Akerman Senterfitt has added Wayne Wald as a shareholder and Palash Pandya as of counsel to its Corporate Practice Group in an expansion that includes a total of five senior attorneys in its New York office.
Wald has 21 years of experience in corporate and securities law, particularly capital formation, mergers & acquisitions and representation of public and privately held companies. His industry specialization includes restaurants, retail, textile and apparel and various service industries. He joins Akerman from Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and is admitted to the New York Bar. Wald is also a member of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG).
Pandya has nine years of experience representing issuers and underwriters in public and private offerings of equity and debt securities, including initial public offerings, registered direct offerings, 144A debt offerings and PIPE transactions. He also advises corporate clients in public and private mergers and acquisitions, tender offers and general corporate matters. Palash joins from the Firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and is admitted to the New York and New Jersey Bars.
“Wayne and Palash bring valuable corporate and securities law experience to our national middle-market M&A team,” said Jonathan Awner, chair of the Akerman National Corporate Practice Group. “They are also an important part of our practice group’s expansion in the New York market.”
Wald and Pandya are the latest additions to the firm’s growing New York office, having added five senior lawyers in the past several weeks. John Wood recently joined as a shareholder and advises public and private companies on real estate acquisitions, facilities management, construction and development, commercial leasing, commercial property management and litigation. Ira Sacks also joined as a shareholder. He is a veteran trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience in the areas of commercial litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, bankruptcy and corporate reorganization. Mark Lafayette joined as of counsel and has more than 25 years of experience litigating cases in federal and state courts in the areas of intellectual property, contracts, business torts, real estate, employment, defamation, construction, secured transactions, securities, malpractice and others.
The Akerman Corporate Practice Group is recognized by The Legal 500 within the national Middle-Market category and is ranked #1 by Chambers USA for Corporate/M&A in Florida. Akerman advises many public and emerging companies, and private equity and investment funds on M&A, public offerings, private equity and venture capital investments, and other transactional matters.
