About
Bradley S. Schmarak is global co-head for Reed Smith LLP's Private Equity Group in Chicago. He advises boards of directors, senior management teams, and general counsels on domestic and cross-border investment transactions. He handles mergers, acquisitions, and business sales, plus recapitalizations and debt and equity raises. Those matters span technology, business services, financial services, food, restaurant, and consumer products. He has led scores of transactions across a 30-year career. These deals include publicly traded companies, private equity funds, and privately held businesses. He holds a J.D. from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and a B.A. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His transactions often reach Asia, Australia, Latin America, Canada, and Europe.
Who is a good fit for Bradley S. Schmarak
- General counsels and boards pursuing a domestic or cross-border investment.
- Private equity funds structuring a merger, an acquisition, or a recapitalization.
- Senior managers of food, restaurant, or consumer products companies in a company sale.
- Publicly traded companies in financial services or technology pursuing an acquisition or a sale.
Education and admissions
- Education
- Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, J.D., 1987
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.A., 1984
- Bar admissions
- Illinois
Recognition
- Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America ® (Corporate Law; Mergers and Acquisitions Law), 2016–2027; “Lawyer of the Year” for Mergers and Acquisitions Law in Chicago, 2023
- Ranked in Chambers USA for Illinois Corporate/M&A & Private Equity, 2008-2022
- Ranked in Chambers USA for Illinois Private Equity: Buyouts, 2023-2026
Specialties
Representative matters
As described on the firm’s website.
- Equity and debt restructuring of one of the world's leading manufacturers and marketers of highly engineered synthetic fabrics and yarns
- Multiple leveraged buy-out funds in numerous bridge financings
- Workout of an up-stream guaranty obligation of a parent to a bankrupt subsidiary that involved the preservation of valuable net operating losses and the creation of a poison pill to protect these losses
- Debt financing of a $1 billion private equity fund affiliate
- Restructuring of an over-leveraged roll-up of distribution companies and the subsequent chapter 11 filings of eight related companies.
Deal profile
- Typical deal size
- Any deal size
- Remote work
- In-person / regional