Anticipating The Changing Terrain: Exploring 2024 M&A Trends

Robert Raleigh serves as the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for Sebela Pharmaceuticals. Prior to working with Sebela Pharmaceuticals, Rob was the General Counsel and Director of Purchasing and Planning at Braintree Laboratories, Inc. from 2004 until 2018. From 1991 until 2004, Rob held a wide range of positions with Braintree Laboratories in operations, sales, and business development. While at Braintree Laboratories, he also helped launch multiple products, managed the company’s supply chain, directed the intellectual property portfolio, and managed the company’s litigation. Rob has also advised and serves on the Board of Directors of multiple companies in the areas of diagnostics and pharmaceutical development.
Rob obtained his law degree as well as an MBA from Suffolk University in Boston, MA and holds a BA in Economics from Stonehill College in North Easton, MA.

For more than twenty years, Liz Davis, an M&A partner at Burke Warren in Chicago, has led complex transactions for clients across multiple industries, including healthcare and pharmaceutical, manufacturing, technology, insurance, and food and beverage. Her clients range from startups to multinational public companies. As a true deal lawyer, she brings a business- oriented resourcefulness to each transaction – preferring to view potential deals through a lens of opportunity, cooperation, and creativity.
In addition to her M&A practice, Liz is an experienced corporate generalist, often acting as outside general counsel to her clients in the United States and abroad. She navigates emerging issues of law, trains clients on best practices for legal compliance, and learns about her clients’ businesses. Liz believes that by building strong relationships of trust – with her clients, colleagues, and other stakeholders – she is best able to provide meaningful guidance through legal and practical business challenges.
Liz is leader within her firm and in her community. Most recently, Liz has served as the U.S. Regional Representative to the global Executive Committee of Lawyers Associated Worldwide (LAW) as well as Chair of LAW’s Recruiting Committee. Within Burke Warren, Liz chairs the Marketing and Business Development Committee and is Deputy Chair of the Corporate Department. She has chaired the Women’s Network and DEI committees for the Association for Corporate Growth Chicago and has served on its Executive Committee. Liz has also served as a member of the Executive Council of Women United of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.
Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella is a full-service multi-practice Chicago-based law firm. The firm is committed to providing its clients the highest level of professional service with emphasis on one-on-one personal attention at a reasonable cost. To serve the needs of our clients in the business community, we have assembled highly qualified, experienced attorneys, who are entrepreneurial in their approach and who understand and accomplish our clients' goals in an efficient, professional manner.

Brett Schroeder is the Assistant General Counsel, Corporate for US Foods, one of America's leading food distributors. In this role, he represents US Foods in significant corporate transactions, including complex M&A transactions on both the buy-side and sell-side, joint ventures and strategic investments, and manages US Foods' public disclosure and reporting requirements.
Prior to joining US Foods, Brett was an attorney at Latham & Watkins LLP and King & Spalding LLP, where he represented public and privately-held buyers and sellers in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, spin-offs, carveouts, divestitures and joint ventures. He is a graduate of Duke University School of Law.

Kim Brown is the Chief Legal Officer at Sedgwick.