A&O Shearman hires leading M&A and private equity partner Germaine Gurr in Los Angeles

Germaine joins from Sidley Austin and has more than 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies, NYSE-listed boards, and private equity sponsors on complex cross-border M&A, portfolio-shaping divestitures, and sector-driven platform builds. Her practice spans a broad range of sectors, including industrials, environmental services, energy, infrastructure, food and beverage, supply chain technology, industrial digitization, and consumer.

Germaine also serves as trusted counsel to strategic clients, providing single-point legal accountability across M&A, governance, regulatory, SEC disclosure, litigation strategy, employment, and commercial matters. Her experience includes carve-outs, joint ventures, cross-border divestitures, platform acquisitions, bolt-on acquisitions, management incentive plans, and exits. She has appeared before the European Commission on antitrust clearance, led CFIUS and ITAR filings, and navigated multijurisdictional merger control across more than 30 countries on six continents.

“Germaine is precisely the type of partner who can help clients navigate the complexity of cross-border transactions,” said Alain Dermarkar, U.S. co-head of M&A and Private Equity at A&O Shearman. “Her experience spans strategic M&A, private equity, carve-outs, divestitures, regulatory execution, and multijurisdictional coordination, and her practice is highly complementary to our U.S. and global M&A platform.” 

“A&O Shearman offers the global platform, sector depth, and collaborative culture that my clients need as they pursue increasingly complex cross-border transactions,” said Germaine Gurr. “In addition, A&O Shearman’s dual approach on AI—combining hands-on AI innovation with deep legal expertise—presents an exciting opportunity and proposition for my clients. Further, on a personal level, having started my career at Shearman, I am especially excited to return as part of A&O Shearman’s global partnership and to work with colleagues across the firm to support clients on their most important M&A, governance, and strategic matters.” 

Germaine began her legal career as an associate at Shearman & Sterling in New York. She will also continue to maintain a presence in New York, further connecting the firm’s U.S. and international network.

Germaine’s addition is the latest step in A&O Shearman's sustained investment in U.S. talent across multiple practice areas. In the last 12 months, the firm has welcomed a series of lateral hires that together further build out its U.S. capabilities: W. Andrew Lanius (energy and infrastructure, Houston), Paul Astolfi (Dallas), and Katy McNeil (Chicago), who boosted the firm's renewables and energy transition offering and established its new Chicago presence—an office that has recently expanded with the addition of private equity and M&A partner Valentine Bleicher from Kirkland & Ellis.

In addition, the firm has added Matthew Karlyn (digital, data, IP and technology, life sciences), who joined in Boston from Morrison Foerster; Catherine Hein, a former senior U.S. Department of the Treasury official and national security lawyer, who joined in Washington, D.C., strengthening the firm's CFIUS offering; and Kathryn Mims, also in Washington, D.C., who joined from White & Case to support the firm’s U.S. antitrust practice.

In New York, the firm has made a series of targeted hires including: Joseph Brown (restructuring), who joined from Davis Polk; Michael Kim (capital markets), former head of Americas capital markets legal at Morgan Stanley; Ned Schodek (restructuring), who returned to the firm from Schulte Roth & Zabel; Jan Sysel (fund finance), who joined from Fried Frank to lead the U.S. fund finance practice; and Nick Ramphal (M&A), who rejoined from Cadwalader.