BakerHostetler Deepens Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Bench With Addition of Four Partners in New York

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 16, 2025--

BakerHostetler:

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Key takeaways

Why this matters
BakerHostetler is pleased to announce the firm has added a significant team of four partners in New York to its Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity and Debt Finance teams.

The group’s arrival adds significant depth to BakerHostetler’s Business Practice Group in New York and its firmwide Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity teams. The group continues BakerHostetler’s focus on offering top-of-class representation of financial and strategic buyers and sellers in middle-market M&A transactions.

Key quotes
“Increasing our transactional capabilities in key markets like New York is a strategic firm priority. We are delighted to welcome this sophisticated team of partners that will add to our market-leading M&A, Private Equity and Debt Finance teams in New York,” said Paul Schmidt, chairman of BakerHostetler.

“The addition of these exceptional lawyers to our Business Practice Group demonstrates the substantial investment the firm continues to make in our New York Office,” said George Stamboulidis, managing partner of BakerHostetler’s New York office. “We’ve added more than 100 lawyers to our ranks in New York in the past 15 years.”

“BakerHostetler advises on hundreds of middle-market deals each year for our private equity and strategic clients. Our teams are currently very busy as the middle market has significantly picked up in the second half of 2025. We are thrilled to add Andy, Steve, Josh and Henry’s practices to our existing M&A and Private Equity teams as we continue to expand our team of partners that delivers top-of-market client services and handles our clients’ most complex transactions,” said John Allotta, chair of BakerHostetler’s Business Practice Group.

“Andy, Steve, Josh and Henry are widely respected and talented dealmakers, and this group of partners will be a terrific addition to our practice. We are committed to providing quality and nuanced advice to our clients as they navigate a rapidly shifting business environment. The group’s impressive history of successfully managing complex transactions enhances our position as one of the premier middle-market M&A firms in the U.S.,” added Steven Goldberg, co-leader of BakerHostetler’s Mergers and Acquisitions team.

Arsiotis is an accomplished corporate attorney who focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private investment funds and corporate finance matters for private equity funds, family offices, venture capital entities and their portfolio companies. Clients across the manufacturing, technology and software, financial services and health care industries seek his counsel in a broad spectrum of commercial transactions, such as joint ventures, partnerships, private equity deals, business combinations, leveraged buyouts, mezzanine debt financings, startup formations, financing activities and corporate restructurings. He is also adept at guiding clients through equity and debt investments and corporate governance issues.

Arsiotis earned a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and a B.A. from Stony Brook University.

For more than two decades, Rockoff has been advising both borrowers and lenders across a broad spectrum of domestic and cross-border debt financing transactions, with a strong focus on representing private equity firms, financial sponsors, corporate borrowers, family offices, banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions. Steve is well-versed in handling matters involving leveraged buyouts and acquisition financings; senior secured lending, including first and second lien credit facilities and asset-based lending; mezzanine debt; working capital facilities; and term loans.

Rockoff earned a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and a B.A. from Stony Brook University.

Saidlower has a broad corporate practice, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing and general corporate matters for clients in the technology, manufacturing, distribution, construction, health and wellness, and financial and professional services industries. He represents buyers and sellers in private mergers and acquisitions transactions, including auction sales; assists businesses (including startups and growth-stage companies) with capital raises and strategic investments; negotiates credit facilities, including term loans, revolving lines of credit and mezzanine debt financings; and selects and negotiates representation and warranty insurance policies.

Saidlower earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a B.A. from Queens College.

A former assistant general counsel at a private equity firm, Zangara represents sponsors of and investors in private equity and other alternative asset investment funds, as well as family offices, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, equity finance, fund formation and general corporate counseling. He has worked on transactions across a variety of industries, including health and active living, retail, consumer products and services, manufacturing, and technology, and has aided investment management clients in connection with fund formation activities and secondary transfers. In addition to his private equity work, Zangara has extensive experience guiding operating companies and various founder and other owner groups as they navigate the process of buying and selling their businesses.

Zangara earned a J.D. from Boston University School of Law and an A.B. from Brown University.

BakerHostetler’s Business Practice Group handles thousands of corporate transactions each year. The full-service team, consisting of more than 280 attorneys in offices across the U.S., has extensive experience closing all varieties of transactions – including mergers and acquisitions and private equity, real estate, debt finance, capital markets and securities, health care and regulatory, restructuring and bankruptcy, emerging companies and venture capital, commercial transactions, and other matters central to a company’s success. A national group with a global reach, BakerHostetler’s Business Practice Group is consistently named a go-to firm by both Chambers USA and Legal 500. For more information, visit bakerlaw.com/services/business/. Connect with us on LinkedIn at @BakerHostetler, @PaulSchmidt, @JohnAllotta, @StevenGoldberg, @GeorgeStamboulidis, @AndrewArsiotis, @StevenRockoff, @JoshuaSaidlower or @HenryZangara or on the social platform X at @BakerHostetler.

About BakerHostetler
BakerHostetler helps clients around the world address their most complex and critical business and regulatory issues. Our highly ranked attorneys deliver sophisticated counsel and outstanding client service. We have six core practice groups – Business, Digital Assets and Data Management, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment, Litigation, and Tax – and more than 1,000 lawyers coast to coast. For more information, visit bakerlaw.com.

Henry Zangara

Joshua Saidlower

Steve Rockoff

Andrew Arsiotis

PHOENIX (AP) — The last person known to have seen Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay alive has been accused of burglary in an unrelated incident, raising questions about whether he will be sent back to federal prison in Begay's disappearance.

Preston Tolth is the only person ever charged and convicted in connection with the 2021 disappearance of Begay, a weaver and grandmother of nine from a remote community on the Navajo Nation who has never been found. He acknowledged stealing her truck, beating her and leaving her on the side of the road.

Her case has become emblematic of the heartache felt across Indian Country when loved ones go missing or are killed. Begay's photo appears at marches. Her name is regularly invoked at rallies calling attention to the crisis.

Phoenix police arrested Tolth, 27, on Tuesday after getting a call about a home break-in. Officers found him about a block away, wearing clothing that matched the description of the suspect and carrying a pocket knife, according to court records.

Tolth was released from federal prison in June, five years to the day Begay vanished and two years earlier than his sentence was scheduled to end. The Bureau of Prisons cited a federal statue that counts time served after the commission of a crime but before sentencing, including on unrelated charges, in releasing him early.

Tolth was sent to a transitional housing facility in Phoenix. Under the terms of his plea agreement in federal court, he was not to commit any additional crimes while on supervised release. He also was barred from possessing dangerous weapons.

He faces a single charge of burglary in Maricopa County. Court records did not have an attorney listed for him, and his public defender in the federal case did not respond to an emailed request for comment Thursday.

Esther Winne, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, said the office is aware of his arrest.

“There is a process for handling violations,” Winne said in an email Tuesday, declining further comment.

Gerald Foxworth, an employee at Phoenix Oasis where Tolth was staying, said Tolth returned to the facility drunk on July 4 in violation of program rules. Tolth left on his own after refusing to be transported to a medical center, Foxworth said, and the facility informed Tolth's probation officer.

The U.S. Marshals Service had an active warrant out for Tolth’s arrest when he was picked up by Phoenix police.

The Associated Press left phone and email messages with Tolth's probation officer Thursday requesting comment.

Begay's family said they were unaware Tolth left transitional housing. His arrest is the latest frustration in a case they say has offered little in the way of justice or closure. The eldest of Begay's three children, Gerald Begay, said he is relieved no one was harmed in the break-in.

“(Federal officials) made the decision to release this person. Now he’s out here hurting people,” Begay said. “This could have ended far worse.”

This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.

FILE - Weavings created by Ella Mae Begay, who went missing from her home, are displayed in her son's home in Denver, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File)

FILE - Gerald Begay, whose mother Ella Mae Begay went missing from her home, poses for a portrait in his home in Denver, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, File)

FILE - Seraphine Warren, center left, is embraced by state Sen. Shannon Pinto outside the state capitol building on Feb. 4, 2022, in Santa Fe, N.M. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)