Whit Roberts serves as the Texas Regional Head of O’Melveny’s Corporate Department. He focuses his practice on corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, investments in public and private entities, securities offerings, joint ventures, and commercial transactions.
Whit represents public and private companies and investment funds and family offices in mergers, stock acquisitions, and asset acquisitions, including spin-off and carve-out transactions.
Whit regularly advises founders and families in the sale of their businesses to strategic buyers and financial buyers. Whit also represents family offices in their investments, financings, operations, and generation planning.
His clients―many of whom he has represented throughout their life-cycle from formation to initial public offering and sale―span a wide range of industries, including SaaS, technology-enabled services, electronics manufacturing, hotel and hospitality, real estate services, healthcare, and oilfield services. Whit has completed multiple acquisition programs for clients, including the acquisition of over 100 companies in a single industry.
Whit also advises on organizational, structuring, and governance matters for joint ventures and their boards.
Prior to joining O’Melveny, Whit was a partner at an international, full-service law firm, where he served in various positions of leadership firmwide and in its Dallas office. Texas Lawyer named Whit a Texas Trailblazer in 2020. The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized Whit for his work in Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions for many years.
- PW Consortium, a private consortium of family offices and financial institutions, on its merger agreement with PureWest Energy, LLC, a leading Rocky Mountain independent natural gas producer, for US$1.84 billion in cash
- Ashford Inc., a Dallas-based alternative asset management company, in its acquisition of Chesapeake Hospitality, a premier third-party hotel management company based in Maryland
- Amplifi Group, a leading strategy and information management consultancy, in connection with a strategic growth investment from Source Capital, a private investment firm
- Advance Research Chemicals, Inc. in its sale to Inhance Technologies, LLC
- Jon Shanahan (Founder, CEO, and Shareholder of Businessolver) in investments by Stone Point Capital and others in Businessolver, Inc., a leading provider of SaaS-based employee benefits administration software and services
- Solutions by Text, a leader in empowering enterprise financial services companies to engage, interact, and transact with their consumers in real-time, in its growth investment from Edison Partners
- DECA Dental CEO and Founder Dr. Sulman Ahmed in a strategic investment in DECA Dental from funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities
- Formulife in an investment from Satori Capital
- Adaptive3D, a developer of innovative 3D printing resins, in its sale to Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM)
- Amplifi in its acquisition of Comma Group
- Point of Rental in its investment by Susquehanna Growth Equity
- Ashford Inc. in its completed combination with Remington Holdings, LP
- Venture Metals, LLC in a strategic investment from Mill Rock Capital Management LP.
- Robert Vanman (Founder and CEO of WatchGuard, Inc.) in the sale of WatchGuard to Motorola Solutions, Inc.
- Brink’s Incorporated in the acquisition of Balance Innovations
- Naturally Slim, a leading digital weight management and metabolic syndrome reversal program, in its acquisition by global private equity firm The Riverside Company
- Daegis, Inc., a global software and services company with solutions for information archiving, information governance, application development and migration, in its acquisition by OpenText™ (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTC)
- Affiliates of SunnyBrook Senior Living in the sale of a senior housing portfolio to American Realty Capital Healthcare Trust II for US$164 million
- Duff & Phelps as financial advisor to the Independent Committee of the Board of Directors of Camelot Information Systems Inc. (NYSE: CIS) in a going-private transaction
- Public and private companies in sale processes, including publicly listed companies in IT consulting, data management and technology enabled services, and privately owned companies in the chemical manufacturing, hospitality, media, senior and assisted living, online education, and technology enabled services (including SaaS) industries
- Buyers in M&A transactions, including clients that carry out a series of acquisitions to consolidate or roll-up an industry, such as a Fortune 500 subsidiary in an acquisition program in the commercial building services industry
- Client in simultaneous equity and senior and mezzanine debt financings utilized to fund the contemporaneous acquisition of multiple target companies
- Joint venture made up of six leading companies in the hotel and hospitality industry in its corporate governance, financing, M&A, and commercial matters
- US subsidiary of a worldwide telecommunications company in its spin-off and restructuring into multiple US subsidiaries organized along lines of business
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- Texas
Education
- The University of Texas, J.D.
- University of Kent at Canterbury - England, Master's Degree Candidate in Political Theory
- The University of Texas at Austin, B.A.: Plan II Honors Program and English Honors Program
Honors & Awards
- Recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Mergers & Acquisitions Law and Corporate Law in Dallas, TX (2015-2025)
- Named to the “Best Lawyers in Dallas,” D Magazine (2016-2024)
- Recognized by Super Lawyers® Texas, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business & Corporate (2004, 2019-2024)
- Recognized as a “Texas Trailblazer,” Texas Lawyer (2020)
Professional Activities
Memberships
- Member, Texas Bar Foundation
- Member, Dallas Bar Foundation
- Member, Dallas Bar Association
Community Involvement
- Member, Dallas Citizens Counsel
- Member, Tocqueville Society of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
- Member of Executive Committee of the Advisory Board of ACT (Advocates for Community Transformation)
- Life Member, University of Texas College of Liberal Arts Advisory Council
- Former Executive Committee member of the Board of Directors, Dallas Regional Chamber of Commerce
Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, “Private Equity Structure and Transactions,” SMU Law School Business Law Boot Camp (Fall and Spring Semesters 2021-2024)
- Speaker, “RR: Employers’ Legal Considerations,” Dallas Regional Chamber Webinar (June 2, 2020)
- Speaker, “Why Board Diversity Matters: From Multiple Perspectives,” SMU 2019 Corporate Counsel Symposium (October 18, 2019)
- Speaker, “Stewarding Corporate Information in the Social Media Age and Workplace Privacy Issues,” Association of Corporate Counsel - DFW Chapter (October 16, 2019)
- Speaker, “Pay Ratio Disclosure and Other Executive and Director Compensation Issues,” 25th Anniversary SMU Corporate Counsel Symposium (October 20, 2017)