Rebecca Stuart

REBECCA STUART focuses her practice on representing employers in federal and state court litigation and before administrative agencies regarding a variety of employment law matters, including: discrimination (including race, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, and disability), harassment, retaliation, breach of contract, wage and hour, and wrongful termination.

In addition to her litigation practice, Rebecca regularly works with executives, board members, and HR professionals regarding all aspects of the employment relationship. She consults with them on issues such as preventive personnel practices, enforceability of covenants not to compete, hiring practices, employee classification issues, employment contracts, wage and hour matters, independent contractor audits, family and medical leaves, workplace investigations (including those involving sexual harassment), terminations, and reductions in force. She also advises companies on trade secret misappropriation issues—including employee raiding and solicitation matters and anti-competitive activity by former employees or company competitors—and counsels clients with respect to preventive measures designed to minimize the risks associated with hiring competitors’ employees or addressing those employees who are leaving to join a competitor. She has reviewed and drafted numerous employment policies, including employee handbooks, vacation policies (both traditional and “unlimited” time off policies), and family and medical leave policies, as well as other standard employment documents, such as employment, release, and confidentiality agreements.

Rebecca also has an extensive M&A experience, assisting clients in structuring corporate transactions to minimize employment-related risks and maximize the value of the transaction from an employment perspective, and she has advised on more than 750 transactions ranging in value from $20 million to $19 billion. Her merger and acquisition practice consists of representing both buyers and sellers in large and small transactions, including cross-border and other complex transactions. Her practice includes mergers, acquisitions, IPOs, asset purchases, and financing. Rebecca also has significant international experience pertaining to employment issues in the M&A context, and she regularly represents buyers and sellers in transactions involving non-U.S. employees.

Rebecca regularly speaks on employment matters, providing routine training for clients and local bar associations on matters such as anti-harassment, bias in the legal and technology sectors, use of social media in employment, general management skills, and employment law in the M&A context.

• Bonaccord Capital Partners in connection with its second strategic minority investment in Park Square Capital, one of Europe’s leading credit investment firms with more than US$19 billion in assets under management.
• Cencora, Inc. in its strategic affiliation with Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group (LA Retina), a retina care specialty practice based in Los Angeles, California, through Cencora’s subsidiary platform, Retina Consultants of America.
• Bonaccord Capital Partners in its passive minority investment in Kingswood Capital Management, LP.
• An early-stage renewable energy company in a successful trial against an employee whistleblower.
• Vector Capital Management and its portfolio company BigTinCan in the acquisition of Showpad, a leader in AI revenue enablement technology (pending).
• Lineage, Inc. (NASDAQ: LINE), the world’s largest global temperature-controlled warehouse REIT, in the US$247.0 million acquisition of multiple, existing cold storage warehouses and related assets from Tyson Foods, Inc. (pending).
• Azimut Group, one of Europe’s largest independent asset managers, in connection with its agreement to acquire North Square Investments, LLC (NSI), a multi-boutique asset management and distribution platform. As part of the transaction, Azimut will also contribute its 51% stake in Kennedy Capital Management (KCM), which manages US$4.5 billion in assets and has an existing sub-advisory agreement with NSI, leading to the creation of an integrated platform that will be renamed Azimut NSI (pending).
• Gilde Healthcare Partners on the acquisition of SDS-Group.
• CloudCath, a developer of a remote monitoring platform and device designed to detect infectious disease progression for catheter-based treatments, in its series B financing raising US$20 million including US$2 million convertible note financing.
• Amazon in the sale of its multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game “March of Giants,” including the entire Montreal-based development team working on the upcoming project, to French gaming giant Ubisoft.
• Z Capital-backed Xperience Restaurant Group in connection with its acquisition of Rio Mambo Tex Mex and The Rim restaurant chain from RM Restaurant Group.
• Wedgewood Hospitality Group, Inc. and U.S. Cellular on leasing and acquisition and disposition matters in connection with Wedgewood’s Wedding and Banquet Center.
• Wafra Inc. in its minority investment in Ardian, a world-leading private investment firm.
• Vector Capital in its A$183 million acquisition of Bigtincan Holdings Limited (ASX: BTH).
• Twin Star International, Inc., as the stalking horse bidder, in its purchase of substantially all the assets of Walker Edison Furniture Company, LLC in connection with Walker Edison's Chapter 11 proceedings.
• TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P. in its strategic investment in Amylu Foods, a manufacturer of all-natural, value-added protein products.
• Thompson Street Capital Partners in its growth investment in ATIS, a provider of elevator and escalator safety inspections, consulting, and managed services across the U.S. and Canada.
• The Solana Foundation in connection with Ellipsis Labs’ launch of Phoenix Perpetuals on the Solana blockchain.
• Supira Medical, Inc. in its US$30 million Series C financing, led by internal investors, including Cormorant and TCP.
• Stryker in its US$4.9 billion acquisition of Inari Medical, Inc.
• Soho House & Co Inc. in its definitive agreements pursuant to which an investor group led by MCR, and its chairman and CEO Tyler Morse will acquire the outstanding shares of Soho House not held by certain significant shareholders.
• Ryan Specialty (NYSE: RYAN) in its US$525 million acquisition of Velocity Risk Underwriters, LLC.
• Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) in its approximately US$1.5 billion acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Poseida Therapeutics, Inc. (“Poseida”, NASDAQ: PSTX).
• Radiology Partners, a leading technology-enabled radiology practice in the U.S., and its subsidiary Mosaic Clinical Technologies, in the acquisition of Cognita Imaging, Inc.
• Prospect Partners and its portfolio company Wedgewood Hospitality Group, Inc., a wedding services provider, in its acquisition by TJC, L.P.
• Lovell Minnick Partners LLC (LMP) in its strategic growth investment in Cohen & Company, an accounting and consulting firm.
• Life360, Inc. in an agreement and plan of reorganization with Nativo, Inc. for consideration of US$120 million.
• LibLab, the leading tool for developers to automate the generation of Software Development Kits in its sale to Postman, Inc.
• A large EU-based private equity sponsor in its investment in an AI-driven logistics intelligence platform.
• JOLT in its acquisition of Volta Media Network from Shell.
• An independent infrastructure manager Ancala in its acquisition of a portfolio of pipeline-connected sites and storage facilities for the production, storage, and transportation of critical chemical intermediates from Hexion, an American Securities portfolio company.
• Hood Packaging Corporation, a subsidiary of Hood Companies, Inc. in its acquisition of the industrial packaging operations of TC Transcontinental.
• Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc. (NYSE - HE), the parent company of Pacific Current, LLC in the sale of Pacific Current’s solar and battery storage assets to Fortistar and Epic Star Energy.
• Hamilton AI in its Series Seed financing.
• J.S. Held LLC, a global consulting firm, in its acquisition of Luttrell Wegis LLP.
• Funds advised by Wafra Inc. in the acquisition of Aquila Air Capital from funds managed by Warburg Pincus LLC.
• ElectronX, a new energy exchange created to help accelerate the U.S. grid transition to renewable sources, in its US$10 million Series A financing round, with participation from Systemiq Capital, Equinor Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Innovation Endeavors.
• Celebrity hairstylist Chris McMillan in connection with the formation and launch of his namesake haircare brand in addition to its exclusive launch across Sephora stores.
• Campus Advantage, a student housing property management business and real estate investment management firm, in its sale to Yugo.
• California-headquartered Velo3D, Inc. (OTCQX: VLDX), a leader in scalable metal 3D printing technology, in connection with a debt for equity exchange transaction with Arrayed Notes Acquisition Corp.
• BlueBear Security Inc. in its $10 million Series Seed Financing Round with SYN Ventures as the lead investor.
• BBQGuys, a leading e-commerce retailer of outdoor living products, in its acquisition of Mont Alpi, a premium manufacturer of modular outdoor kitchen islands and grills.
• Battea-Class Action Services in its US$670 million acquisition by SS&C Technologies.
• Athene in its acquisition, with Motive Partners, of ARS. ARS is an innovative guaranteed lifetime income solutions and technology provider for the defined contribution market.
• Arsenal Capital Partners in its acquisition of Oncology Analytics, Inc. (d/b/a OncoHealth).
• An international healthcare company in its acquisition of Notch Therapeutics.
• Ad.com Interactive Media, Inc. in its acquisition of Underdog Media.
• A U.S.-based private equity fund sponsor in its acquisition of Trans Aero and HeloAir.
• A consortium, headed by APG Asset Management N.V. (APG), on behalf of the largest Dutch pension fund, ABP, and Australian Retirement Trust (ART), in the acquisition of Riverstone Holdings’ equity stake in Pattern Energy Group LP.
• A new leading independent film distribution company in forming the company and raising a first round of capital.
• Armis Security, a leading asset intelligence cybersecurity company, in its US$200 million Series D financing.
• Outbuild, a fully-integrated construction scheduling and planning built for construction software company, in its US$11 million Series A financing.
• Westech Investment Advisors LLC on compensation matters in connection to their sale to P10.
• Voia Inc., a developer of AI-based technology to enable users to produce Hollywood-quality videos on mobile devices, in its pre-seed funding from undisclosed investors.
• Universal AI, LLC in its Series Seed Financing.
• Tenyx, a developer of AI-powered voice agents, in its sale to Salesforce, a leading cloud-based CRM software.
• Simple Closure Inc., a company whose platform helps automate and streamline the dissolution and wind-down process of companies, in its Series Seed Financing.
• MarcyPen Capital Partners (MarcyPen) as lead investor, together with Brand Velocity Group (BVG), in a growth investment in The GLD Shop (GLD), a globally recognized jewelry brand.
• Inner Balance in formation matter and SAFE financing.

• Palo Alto Co-Chair, SidleyWomen
• Board Member, FUSE (a national non-profit which increases the capacity of local governments to engage communities, advance racial equity, and work more effectively)
• Member, Santa Clara County Bar Association
• Member, Palo Alto Area Bar Association