Kelly M. Smercina focuses her practice on representing corporate clients and investment banking firms in a wide range of capital markets and other financing transactions, including in connection with acquisitions and spin‑offs. She also has significant experience representing clients in mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance matters.
Smercina is an author on legal developments in the areas of capital markets and finance, having contributed to publications such as Chambers’ Acquisition Finance Guide.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers in America | 2026 | Finance, Capital Markets |
| The 2025 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation | 2025 | Corporate, Capital Markets |
| The 2024 Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation | 2024 | Corporate, Capital Markets |
| Lawdragon 500 X – The Next Generation | 2023 | Corporate, Capital Markets |
Smercina’s notable work highlights include:
- IPOs for Alliance Laundry Systems and Schneider National and Corteva’s pending spin‑off of its Seed business
- Other equity offerings for companies such as Comtech, CyrusOne and Evolent Health
- Debt offerings for companies such as Aon, CBRE, Centene, Cincinnati Bell, Credit Acceptance, Dell, Expedia, HSBC USA, Kraft Heinz, Navistar, RingCentral, Six Flags, Toll Brothers, TransDigm, U.S. Concrete, Vantage Drilling International, Verisk and Webster Bank
- Private credit transactions for companies such as Artivion and New Media
- Capital markets and bank financings in connection with Amcor’s acquisition of Bemis, Aon’s acquisition of NFP, Expedia’s acquisition of HomeAway, Forward Air’s combination with Omni Logistics, multiple transactions involving Lindsay Goldberg and its portfolio companies, New Media’s acquisition of Gannett, Otis Worldwide’s spin‑off from United Technologies, Outbrain’s acquisition of Teads, Six Flags’ merger of equals with Cedar Fair and Verisk’s acquisition of AccuLynx
- Representing the special committee of the board of directors of EchoStar in the $26 billion combination with DISH Network
- Representing Buckeye in its $10.3 billion acquisition by IFM
- Representing SMBC Aviation Capital in its $6.7 billion acquisition of Goshawk Aviation
- Representing AmerisourceBergen in its $6.5 billion acquisition of Walgreens’ Alliance Healthcare businesses
- Representing Light & Wonder in the $6.05 billion sale of SG Lottery to Brookfield and in the $1.2 billion sale of OpenBet to Endeavor
- Representing Route Mobile and its founding shareholders in the ₹59.22 billion sale of a majority stake in Route Mobile to Proximus Group