Matthew T. Shiels
Overview
Matthew T. Shiels is a partner in the Firm's Executive Compensation Group. Matt regularly advises private and public companies, private equity funds, senior executives and portfolio managers in connection with executive compensation and employee benefits in a number of complex corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and other business transactions. Matt's practice focuses on providing advice on a wide variety of executive compensation matters, including structuring and implementing deferred compensation, equity compensation, bonus compensation and incentive compensation plans and agreements. Matt's practice also includes drafting transactional documents, including employment, consulting, termination, change-in-control, severance and release agreements, as well as identifying issues arising under, and assisting in complying with, the Internal Revenue Code (including sections 280G and 409A), federal securities laws, applicable exchange regulations and related corporate governance rules. He also has experience with qualified plans, individual retirement accounts, wage laws, penalty assessment (by the Department of Labor and Internal Revenue Service), treatment of benefit plans in bankruptcy and complex ERISA issues involving fiduciary duties and prohibited transactions.
Experience
Representative Matters
Matt has been involved in the following representations:
- ABRY Partners and Inmar Inc. in the sale of Inmar Inc. to OMERS Private Equity
- ABRY Partners in its investment in ADURO
- ABRY Partners, LLC in its sale of Masergy Communications, Inc.
- ABRY Partners, LLC in its acquisition of FLS Transportation
- ABRY Partners and Berkshire Partners in its $1.886 billion sale of Telx to Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
- Advent International in its acquisition of CCC Information Services Inc.
- Anastasia Beverly Hills in its strategic minority investment by TPG Capital
- Apax Partners in its investment in Paycor, a Human Capital Management company
- Bomgar, a leader in secure access solutions, in its acquisition by Thoma Bravo LLC from TA Associates (terms of the deal were undisclosed)
- Brentwood Associates in its acquisition of MD Now Medical Centers
- Brentwood Associates in its acquisition of Jefferson Dental Care from Black Canyon Capital
- Brentwood Associates in its investment in Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza
- Brighton Park Capital in its majority investment in Relatient
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in the $7 billion acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals
- Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in its $2.5 billion acquisition of Inhibitex, Inc.
- Burger King in its sale of a stake to Bill Ackman's SPAC and re-IPO
- Clearwire Corporation in its sale of a 50% stake of the company to Sprint Corporation for $2.2 billion
- CoinMarketCap in its sale to Binance
- Conyers Park Acquisition Corp. in its acquisition of Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. to form Simply Good Foods Company
- Conyers Park II Acquisition Corp. in its pending $5.2 billion combination with Advantage Solutions Inc.
- Danaher in the $625 million acquisition of color specialist X-Rite
- Donuts Inc. in its acquisition of Afilias, Inc.
- Duff & Phelps in its sale to a consortium of private equity sponsors
- Exela Technologies, formerly known as Quinpario Acquisition, in its $2.8 billion combination with SourceHOV and Novitex
- FTV Capital in its growth equity investment in Lean Staffing Solutions
- Golden Gate Capital in its $2 billion joint acquisition (with Wolverine World Wide Inc. and Blum Capital Partners) of Collective Brands, Inc.
- Greenbriar Equity Group’s $340 million sale of the composite components division of EDAC Technologies Corp. to Meggitt PLC
- Indigo Capital on its sale of Premier Research, a leading middle-market contract research organization, to Metalmark Capital
- IOTA Engineering in its sale to Acuity Brands, Inc.
- loanDepot, Inc., the second largest retail non-bank lender in the United States and leading retail mortgage lender, in its initial public offering.
- Marlin Equity Partners, in its acquisition of AdvancedMD, a division of ADP and leading provider of cloud-based healthcare solutions for the independent physician practice market
- Palladium Equity Partners, LLC in its sale of the Taco Bueno chain of restaurants, and its acquisitions of TransForce, Inc. and GoodWest Industries.
- Paymetric, a portfolio company of Francisco Partners, in its merger with Vantiv, Inc.
- Solutia, Inc. in its $4.7 billion sale of the company to Eastman Chemical Company
- Swift Transportation in its $6 billion stock-for-stock merger with Knight Transportation
- TZP Group in its strategic investment in Evergent Technologies
- Vestar Capital Partners in its acquisition of Woodsteam Group, Inc.
- Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in its carve-out acquisition of QuickBase, Inc. from Intuit, Inc.
- Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in the sale of Ozburn-Hessey Logistics to GEODIS
- WideOpenWest in its $1.5 billion acquisition of Knology, Inc.
- Younique LLC in its $600 million sale of a 60% stake to Coty Inc.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Matt was involved in the following representations:
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A leading computer, mobile device and media player company in its acquisition of LuxVue Technology Corporation
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Balfour Beatty PLC in its $1.35 billion sale of its Parsons Brinckerhoff division to WSP Global
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Enterpriod, Inc. in its sale of the company to Google, Inc.
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Grifols SA in its $3.4 billion sale of the company to Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp.
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Sourcefire, Inc. in its $2.7 billion sale of the company to Cisco Systems, Inc.
Representative Private Equity Clients
ABRY Partners; Welsh, Carlson, Anderson & Stowe; TZP Group; Greenbriar Equity Group; Avista Capital Partners; Sentinel Capital Partners; FTV Capital; Lincolnshire Management; Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co.; Palladium Equity Partners; Altaris Capital Partners; Marlin Equity Partners; Arlington Capital Partners; Apax Capital Partners; ICV Partners; New Mountain Capital; Irving Place Capital; TriPointe Capital Partners; Golden Gate Capital; Vestar Capital Partners; Francisco Partners; TPG Capital; Brentwood Associates; and Centerview Partners.
Clerk & Government Experience
United States Marine Corps Reserve
Prior Experience
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Proskauer Rose LLP
More
Recognition
Recognized as a "New York Rising Star" by Super Lawyers magazine from 2014–2020.
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2008New York
Courts
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Education
- New York University School of LawLL.M.2008
- Benjamin N. Cardozo School of LawJ.D.2007
- State University of New York at AlbanyB.S.cum laude2003