Eversheds Sutherland Adds M&A Partner to Chicago Office

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Eversheds Sutherland Adds M&A Partner To Chicago Office

By Lauraann Wood

Law360 (November 24, 2020, 6:49 PM EST) -- Eversheds Sutherland has announced the hiring of a mergers and acquisitions attorney with an international practice as the sixth partner to join the firm's Chicago office since it planted a flag in the Windy City.

Theodore Cominos Jr. joined Eversheds' M&A and Private Capital teams this month after working at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP for nearly five years. He's the sixth partner overall and the third M&A-specific partner to join Eversheds' Chicago office since it opened in 2019. Theodore H. Cominos told Law360 that he'd became familiar with Eversheds and its global Cominos Jr. platform while working abroad for 12 years in Europe, so he "was pleased to see that kind of global brand and firm open a Chicago office." He said he'd began discussing a move to the firm closer to the time it announced its Chicago office, but that process slowed after the novel coronavirus pandemic began taking hold in the state.

Cominos joins Eversheds alongside Cristina Audran-Proca, an ex-Faegre Drinker attorney who will be based in Eversheds' Paris office as counsel. Cominos told Law360 that he and Audran-Proca have worked together for 15 years, and "it's a real win-win for both of us to be able to join this platform."

"The brand comparison is just different … and our clients are immediately picking up on that," he said.

Cominos' practice involves advising domestic and international clients on several different types of transactions, but he said he focuses mostly on private equity and venture capital-backed transactions. He performs work largely on behalf of private investment funds that do business in different geographies and need help navigating the various tax, legislative and other issues that may be involved in moving from one country to another.

For example, Cominos told Law360 he's currently representing a company through its private equity investors who are navigating issues to consider as they roll out a submarine cable project across multiple jurisdictions. He also told Law360 that he's helping a California-based fund work out a venture capital deal for a high tech company that involves "a really interesting opportunity but a lot of complicated investor agreements with all the other investors and other stakeholders in that company."

Cominos said that while his father is also a lawyer and has always served a source of inspiration in the legal field, he found merger and acquisition work and became interested in it "on accident" while working abroad. He said he'd originally planned to stay in Europe for only six months, but his stay ended up lasting 12 years after he began applying for jobs and enjoyed doing the work he essentially "fell into."

"I don't think I went over there intentionally anticipating that I'd do this, but I ended up really enjoying it," Cominos said.

He said he enjoys the work because it is always changing, and he enjoys the relationships that he builds with people from different parts of the world.

And although many of his clients are in different countries, Chicago is good place to serve them from because its time zone syncs with the mid-day or early evening portions of most of their days, Cominos said. Chicago is also "a very international city" that is getting increasingly recognized as a financial center, so it's a good place to be when people come to the states to build relationships with international firms, he said.

"I think Chicago is a great hub for anyone with any cross-border activity or anyone with international clientele because you catch great times zones and you get great connectivity," he said.

Cominos graduated from Monterey College of Law in 1996 and joined London-based Linklaters in 2000, where he eventually led the firm's private equity practice for Central and Eastern Europe, according to his LinkedIn profile. He left Linklaters in October 2007 to join Ethemba Capital LLP as a private equity partner, and joined CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP in May 2010, his LinkedIn profile said.

Cominos began working for Locke Lord LLP in the greater Chicago area in May 2012 after he returned to the U.S. He worked there as a corporate partner for nearly four years before he joined the Faegre Drinker firm, his LinkedIn profile said.

Audran-Proca's work involves working with clients on private equity, venture capital and other cross- border transactions. Her clients include private investment funds of all sizes, management teams and entrepreneurs seeking venture or private equity backing, among others.

--Editing by Peter Rozovsky.