Pardis Zomorodi advises US and international public and private companies, including REITs, private equity firms, and investment banks, on tax aspects of complex transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and joint ventures.

Ms. Zomorodi regularly counsels clients on structuring taxable and tax-free mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and spin-offs. She draws on considerable experience advising private equity firms, entertainment companies, and strategic buyers and sellers in public and private transactions.

Ms. Zomorodi often advises REITs on the tax aspects of formation transactions, mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and ongoing operational matters. She has also helped clients obtain private letter rulings from the IRS on a number of tax matters.

Ms. Zomorodi formerly served as Deputy Office Managing Partner of the firm's Century City and Los Angeles offices.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Ms. Zomorodi’s recent representative M&A transactions include:

  • Ares Management in its US$175 million acquisition of Crescent Point Capital, a Singapore-based private equity firm
  • Harley-Davidson in the US$1.77 billion business combination between its electric motorcycle division, LiveWire, and AEA-Bridges Impact Corp., a special purpose acquisition company
  • Gibson Energy in its US$1.1 billion acquisition of South Texas Gateway Terminal, a crude oil export facility operating a deep-water, open access marine terminal
  • Extra Space Storage in its US$12.4 billion acquisition of Life Storage, a self-administered and self-managed equity REIT that is in the business of acquiring and managing self-storage facilities
  • INDUS Realty Trust in its US$868 million sale to Centerbridge Partners and GIC Real Estate
  • Cipher Mining Technologies in its merger with Good Works Acquisition Corp.
  • Virgin Galactic in its merger with Social Capital Hedosophia, creating the first publicly-traded commercial human spaceflight company
  • PIMCO in its acquisition of Gurtin Municipal Bond Management
  • Cheesecake Factory in its acquisition of Fox Restaurant Concepts
  • Entercom in its US$3 billion merger with CBS Radio
  • Ares Capital Corporation in its US$3.4 billion acquisition of American Capital
  • Legendary Entertainment, a US-based film and television production company, in its US$3.5 billion majority stake sale to Dalian Wanda Group
  • Participant Media in its joint venture with DreamWorks Studios, Reliance Entertainment, and Entertainment One to form Amblin Partners, a new film, television, and digital content creation company

REITs

Her REIT clients, including as underwriter’s counsel, consist of:

  • Rexford Industrial Realty, Inc.
  • Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc.
  • Extra Space Storage Inc.
  • Healthpeak Properties, Inc.
  • Summit Hotel Properties
  • Douglas Emmett, Inc.

Spin-off Transactions

Ms. Zomorodi has also represented multiple clients in spinning-off business segments and divisions to create stand-alone, independent publicly listed companies, including:

  • Colfax Corporation in its tax-free spin of its fabrication technology and specialty medical technology businesses into two differentiated, independent, and publicly-traded companies
  • Worthington Industries in its spin-off of the company’s steel processing business into a new public company
  • Ligand Pharmaceuticals in the tax-free distribution of its OmniAb antibody discovery business and the subsequent business combination with Avista Public Acquisition Corp. II, resulting in OmniAb, Inc. becoming an independent publicly traded company
  • Delphi Automotive in its spin-off of the Powertrain Systems segment to its shareholders
  • Exterran Holdings, Inc. in its spin-off of its international services and global fabrication businesses, a publicly traded company, to its shareholders

Bar Qualification

  • California
  • Illinois

Education

  • LLM, New York University School of Law, 1999
  • JD, University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, 1997
    Dean's List
  • BA, University of Florida, 1994
    Dean's List

Practices