Caroline B. Gottschalk is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in the Firm’s Corporate Department, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and other corporate transactions. Caroline advises private equity funds, public and private companies, and investment banks in a wide range of corporate matters, including domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, divestitures, strategic investments, spin-offs, joint ventures and special committee representations. Caroline regularly advises boards of directors with respect to corporate governance matters and fiduciary responsibilities.
Caroline recently represented Centerbridge Partners, L.P. in connection with its acquisition of TriMark USA, LLC, the country’s largest provider of design services, equipment and supplies to the foodservice industry, and its $1.26 billion acquisition of Syncsort Incorporated, a global software company, and Vision Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of business resilience solution; JPMorgan as financial advisor to ARIAD in its $5.2 billion merger with Takeda, and CIT Group in its $10 billion sale of CIT Commercial Air, its commercial aircraft leasing business; Vista Equity Partners in connection with its $6.5 billion leveraged acquisition of Solera Holdings, Inc.; Lightyear Capital and Public Sector Pension Investment Board in connection with the acquisition by affiliated entities of independent broker-dealer AIG Advisor Group; Centerbridge Partners, L.P. in connection with its acquisition of Great Wolf Resorts, Inc.; Cetera Financial Group and Lightyear Capital in connection with RCS Capital Corporation’s acquisition of Cetera, the third largest independent broker dealer in the United States; and Exelis in connection with the spin-off of its military and government services business, Vectrus Systems Corp.
Other recent transactions include advising Lightyear Capital in its leveraged acquisition of Alegeus Technologies, the healthcare benefits and payment processing business of FIS, and its investments in Community & Southern Holdings, Cascade Bank and SGB Bank; GSI Holdings Corp. and Centerbridge Partners in the sale of GSI to AGCO Corporation; BakerCorp and Lightyear Capital in the sale of BakerCorp to Permira Advisers; Consolidated Container Holdings and Vestar Capital Partners in the sale of CCH to Bain Capital; Centerbridge Partners in its controlling investment in Remedi RX, a pharmacy benefits management company, and its leveraged acquisition and subsequent IPO of American Renal Holdings, a national provider of kidney dialysis services; ITT Corporation in its spin-off of Exelis and Xylem; and Leidos Holdings, Inc. in connection with the spin-off by Leidos of SAIC.
Caroline has been a Partner at Simpson Thacher since 2000. She serves as Co-Chair of the Firm’s Women’s Committee. She received her A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1984, and her J.D. with high honors from Duke Law School in 1990, where she was a member of Order of the Coif and a Member and Managing Editor of the Alaska Law Review. Caroline is a member of the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and sits on the Board of Visitors of Duke Law School, as well as the Duke Women's Impact Network Leadership Council. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York.