Stergios “Terry” Theologides has seen the ups and downs of representing large, public companies in Orange County.
The senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Santa Ana-based real estate data and research provider CoreLogic Inc. helped guide the company through its high-profile split from title insurance company First American Corp. last year.
The deal marked the largest debut of a public company here. CoreLogic, which provides data to banks, corporations and governments, has a market value of about $1.8 billion.
The company bills itself as having the largest real estate, mortgage application, fraud and loan performance databases in the country.
Theologides was recognized at the Orange County Business Journal’s 2nd annual General Counsel Awards last month at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
CoreLogic’s split from First American took more than two years to complete, due largely to its complexity and a decision by the company to ride out the worst of the mortgage and housing crash before proceeding with the deal.
Theologides’ heavy lifting wasn’t finished after the split. He helped complete several relatively low-key, post spinoff deals for CoreLogic that would’ve been blockbusters for many other area businesses.
He worked on a $265 million sale of CoreLogic’s employer services and litigation support businesses to Palo Alto’s Symphony Technology Group late last year. He also helped with this year’s $140 million buy of Australia’s RP Data Limited, a property information company.
The creation of a stand-alone CoreLogic came about three years after the dissolution of Irvine-based subprime lender New Century Financial Corp., where Theologides previously worked.
Theologides had served at New Century as general counsel since the late 1990s, taking the job after the company went public in 1997 with a $42 million initial public offering.
New Century, whose 2007 bankruptcy was considered early fallout from the mortgage meltdown, had been a customer of CoreLogic’s during the last housing boom.
“I was already a longtime customer of the company’s data and analytics (division), and default-related products and services,” Theologides said.
Mentor
He earned a reputation as a gifted developer of talent at New Century and during a prior stint with New York-based Morgan Stanley. Nine of his one-time subordinates have gone on to become general counsels of other companies.
Theologides joined First American’s information solutions group—the precursor to the stand-alone CoreLogic—in late 2009.
In addition to the detailed legal work needed to separate dozens of company business lines under either the umbrella of CoreLogic or First American, Theologides also had to work to get regulatory approval for the split from the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and other regulators.
Dealing with state and federal government agencies is old hat to Theologides, whose experience includes a stint serving on the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council, among several other industry positions.
A 2007 profile in the Los Angeles Daily Journal notes that during his New Century days he was “a familiar presence both in Sacramento and on Capitol Hill, often advocating for borrower-friendly reforms and facilitating communication between the (subprime) industry and consumer groups.”
Industry peers told the Daily Journal that Theologides stood out, often proposing reform-minded measures that other subprime lenders were reluctant to embrace.
Minnesota Roots
Theologides grew up in a small Greek-American community in Minneapolis, went east to study at Princeton University in New Jersey and then Columbia Law School in New York. He moved to Los Angeles to work for O’Melveny & Myers LLP’s corporate and securities divisions.
A student of Mandarin Chinese since high school, he helped O’Melveny’s Hong Kong office on several deals, including one of the first IPOs of a mainland Chinese company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Theologides is married to his law school sweetheart, Debora Rodriguez, a former federal prosecutor who has served on the executive board of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County.
