Gridiron Capital has completed its acquisition of Esquire Deposition Solutions, a national provider of remote and in-person court reporting, video, and interpreting services.
Esquire provides its services to law firms, insurance companies, and corporate legal departments and supports more than 150,000 remote or in-person depositions each year. The Atlanta-headquartered company was founded in 1978 and has 35 offices nationwide.
Gridiron has investment experience in the litigation support services sector. In April 2014, the firm invested in Nashville-headquartered Legility, then known as Counsel on Call (the name was changed in 2018), a provider of outsourced legal services to in-house legal departments and law firms. Gridiron sold Legility to Consilio, a portfolio company of Stone Point Capital, in December 2021.
During Gridiron’s investment term, Legility expanded from focusing exclusively on flexible staffing services and managed services to providing a full suite of outsourced data services and tech-enabled services to corporate general counsels. Over Gridiron’s seven-plus year hold, Legility grew its geographic service area from the southeastern United States to full nationwide and European coverage.
At the time of sale to Consilio, Legility had a network of more than 1,000 domestic and international lawyers, engineers, consultants, technology and data specialists, and operational experts that served more than one-third of the Fortune 100 and one-quarter of the AM Law 200.
“Esquire’s responsive service, impeccable quality, and powerful technology are imperative to the success of our client’s legal proceedings,” said Terrie Campbell, the CEO of Esquire. “We chose to partner with Gridiron because of their experience in outsourced legal services and their track record of enhancing human capital businesses with technology. We are energized about the opportunity to boost and expand our service offerings to clients with Gridiron.”
“We’re pleased to partner with the talented Esquire management team and leverage our expertise and track record of successfully investing in outsourced legal services and human capital management businesses – two of Gridiron’s Thematic Areas of Expertise – to support and accelerate Esquires growth plans,” said Tom Burger, a co-founder and managing partner of Gridiron.
“Esquire’s exceptional management team has built an incredible business. We look forward to providing additional resources to the team through our Centers of Excellence to leverage data science in operations, drive innovation, and expand Esquire’s services,” added Will Hausberg, a senior managing director of Gridiron.
Twin Brook was the administrative agent on debt financing to back Gridiron’s acquisition of Esquire. Chicago-based Twin Brook focuses on loans to private equity-owned companies with EBITDA between $3 million and $50 million, with an emphasis on companies with $25 million of EBITDA and below. The firm targets senior financing opportunities up to $200 million, with hold sizes across the platform ranging from $25 million up to $150 million. Twin Brook’s products include opportunistic investments in second lien, mezzanine, and equity co-investments.
Gridiron invests in manufacturing, service, and specialty consumer companies with enterprise values from $75 million to $600 million and EBITDA from $10 million to $60 million. Sectors of interest include branded consumer, business-to-business and business-to-consumer services, and niche industrial. In December 2020, New Canaan, Connecticut-based Gridiron held a hard-cap and oversubscribed closing of its largest fund, Gridiron Capital Fund IV LP, with $1.35 billion of capital.
Piper Sandler was the financial advisor to Esquire on this transaction.
© 2023 Private Equity Professional | January 11, 2023
