Salas O’Brien, a leading employee-owned engineering and technical services firm, and Blackstone (NYSE: BX) have announced a partnership where funds managed by Blackstone have made a strategic minority growth investment to help accelerate the Company’s continued expansion within the fast-growing architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) market. Salas O’Brien will continue to be majority owned by its team members. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Latham & Watkins LLP represented Salas O'Brien in the transaction with a corporate team led by New York partners Stelios Saffos, Peter Sluka, and Marc Jaffe, and Boston partner John Miller and Boston counsel Gloria Ring, with associates Naomi Smith, Andrew Rondeau, and Jihoo Kim. Advice was also provided on tax matters by New York partner Jocelyn Noll, with associate Tessa Young; on benefits and compensation matters by Boston partner Josh Friedman; on finance matters by New York partners Kendra Kocovsky and Seniz Yakut; and on antitrust matters by Bay Area partner Joshua Holian and Washington, D.C. counsel Patrick English.~~