Partner
Elizabeth Hermann Smith
Banking & Finance, Leveraged & Acquisition Finance, Lending
"Elizabeth is great to work with. She is responsive, knowledgeable and always accessible."
"She is very attentive and responsive."
Chambers USA
Overview
For more than a decade, Elizabeth Hermann Smith has counseled lenders in many areas of leveraged finance, representing a broad range of lending clients including private credit funds, finance companies, business development companies, asset managers and banks serving as administrative agents, collateral agents, lead arrangers, and lenders in a variety of debt finance transactions. Elizabeth focuses her work on senior secured cash flow transactions, but has also worked in asset-based lending and mezzanine finance. Her experience spans a wide array of industries, with a particular emphasis on healthcare lending and franchise finance. She works with her clients to help strike the right balance between protecting their interests while remaining practical and efficient, and she prides herself on her ability to be flexible and to work with those across the aisle to find a solution.
Experience
- Represented a direct lending finance company as administrative agent and lender in senior secured credit facilities to support the acquisition by two private equity firms of an FDA-registered outsourcing pharmacy facility serving over 1,200 hospitals and health systems in the United States.
- Represented an investment firm as administrative agent and lender in senior secured credit facilities to support the acquisition by a leading private equity firm of a dental services organization providing management services to dental practices in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.
- Represented an asset manager as administrative agent, sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner in incremental senior secured credit facilities to support the acquisition by a private equity owned portfolio company specializing in specialized metal manufacturing of a full-service contract manufacturer of medical devices and CNC machined parts for medical devices, medical equipment and related applications.
Recognition
- Emerging Lawyer, by Leading Lawyers, a division of Law Bulletin Media
- Dealmakers of the Year, by Franchise Times
Education
- Columbia University, MA
- DePaul University College of Law, JD, summa cum laude
Order of the Coif; Dean's Certificate of Pro Bono Service - Yale University, BA
Admissions
- Illinois
Professional & Community Involvement
- Board Member, Center for Conflict Resolution
- Associate Board Member, Development Advisory Board Member and Volunteer, One Tail at a Time