Mergers & Acquisitions names the 2022 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A, including Hirschler’s Lisa Hedrick.
How are you advancing the state of women?
As a member of the American Bar Association’s Women in M&A Subcommittee, I recognized that my hometown pool of women deal professionals was small and that the next generation of women M&A professionals would benefit from greater access to mentorship and career development resources. So, in 2014, I founded Richmond Women in M&A, a networking organization for women deal professionals, including lawyers, bankers, private equity investors and accountants. The group encourages the recruitment, retention and promotion of area women in M&A professions.
Within the firm, I regularly seek opportunities to mentor women lawyers who are interested in building M&A practices. As chair of Hirschler’s Recruiting Committee and past co-chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative Network, I was instrumental in the firm’s recruitment of an all-women class of summer associates two years in a row. And in 2021, I extended offers to two women summer associates to work as contract attorneys in significant M&A deals to further cultivate their experience in this area.
Describe a recent dealmaking accomplishment.
In February 2021, I signed the largest deal of my career, which also is the largest in firm history. Representing Bertram Capital, a private equity firm targeting investments in lower middle-market companies, I co-led a deal team in selling portfolio company Flow Control Group to global investment firm KKR. Operating under a compressed timeline, the team successfully negotiated the terms, and the deal was signed on February 12, just two weeks after the letter of intent was completed.
