20 People to Know in Law: Maria “Masha” Trainor, Blank Rome LLP
Maria “Masha” Trainor, partner, Blank Rome LLP
Maria Trainor has been in the industry for 20 years, working at large law firms and in-house. She joined Philadelphia-based Blank Rome’s downtown Pittsburgh office last year. Her practice focuses on international and domestic mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance matters, joint ventures, private debt and equity financings, commercial transactions and contract management, as well as venture capital and private equity transactions. Previously, she was a general counsel at Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp.
How has your specific practice area been impacted by the events of the past year? I am an M&A lawyer, and in the beginning of 2020, I, just like most corporate lawyers, was worried that companies would be paralyzed by the pandemic and deal activity would slow down. That was the case in the second quarter, but things really picked up in the second half of the year, and the level of M&A came back to normal, if not higher than pre-pandemic.
What’s your outlook for the legal industry for 2021? According to everything I am hearing from clients, investment bankers and other M&A advisors, there are no signs of M&A slowing down in 2021. Private equity and many strategic acquirers are sitting on a lot of cash. Amid strong competition, deal multiples have increased, and M&A activity is predicted to spur revenue growth for 2021 and years ahead.
What is your most memorable case or major legal project? I have worked on many interesting transactions for highly sophisticated clients. It is hard to pick just one. At one point in my career, I (along with several of my then partners) represented a NY-based fintech company in connection with a sale of the company to Google. While negotiating with Google and its counsel was not an easy task, it was exciting to see our client (and the founders, who had put in so many years building up the company to what it was) accomplish the deal. And receiving Google-colored cupcakes as a thank you from the client was a nice touch!
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“20 People to Know in Law: Maria “Masha” Trainor, Blank Rome LLP,” was published in the Pittsburgh Business Times on June 3, 2021.