Independent Sponsors

• Opportunity identification and preliminary due diligence
• Letter of intent (LOI) and indication of interest (IOI) negotiation and structuring
• Due diligence across legal, tax, regulatory, and operational workstreams
• Acquisition structuring, financing, and closing
• Drafting and negotiation of definitive transaction documents, including acquisition agreements, partnership agreements (upstream, downstream, GP/LP, and management agreements), rollover and post-closing agreements with target founders, management services agreements, employment and restrictive covenant agreements, incentive plans and award agreements, consulting and transition services agreements, and other ancillary documents
• Post-closing portfolio company representation, including corporate governance, employment and executive compensation, commercial contracts, litigation, and financing arrangements
• Fund formation for independent sponsors eventually transitioning to committed fund models

Our dedicated independent sponsor team is backed by a full-service firm.

Our independent sponsor team is intentionally built around the structures, economics, and practical realities of independent sponsor M&A while leveraging the depth, strength, and sophistication of Jones Walker's full-service national platform.

This platform includes distinguished practices and industry teams focused on, among myriad other things:

• Corporate M&A
• Federal and state tax
• Labor, employment, and executive compensation
• Energy, maritime, and infrastructure
• Banking and commercial finance
• Real estate
• Litigation and dispute resolution

We employ a bespoke pricing model custom built for independent sponsors.

Our team is acutely aware that legal cost is one of the most persistent friction points for independent sponsors — especially for transactions that move through multiple stages before closing (or that may never ultimately close). In response, Jones Walker has developed a "scoping-to-closing" pricing framework specifically tailored to these dynamics, while delivering senior, sophisticated counsel at a cost profile aligned with lower middle-market deal economics.

Our pricing approach for independent sponsor clients reflects this core value statement: A trusted long-term legal partner should share in the risks inherent in the M&A life cycle, not simply bill by the hour regardless of outcome. That means a partnership-driven engagement model that includes early-stage support, predictable costs, and broken deal protection.

Our network is your network.

Jones Walker has cultivated long-established relationships across the independent sponsor, private equity, family office, and institutional investor communities in the Gulf South and beyond. Our attorneys have represented some of the most active sponsors and investment platforms through hundreds of completed transactions, spanning industries from energy and infrastructure to healthcare, manufacturing, food and beverage, specialty and financial services, and many more.

Those relationships create real value. Where appropriate, our team can help foster relationships with capital sources, deal intermediaries, and potential acquisition targets, offering a meaningful competitive advantage at the earliest stages of deal sourcing and execution.

Our track record — and reputation — is built on partnership.

Jones Walker has represented prominent independent sponsors, private equity firms, family offices, and institutional investors in M&A transactions with aggregate deal value exceeding $15 billion over the past five years alone. Our work spans the full spectrum of independent sponsor engagements, from single-deal representations to long-running partnerships in which we have served as primary counsel for the same client over many years, completing dozens of transactions and guiding them from independent sponsor to committed fund.

Jones Walker's M&A and corporate practices are consistently recognized among the most trusted by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, and Legal 500.