© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(June 16) – Heather Stern has been on the job as general counsel of Austin-based Whole Foods for less than a month, but the former Office Depot lawyer has engineered one of the largest and most important corporate transactions of the year.
Whole Foods announced Friday that it has agreed to be acquired by Internet and retail giant Amazon for $13.7 billion.
Whole Foods also retained lawyers from McDermott Will & Emery, including Dallas partner Wilson Chu, to handle certain aspects of the transaction.
Stern officially joined Whole Foods on April 17. She had been a lawyer in the corporate legal department at Office Depot in Florida for a dozen years. She was the associate general counsel and led all the office supply company’s head of commercial litigation.
Importantly, Stern was one of the lead lawyers that helped Office Depot obtain regulatory approval to acquire OfficeMax in 2013. Two years later, however, Stern lost Office Depot’s legal battle to purchase Staples for $6.3 billion when federal regulators rejected the deal.
Stern, a former lawyer at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, replaced former Whole Foods GC Roberto Lang.
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz serves as Whole Foods’ lead counsel for transaction. Sullivan & Cromwell represents Amazon.
Mark Curriden contributed to this report.
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