Global Emerging Markets
Private Equity / Corporate
Transactions Practice
New York
Direct: +1 (212) 457-0057
Tel. +1 (212) 938-0600 x601
Fax : +1 (212) 938-0601
Download Bio
Kenneth Schwartz
Founder and Managing Partner
Ken Schwartz is the founding partner of Schwartz LLC, a law firm dedicated to serving private equity funds, buyout firms, investment banks, corporations and major private investors active in emerging markets. He concentrates on private equity investments, private equity fund formation, offshore and global holding entities, foreign direct investments in emerging markets, international corporate and securities transactions, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial loan facilities, debt and equity raising programs and other corporate finance transactions.
Ken routinely advises on investment advisory agreements, co-investment agreements, private equity fund agreements, internal agreements of private equity fund managers, carried interest allocation plans, advisory and sub-mandate agreements among investment banks. Ken also advises corporations on international tax aspects of cross-border investments and has wide experience in structuring offshore and European holding companies, investment limited partnerships and private placements.
Prior to founding Schwartz LLC, Ken was a partner at Grant, Herrmann, Schwartz & Klinger LLP and the head of its private equity and securities practice. Ken joined Grant, Herrmann after working as a foreign associate at the Mexican law firm Bryan, González Vargas y González Baz, in Mexico City and in Ciudad Juárez, where he concentrated on strategic investments by Fortune 500 multinational corporations in Mexico. Before working in Mexico, Ken was a corporate associate at the New York law firm Siller Wilk LLP.
Ken received his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law in 1991 and graduated from Fordham University in 1988 (B.A., History). Ken is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French, and has published several articles and spoken at conferences on a variety of corporate and securities law topics.
Ken is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. His wife is from Mexico. They have two daughters and live in New York City.
TRANSACTIONS
- Advise foreign broker-dealer on debt restructuring engagement by foreign issuer.
- Advise Mayfair-based merchant bank on launch of Latin America-focused investment banking boutique with presence in New York, Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
- Advise European consulting firm on expansion into U.S. market.
- Advise foreign investment bank on structuring third-party Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction arrangment with U.S. registered broker-dealer.
- Advise foreign investment bank on FINRA registered representative issues.
- Advise foreign investment bank on restructuring engagement under SEC Rule 15(a)-6.
- Counsel to Global Emerging Markets Forestry Fund, L.P. in negotiating and structuring a proposed sustainable timber private equity investment in an emerging market country.
- Counsel to major financial investor as prospective MBO sponsor/investor in a spin-off of a division of a major media company.
- Counsel to general partner/advisor of private equity fund in secondary private equity sale by one of its institutional limited partners to a major secondary private equity fund (undisclosed).
- Counsel to general partner/advisor of private equity fund in complex restructuring of multi-tiered private equity investment partnerships.
- Counsel to TMG Capital Partners in initial public offering of its Brazilian portfolio company OdontoPrev S.A.
- Counsel to Cayman issuer and South American guarantor of a $200,000,000 euro-commercial paper program under Regulation S; guarantor is of one of South America's largest television networks;
- Advisor to a portfolio company of a major U.S. private equity firm regarding potential disposition of Hispanic market division;
- Counsel to general partner and principals in formation of a $100,000,000 private equity pledge fund for investments in Brazil;
- Counsel to offshore hedge fund manager in buyout of hedge fund management company;
- Counsel to a major global investor in the $30,000,000 buyout of a joint venture stake in a major South American infrastructure concession company from a major U.S. energy corporation;
- Special Latin American counsel to New York Stock Exchange-listed U.S. corporation in its $18,000,000 acquisition of another U.S. corporation;
- Counsel to a U.S. private equity fund regarding proposed leveraged acquisition of Mexican division of a Fortune 200 consumer products multinational corporation;
- Counsel to the controlling shareholders of a major Latin American agricultural commodity firm in a private shareholder consent solicitation in connection with a proposed management buyout;
- Counsel to TMG Capital Partners (São Paulo, Brazil) in various private equity investments in Brazil;
- Counsel to Cayman issuer and South American guarantor of a $200,000,000 euro-commercial paper program under Regulation S; guarantor is of one of South America's largest television networks;
- Advisor to a portfolio company of a major U.S. private equity firm regarding potential disposition of Hispanic market division;
- Counsel to general partner and principals in formation of a $100,000,000 private equity pledge fund for investments in Brazil;
- Counsel to offshore hedge fund manager in buyout of hedge fund management company;
- Counsel to a major global investor in the $30,000,000 buyout of a joint venture stake in a major South American infrastructure concession company from a major U.S. energy corporation;
- Special Latin American counsel to New York Stock Exchange-listed U.S. corporation in its $18,000,000 acquisition of another U.S. corporation;
- Counsel to a U.S. private equity fund regarding proposed leveraged acquisition of Mexican division of a Fortune 200 consumer products multinational corporation;
- Counsel to the controlling shareholders of a major Latin American agricultural commodity firm in a private shareholder consent solicitation in connection with a proposed management buyout;
- Counsel to TMG Capital Partners (São Paulo, Brazil) in various private equity investments in Brazil;
- Counsel to an Argentine management group in the buyout of Argentine oil-drilling operations from a major U.S. energy corporation;
- Counsel to a Colombian agro-industrial group in acquisition of a Venezuelan feed plant operation;
- Counsel to Argentine sellers in the spin-off of a courier business to United Kingdom interests;
PUBLICATIONS
AND
ADDRESSES
Open Price Contracts and Specific Performance Under the U.N. Sales Convention and the U.C.C., 1 The University of Miami Yearbook of International Law 356 (1991).
Co-author, with Richard L. Herrmann, Offshore Private Investment Companies and Trusts, in Latin Finance / Private Banking and Asset Management in Latin America 1997.
Mergers and Acquisitions in Latin America: an Update on Recent Market Developments and SEC Regulation Initiatives, address to a joint meeting of the Inter-American Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association, Ottawa, Canada, October 16, 1999;
Private Equity Investments in Brazil, address to the the Associação Brasileira de Analistas do Mercado de Capitais (ABAMEC), São Paulo, Brazil.
Private Equity in Latin America, address to the Inter-American Bar Association, Washington, D.C., September 26, 1997.
The New Mexican Foreign Investment Law and NAFTA, address to the Tri-Lateral Commission of North American Chambers of Commerce, Banff, Canada, July 1994;
Las Fuentes del Derecho Norteamericano (Sources of American Law), address to the National Association of Mexican Notaries, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, September 24, 1993.
MEMBERSHIP
- Association of the Bar of the City of New York (Member, Committee on Inter-American Affairs);
- American Bar Association Section of Business Law (Member, Committee on Federal Regulation of Securities, Subcommittee on International Securities Matters; Committee on Negotiated Acquisitions, Task Force on International Acquisition Transactions; Committee on International Business Law, Subcommittee on Latin America; Committee on Venture Capital and Private Equity, Subcommittee on Fund Formation and Founding Member, Subcommittee on International Venture Capital and Private Equity);
- American Bar Association Section of International Law and Practice (Member, Inter-American Law Committee, Mexican Law Committee);
- Inter-American Bar Association;
- American Foreign Law Association;
- New York State Bar Association Section of International Law;
- Union Internationale des Avocats;
- International Bar Association.
KLS BIO
