MVP: Morrison & Foerster's Suz Mac Cormac

Susan (“Suz”) Mac Cormac spoke with Law360 for a feature as one of the 2021 Private Equity MVPs, discussing her biggest challenges and accomplishments in the past year, why she became a private equity attorney, her advice for junior attorneys, and her work as a co-founder of the California Small Enterprise (CASE) Task Force.

“We started from scratch,” Suz said discussing the California Rebuilding Fund, a key project of the CASE Task Force which seeks to provide funds to small businesses, particularly those in disadvantaged communities. “We had a goal of a billion, and we’ve already raised $150 million.” She added: “We built it from the ground up, and then we had to raise the money for it,” further remarking that this was the “inverse of the way we usually do it, which was really challenging but incredibly rewarding.”

Suz also discussed her biggest accomplishment this year, advising Generate Capital, Inc. on an $870 million fundraising round for its renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure fleet.

“It’s enabling them to deploy capital for cutting-edge projects that are really moving the needle on sustainability,” Suz said, adding that the fund “is a permanent asset vehicle, which gives it a lot more flexibility, in terms of deploying capital, without the high keys of traditional private equity funds.”

Commenting on why she’s a private equity attorney, Suz remarked that private and growth equity “has the biggest potential to effect change” and that clients she has worked with are “willing to be thoughtful about how they deploy capital to make sure that they are investing in things that will really move the needle.”

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