Valerie Ford Jacob

About Valerie Ford Jacob

Valerie focuses on capital raising, including both debt and equity in the public and private markets, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other business transactions. She also counsels corporations and special committees on corporate governance, securities regulation and investigations.

As a leader in the capital markets practice for decades, Valerie served as co-head of both our global capital markets practice and global financial institutions sector group for much of her tenure at Freshfields. She is a frequent contributor to legal and other periodicals on securities laws and financing topics. She is consistently recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers USA (where she ranks among “Senior Statespeople”), IFLR1000, Legal 500 (where she perennially ranks in the “Hall of Fame”) and Best Lawyers.

Valerie has been described by clients as “a legend in the business.” She was named Finance Lawyer of the Year at Chambers USA’s 2012 Women in Law Awards. Valerie co-led the Freshfields team that was honored as Transatlantic Private Equity Team of the Year by Legal Week and The American Lawyer for its cross-border work advising Formula One (F1) and CVC Capital Partners on the sale of F1 to Liberty Media. She was named to the Law Dragon 500 Hall of Fame in 2017. She was also honored as a Woman Worth Watching in the 2016 issue of Profiles in Diversity Journal and the 2017 Expert Guide to Women in Business Law, a peer-ranked list of female experts in various divisions of business law. In 2020 and again in 2021, she was listed as one of the top Capital Markets practitioners in the United States by Euromoney’s Women in Business Expert Guide. She was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2021 by Corporate Counsel - Women, Influence & Power in Law, and “A Dealmaker of the Year” in 2022 by The American Lawyer. She was shortlisted as “Equity Capital Markets Lawyer of the Year” by Euromoney's Americas Women in Business Law Awards, 2022. 

She also is a member of The Committee of 200 (C200), an invitation-only membership organization of the world’s most successful women business leaders. 

Before joining Freshfields, Valerie was the Chairperson at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

Recent work

Capital Markets & Finance

• BuzzFeed on the establishment of its ATM equity program.
• Cazoo on a $630 million restructuring agreement with noteholders and on its subsequent liquidation.
• Lilium on its $150 million standby equity purchase agreement with Yorkville Capital.
• Lilium on a $192 million capital raise.
• Lilium on a capital raise for up to $250 million.
• Molekule (f/k/a Aeroclean) in connection with several PIPE transactions.
• Underwriters on Prudential plc’s offering of $350 million aggregate principal amount of 3.625% Notes.
• Cazoo on its $630 million convertible notes issuance to an investor consortium led by Viking Global.
• Charterhouse Capital on the sell-down of its shareholdings in Mirion Technologies.
• SPAC acacia bleu on its $240 million IPO and listing on Nasdaq.
• Penske Automotive Group on numerous high yield debt issuances and corporate governance matters.
• Underwriters on all of Ares Capital Corporation’s SEC-registered investment grade debt, equity and convertible offerings—as well as the establishment of its ATM equity program—since its IPO in 2004.
• Underwriters on all of The Kroger Co.’s SEC-registered investment grade debt offerings since 1995.
• Underwriters on all of Republic Services’ SEC-registered investment grade debt and equity offerings since its IPO in 2004.
• Underwriters on all of Sally Beauty’s SEC-registered high yield debt and equity offerings since its spinoff from Alberto Culver in 2006.
• La Française des Jeux on its €1.6 billion IPO and listing on Euronext.
• Underwriters on Alibaba’s $11.3 billion secondary listing on the HKSE.
• Budweiser Brewing Company APAC on its $5 billion global offering and listing on the HKSE.
• Numerous IPOs, including of Aeroclean (n/k/a Molekule), Alamo Rent-A-Car, Charlotte Russe, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar General, Gerber Childrenswear, Jack Eckerd Corporation, Nine West, Payless Cashways, Penske Automotive, Playtex, QuickSilver, Ralph Lauren, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Sally Beauty, Snapple, Talbots, and others.
• KLX in connection with an ABL financing.
• Interoute Communications on the financing of aspects of its €1.9 billion sale to GTT Communications.

M&A

• BuzzFeed on its sale of Complex Networks to Commerce Media.
• CVC Capital Partners on CVC Funds’ strategic partnership with the Women’s Tennis Association.
• CVC Capital Partners on its sale of Formula 1 to Liberty Media, and subsequently in various sell-down offerings of the shares of Liberty Formula 1 common stock.
• CVC Capital Partners on its $1.375 billion acquisition of Ontic from BBA Aviation.
• CVC Capital Partners on its $4.7 billion sale of its majority stake in SkyBet to The Stars Group.
• CVC Capital Partners on its $470 million investment in Aleph Holding.
• KLX on numerous matters, including the $4.2 billion sale of its aviation parts and services business to Boeing and in its review of strategic alternatives.
• AeroClean on its all-stock merger with Molekule.
• CarLotz on its sale to Shift Technologies.
• Charterhouse Capital on the business combination of Mirion Technologies and SPAC GS Acquisition Holdings Corp II.
• Cazoo on its $7 billion business combination with SPAC AJAX I, including a concurrent $800 million PIPE.
• Royal Caribbean Group on the all-cash carve-out of its Azamara cruise line to Sycamore Partners, including its three-ship fleet and associated intellectual property.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises on the acquisition by its joint venture TUI Cruises of Hapag-Lloyd’s cruise shipping business.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises on its joint venture with Ctrip.com International and related ship financing.
• Royal Caribbean Cruises on its proposed acquisition of STX France.
• CarLotz on its $827 million merger with SPAC Acamar Partners Acquisition Corp.
• KLX Energy Services on its all-stock merger with Quintana Energy Services.
• KLX Energy Services on its IPO (through spinoff) on Nasdaq.
• KLX Energy Services on its acquisition of Motley Services.
• KLX Energy Services on its acquisition of Tecton Energy Services.
• KLX Energy Services on its acquisition of Red Bone Services.
• Penske Automotive Group on its $458.5 million acquisition of an additional interest in Penske Truck Leasing from subsidiaries of GE Capital Holdings.
• Verisk on the acquisition of SAP’s Content as a Service business and a strategic partnership with SAP to co-develop product compliance solutions.
• Executive officers on the sale of B/E Aerospace to Rockwell Collins.