Newark, New Orleans, Paris, and São Paulo. The firm has wide experience in all areas of practice important to businesses and individuals including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, general commercial litigation, corporate governance matters, conducting internal corporate investigations, white collar criminal defense, private equity and fund formation, patent and intellectual property litigation and prosecution, labor and employment law, real estate transactions, bankruptcy and reorganizations, trusts and estates, and taxation. Its clients span industries including chemicals, entertainment, financial services, health care, information technology, insurance, internet, lodging and gaming, manufacturing, media and communications, pharmaceuticals, real estate investment, sports, and transportation. The firm can be found online at http://www.proskauer.com.