Clive Elssap is a partner in the Corporate and M&A team, advising private equity sponsors and strategic buyers on cross-border mid-market and upper mid-market transactions between the US, the UK and continental Europe. He is best known for inbound US acquisitions into the UK and Europe, and for helping UK and European sponsors make their first platform investments in the United States.
Dual-qualified in England and Wales and New York, Clive has spent more than two decades leading deals that only work when tax, antitrust, foreign investment, financing and employment advice are joined up from the first term sheet. Clients describe him as the partner who 'runs the whole deal, not just the SPA'. His sector focus is tech-enabled business services, healthcare services and the energy transition.
Clive joins Mercier & Valez from the London office of a US-headquartered global firm. He studied law at the University of Bristol and took his LLM at Columbia. Outside work he is a keen road cyclist and offshore sailor, and an enthusiastic, if amateur, jazz pianist.
Selected experience: - Advised a US private equity sponsor on its acquisition of a UK-headquartered healthcare services group with operations in five European countries. - Advised a London-based mid-market sponsor on its first US platform investment, a tech-enabled facilities services business. - Advised a NYSE-listed industrial group on the carve-out acquisition of a European energy-efficiency business from a family-owned conglomerate.
Education: LLB, University of Bristol; LLM, Columbia Law School Admissions: Solicitor, England and Wales; New York Languages: English, French Interests: Road cycling (rode the Etape du Tour), offshore sailing, jazz
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