O’Melveny Continues Private Equity Expansion by Adding Nationally Recognized Finance Partner

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles–based Ike Chidi Advises PE Funds on Leveraged Finance Transactions

CENTURY CITY—December 13, 2021—O’Melveny announced today that prominent private equity finance specialist, Ike Chidi, has joined the firm as a Corporate Finance partner based in Century City.

Chidi’s arrival helps realize a key firm priority: Make O’Melveny’s strong middle-market private equity practice in Southern California even stronger. A Legal 500–rated leveraged finance lawyer, Chidi comes to O’Melveny from the Banking and Finance practice of another AmLaw 50 firm in Los Angeles. He has a long history of advising private equity firms and lending institutions, as well as other private and public companies, in structuring, negotiating, and documenting financing transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, asset-based loans, acquisition financings, recapitalizations, senior subordinated debt and mezzanine financings, and other commercial lending transactions.

Chidi will be part of O’Melveny’s fast-growing California private equity team, which regularly advises on a large number of investment and portfolio company transactions for established and growing middle-market sponsors.

“We’re delighted to have Ike aboard,” said O’Melveny Chair Bradley J. Butwin. “His arrival is the latest demonstration of our commitment to providing our private equity clients with the best service as they drive growth in California and around the nation. Ike will work closely with our top-notch M&A, finance, tax, funds, and executive-compensation specialists to provide comprehensive service to our sophisticated corporate clients.”

“It’s a great pleasure to welcome Ike to the firm,” said C. Brophy Christensen, Co-Chair of O’Melveny’s Corporate Department. “His expertise in the full range of private equity financings will greatly assist our sponsor clients and their portfolio companies in making deals and pursuing all types of opportunities in a fast-paced and competitive environment.”

“Ike is an exciting addition to our growing finance practice,” said New York-based Sung Pak, Chair of O’Melveny’s Finance Practice. “In addition to strengthening our private equity platform in Southern California and nationally, Ike’s profile complements our firmwide Finance Practice, which is focused on middle-market lending and credit-focused debt funds, in addition to middle-market private equity finance.”

Chidi is also active in the Southern California community. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the C5 Youth Foundation of Southern California—a non-profit that works with high-potential youths from under-resourced communities to help them succeed and prepare them for leadership roles in school, college, work, and their communities.

Chidi earned his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law.

Chidi is joining a firm that works with some of the market’s most active and sophisticated private equity investors to structure, negotiate, and close a full range of investment and acquisition transactions. The O’Melveny team is international in scale, with the depth, versatility, and necessary supporting specialists to handle all types of private equity deals—from leveraged buyouts to corporate carveouts, from growth equity investments and distressed deals to co-investments—for funds of any size.

Chidi is the fourteenth lateral partner to join O’Melveny’s growing Corporate Department in 2021 (along with nine litigation partners who joined the firm this year). He follows prominent Texas dealmakers Lou Strubeck, Scott Drake, Greg Wilkes, Phillip Oldham, Katie Coleman, and Monica Hwang; California partners Daniel Wu, Adit Khorana, Brad Finkelstein, Ryan Coombs and Lindsay Conner; and Washington, DC–based partner Tod Cohen and Seoul-based corporate partners Daniel Kim and Woojae Kim.

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