David Hernand

David Hernand is a Partner in Simpson Thacher’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice. Based in the Firm’s Los Angeles office, David advises a wide variety of clients on complex, high-profile transactions in the entertainment, media and technology industries, including companies, boards of directors and special committees, private equity and venture capital firms and high net worth individuals and families. David also counsels clients with interests across the consumer and retail space. He advises on the full spectrum of corporate transactions, including public and private M&A, corporate control contests, strategic partnerships and joint ventures, public and private capital raising deals and other general corporate matters. 

• Netflix in its acquisition of InterPositive
• Big Shot Pictures Inc. in securing strategic investments from Greycroft, Sony Pictures, MarcyPen Capital Partners, ValueAct Capital and CAA
• Goalhanger with its strategic partnership with TCG and its minority investment as Goalhanger’s first external investor
• Shamrock Capital with the sale of its portfolio company, Excel Sports Management, to Goldman Sachs Alternatives
• Metaphysic in its acquisition by DNEG’s Brahma AI
• Ashley Flowers and audiochuck Media, a true crime and mystery media company founded by Ashley Flowers, in a $40 million minority investment in audiochuck by TCG
• Vice Media in its sale of Refinery29 to Sundial Media Group, the parent company of Essence Ventures, and in forming a joint venture with Savage Ventures to relaunch Vice Media’s digital brands

Notable experience prior to joining Simpson Thacher includes representing:

• Clarion Capital in acquiring Vin Di Bona Productions and other entertainment assets
• Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery in the sale of The CW to Nexstar
• Fox Corporation’s acquisition of Mar Vista Studios and Bento Box Entertainment
• Sale of publicly traded software company QAD to Thoma Bravo for $2 billion
• Sale of a majority stake of influencer management company Underscore Talent to global digital media publisher TheSoul Publishing
• Sale of short-form digital media publisher Jukin Media to Trusted Media Brands
• Global real estate brokerage The Agency in its acquisition of tech-enabled brokerage Triplemint
• Morgan Stanley and LionTree, as financial advisors to MGM in Amazon’s $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM
• Netmarble in the $1.2 billion de-SPAC acquisition of Jam City by DPCM Capital
• HYBE in its $1 billion acquisition of Ithaca Holdings
• Castle & Cooke in its $2 billion sale of Dole Food Company to Total Produce and subsequent IPO
• Colony Capital in its $3.4 billion acquisition of 90% of data center assets of Vantage Data Centers
• Freedom Acquisition I Corp, a publicly traded SPAC, in its $900 million combination with Complete Solaria
• Digital Transformation Opportunities Corp., a publicly traded SPAC, in its combination with American Oncology Network
• Romeo Power’s $1.3 billion de-SPAC acquisition by RMG Acquisition Corp. (SPAC)
• Walmart in its sale of streaming media service Vudu to NBCU

David is consistently recognized as a leading dealmaker by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and IFLR1000. He was also highlighted in Variety’s “Legal Impact Report” from 2016-2022 and was named one of the “Top 100 Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal. He has been recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as a top 100 “Power Lawyer” and as one of Hollywood’s top 20 dealmakers.

David received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992 and his B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles in 1989. He is a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. He also currently serves on the board of The Painted Turtle, a charity operating a summer camp for chronically ill children. He is admitted to practice in California.