Greg Rodgers Named American Lawyer Dealmaker of the Year

Greg Rodgers, partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins and member of the Capital Markets Practice, was named an American Lawyer 2019 Dealmaker of the Year for steering Spotify’s historic direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The annual awards program honors attorneys who led the most complex, impactful deals of the last year.

Unlike in a traditional initial public offering, Spotify, the world’s largest global music streaming service, did not offer any new shares and there were no underwriters. Spotify and a Latham team led by Rodgers reimagined the process of going public through a direct listing to enable the company to offer greater liquidity to its existing shareholders, provide equal access to all buyers and sellers involved in the process, conduct the process with transparency, and enable market-drive price discovery. The process took almost a year to complete and presented complex legal, business, and practical issues that required specialized counsel on global securities laws, tax, intellectual property, data privacy, employee benefits and compensation issues, and on matters related to the NYSE. Spotify’s groundbreaking direct listing proved that the structure is a viable option for other companies that may consider using the approach to become a public company.

Read more in the American Lawyer.