Overview
Sophia Hudson, lauded for her commerciality, judgement and “incredible technical proficiency” is a corporate partner in the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and leads the Firm’s global Capital Markets Practice Group. Most recently recognized as a 2023 Law360 MVP, one of the legal industry’s rarest and most prestigious awards, Sophia’s experience spans numerous industries, public clients and private equity sponsors. Sophia provides thoughtful advice and business-minded solutions to clients on the full range of capital markets transactions, including IPOs and follow-on equity offerings, public and private high-yield, investment grade and convertible debt offerings and private placements of equity and convertible securities. Clients also value her counsel on disclosure and compliance, board and shareholder governance and general corporate law matters. She has advised many corporate clients on addressing crises as well as executive succession.
Sophia regularly advises many of the most well-known public companies in the United States and around the world — across disclosure and their most important transactions, providing seamless advice and quarterbacking the Kirkland teams. In addition, Sophia also advises the largest and most sophisticated private equity firms, including Bain Capital, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Hellman & Freidman and Patient Square Capital, among others.
Representative Clients
Capital Markets
- AbbVie, Affimed, Apax Partners, Associated Materials, Awilhelmsen, Bain Capital, Bausch Health, Bristol Myers Squibb, Carlisle, Centerbridge Partners, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Eli Lilly, Evotec, Hellman & Friedman, Huntsman, InflaRx, KPS Capital Partners, loanDepot, Norwegian Cruise Line, Patient Square Capital, Paya, Pharvaris, Pike, Rocket Software, Root, SVB Leerink, Tupperware Brands, United Airlines, viagogo, Warburg Pincus and WeWork
SEC Compliance, Disclosure and Governance
- AbbVie, Affimed, Avantor, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Ferguson, InflaRx, Norwegian Cruise Line, Paya, Pharvaris, PSEG, Tupperware, Unisys and WeWork
Mergers & Acquisitions
- AbbVie, Bain Capital, Bristol Myers Squibb, Colfax, Clayton Dubilier & Rice, Delphi Technologies, Eli Lilly, Hellman & Friedman, KPS Capital Partners, Metromile, NortonLifeLock, Patient Square Capital, Pike, TPG Capital and TPG Real Estate Finance Trust
Restructurings
- Bed Bath & Beyond, Intelsat, J.C. Penney and WeWork
Experience
Representative Matters
AbbVie in its:
- $63 billion acquisition of Allergan and related $30 billion offering of senior notes to fund the acquisition; the debt offering represented the largest corporate bond sale of 2019 and the fourth-largest in history
- exchange offers and consent solicitations for ~$22 billion of Allergan debt in connection with its acquisition of Allergan
Anywhere Real Estate in its $640 million offering of senior notes
Affimed in multiple follow-on offerings of common stock totaling ~$200 million and in the establishment of an “At-the-Market” sales program
Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus in the sale of $2.075 billion of senior notes to fund the $3.4 billion buy-out of Inmarsat
Associated Materials in its $250 million offering of senior notes
Awilhelmsen in its sale of more than $550 million of common stock of Royal Caribbean Cruises
Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman in the sale of $2.35 billion of senior notes to fund the $17 billion buy-out of athenahealth
Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. on a series of complex financing transactions, including an underwritten public offering of equity derivatives securities of $225 million, an additional $800 million of gross proceeds in future installments and the upsize of a FILO facility by $100 million
BCLS Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by Bain Capital Life Sciences, in its $125 million IPO
BrandSafway, a portfolio company of CD&R and Brookfield, in a series of recapitalization transactions
Bristol Myers Squibb in its:
- $90 billion acquisition of Celgene and related $19 billion offering of senior notes to fund the acquisition
- exchange offers and consent solicitations for ~$19 billion of Celgene debt in connection with its acquisition of Celgene
- $18.1 billion combined acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics and RayzeBio and related $13 billion offering of senior unsecured notes to fund the acquisition
- $13.1 billion acquisition of MyoKardia and related $7 billion offering of senior notes to fund the acquisition
- $6 billion offering of senior notes and concurrent tender offer for several series of its outstanding notes
- $5.8 billion acquisition of Mirati Therapeutics and related $4.5 billion offering of senior notes to fund the acquisition
- $4.1 billion acquisition of Turning Point Therapeutics
Carlisle Companies in its $750 million offering of senior notes
Centerbridge Partners, as selling shareholder, in SiriusPoint’s $200 million secondary offering
Colfax in its $3.2 billion acquisition of DJO Global
Constellation Brands on the elimination of the company’s Class B common stock, and the conversion into the right to receive one Share of Class A common stock plus cash consideration for a total amount of $1.5 billion
Delphi Technologies in its $3.3 billion sale to BorgWarner
Eli Lilly and Company in its:
- offering of multiple tranches of senior notes senior unsecured notes totaling ~$3 billion
- offering of multiple tranches of euro and GBP-denominated notes, including Lilly’s first sustainability bond, and concurrent tender offer
- over $1 billion acquisition of Protomer Technologies
- exclusive license agreement with Evommune to develop and commercialize three development programs for the treatment of various inflammatory diseases
- exclusive collaboration and equity investment in Kumquat Biosciences
- $2.4 billion acquisition of DICE Therapeutics, Inc.
- $1.4 billion acquisition of POINT Biopharma
- $610 million acquisition of Akouos
Evotec in its $435 million IPO
Ferguson in the registration of its ordinary shares with the SEC, additional listing of its ordinary shares on the New York Stock Exchange and concurrent termination of its American Depositary Receipt program
Fox in its:
- $1.25 billion offering of senior notes
- $440 million acquisition of Tubi
- $1.2 billion offering of senior notes
Huntsman International in its $750 million offering of senior notes
InflaRX in its:
- $50 million follow-on offering of common stock and establishment of an “at-the-market” sales program
- $46 Million offering Following FDA Emergency Use Authorization
Intelsat in its debt restructuring and in connection with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy
J.C. Penney in its debt restructuring and in connection with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy
KPS Capital Partners in its acquisition of AM General and related $600 million offering of senior notes to fund the acquisition
LLamasoft, a portfolio company of TPG Capital, in its $1.5 billion sale to Coupa Software
Metromile in its $500 million acquisition by Lemonade
Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp., a SPAC sponsored by Patient Square Capital, in its:
- $400 million IPO
- $7.3 billion business combination with Roivant Sciences
NortonLifeLock in its ~$25 billion combination with Avast
Norwegian Cruise Line in its:
- $2.4 billion transaction involving four different capital markets products, the first-ever four-tranched marketed financing
- multiple liability management transactions totaling $2.25 billion, consisting of offerings of exchangeable senior notes and common equity
- multiple follow-on offerings of common stock totaling ~$2.3 billion
- multiple offerings of senior notes totaling ~$2.8 billion
- $287.5 million follow-on offering of common stock, $750 million offering of senior notes and $400 million offering of exchangeable senior notes
Parthenon Capital Partners-backed loanDepot in its $53.9 million IPO
Patient Square Capital in its:
- acquisition of SOC Telemed
- $7.1 billion take-private of Syneos Health, Inc.
- $80 million PIPE Investment in Compass Therapeutics, Inc
Pharvaris in its:
- “at-the-market” offering program of $75 million of common shares
- $80 million pre-IPO cross-over financing
- $190.2 million IPO
- $70 million PIPE offering
Pike Corp. in its:
- majority investment by Lindsay Goldberg
- multiple offerings of senior notes totaling $725 million
Rocket Software in its
- $500 million offering of senior notes
- acquisition of the AMC business of OpenText for $2.275 billion
Root in its $300 million term loan facility from BlackRock
SVB Leerink, as underwriter, in connection with Mereo BioPharma Group’s public offerings of American Depositary Shares totaling ~$165 million
TPG Capital and Transplace in the $2.25 billion sale of Transplace to Uber Freight
TPG Real Estate Finance Trust in its:
- sale of its $572 million debt securities portfolio to an undisclosed counterparty
- up to $325 million investment from Starwood Capital
Tupperware Brands in its cash tender offers to purchase up to $175 million aggregate principal amount of its outstanding senior notes
The underwriters in connection with the:
- $78 million IPO of Vaxxinity
- $828 million IPO of LifeStance Health Group
United Airlines in its:
- $5 billion funding from the U.S. Treasury under the CARES Act Payroll Support Program
- $6.8 billion financing comprising of $3.8 billion of bonds and $3 billion of term loans secured by its MileagePlus loyalty program
Viagogo in its debt and preferred equity financings to fund its $4.05 billion acquisition of StubHub from eBay
Unisys in its $485 million offering of senior notes
WeWork in connection with:
- multiple offerings of senior notes totaling ~$800 million
- a secondary offering of $550 million of senior notes from a selling noteholder affiliated with SoftBank
- junior tranche L/C commitment of $350 million, with an additional $120 million upsize
Prior Experience
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
- Partner, 2014–2018
- Associate, 2006–2014
More
Thought Leadership
Speaking Engagements
Speaker, “Human Capital Management: Facing Down Heightened Complexities & Disclosures,” The Corporate Counsel Newsletter’s 20th Annual Executive Compensation Conference, September 21, 2023
Moderator, Life Sciences & Biotech panel, Harvard Business School’s 29th Annual Venture Capital Private Equity Conference, February 4, 2023
Conference Co- Chair and Panelist, “How to Prepare an Initial Public Offering,” Practising Law Institute, New York, April 26, 2023
Speaker, “Handling Director Conflicts & Structuring Frictionless Board Meetings,” CCR Corp Women’s 100 “Facilitating Board Oversight” session, March 4, 2022
Panelist, “Equity Derivatives: A Walk Through for Public Companies,” Kirkland Webinar, September 30, 2021
Speaker, “Capital Markets 2021,” The Corporate Counsel Webcast, May 12, 2021
Speaker, “Navigating Corp Fin Comments,” CCR Corp Women’s 100 “Inside the SEC: How Things Work” session, May 7, 2021
Moderator, “Power: Global Wealth and Governance,” The Fourth Floor Launch Summit: Community: An Access Point to Money & Power, January 26, 2021
Recognition
Recognized as a Law360 Capital Markets MVP, 2023
Recognized as “commercial and hard-working, and has good judgment” for Debt & Equity by Chambers USA, 2022–2023 and Chambers Global, 2023
Recognized as a “Highly Regarded” practitioner for Capital Markets: Equity by IFLR1000, 2022
Named a “Northeast Trailblazer” by The American Lawyer, 2021
Recognized as a “Notable Practitioner” for Capital Markets: Equity by IFLR1000, 2021
Named a “Leading Lawyer” for Debt Offerings, 2021–2024; named a “Next Generation Partner” for Debt Offerings, 2020, and Equity Offerings, 2020–2024; recognized for Capital Markets: High-Yield Debt Offerings, 2019–2024, by The Legal 500 U.S.
Recognized as a “Finance, Banking & Capital Markets Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal, 2019
Named a “Rising Star” by New York Law Journal, 2017
Named a “Rising Star” for Life Sciences by Law360, 2016
Memberships & Affiliations
Trustee, Hudson-Webber Foundation
Member, Audit Committee of the Partnership of New York City
Partnership for New York City, David Rockefeller Fellow, 2016–2017
Co-Chair, Practising Law Institute’s “How to Prepare an Initial Public Offering,” 2015–2021
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- New York
Education
- University of Michigan Law SchoolJ.D.magna cum laude2006
Order of the Coif
Associate Editor, Michigan Law Review
- Princeton UniversityA.B., History2000