Holland & Knight Welcomes Lauren Smyers as Director of Business Development for HK Deal Flow℠
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (March 31, 2026) – Holland & Knight has added Lauren Smyers as director of business development for the Firm's HK Deal Flow℠ program.
Based in West Palm Beach, Florida, Ms. Smyers has more than a decade of private equity experience focused on sourcing investment opportunities, advancing strategic growth and building trusted relationships.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Smyers led business development at Validor Capital and Weatherford Capital, where she was responsible for originating investment opportunities and cultivating high-impact relationships across the private equity ecosystem. She began her career in investor relations at The Carlyle Group and Siguler Guff & Company, contributing to capital formation and investor strategy.
"Lauren's proven track record of sourcing proprietary and other high-value investment opportunities and developing relationships with intermediaries and other strategic partners will further strengthen our HK Deal Flow℠ program," said David Barkus, leader of Holland & Knight's Corporate, M&A and Securities Section. "Her relationships have consistently generated meaningful proprietary deal flow, which will be highly valuable to our clients. We are thrilled to welcome Lauren to our Firm."
Ms. Smyers will lead deal origination, matching and sharing for HK Deal Flow℠ – a deal-sourcing and matchmaking platform that identifies opportunities from Firm attorneys as well as an extensive network of deal intermediaries and other contacts, strategically matching these leads with Holland & Knight's private equity, strategic acquiror, family office and other clients.
Since its inception, the HK Deal Flow℠ program has successfully sourced more than 1,500 deals and facilitated over 2,000 introductions for program participants. The HK Deal Flow℠ team works actively with more than 350 deal intermediaries to amplify their reach to buyers and investors.
Ms. Smyers is the founder of The Fairway Society, a golf society dedicated to bringing together dealmaking professionals who value deep relationships and share a passion for golf. She also has been recognized by the Association for Corporate Growth and The M&A Advisor as one of the top business development professionals in the middle market.
"Holland & Knight's HK Deal Flow℠ program is truly one of a kind. The chance to utilize my extensive network of contacts to expand the deals shared with our clients is incredibly compelling to me," Ms. Smyers said.
Recently recognized as the Private Equity Law Firm of the Year by the Global M&A Network and M&A Law Firm of the Year by M&A Advisor, Holland & Knight regularly ranks among the leading M&A and private equity law firms in reputable, benchmarking league tables published by Bloomberg, LSEG, Mergermarket, PitchBook and The Deal.