United States > Tax > Financial products > Law firm and leading lawyer rankings

Gary Silverstein and head of tax Linda Swartz now lead the financial products practice at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, following the departure of David Miller to Proskauer Rose LLP. The New York-based team focuses on securitization, debt issuances, mortgage finance and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Silverstein advised Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation on a $975m securitization of a pool of 30 fixed-rate loans, while Mark Howe is acting for multiple financial institutions in the ongoing issuance of structured products. Special counsel Jason Schwartz served as an adviser to Oak Hill Advisors in connection with repo financings and the securitization of portfolios of non-performing residential mortgage loans.

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The nine-partner, New York-based team at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP includes key players James Peaslee and Yaron Reich. Peaslee served as underwriters’ counsel to Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley during several issuances of mortgage-backed securities over the course of a year, worth $118.6bn. Erika Nijenhuis advised Credit Suisse Group on the offering of $2bn of senior notes due 2023. Corey Goodman became a partner in January 2016.

At Clifford Chance in New York, David Moldenhauer (noted for his ‘depth of knowledge’), Richard Catalano (‘extremely good at problem solving’), Philip Wagman (‘tireless and unflappable during difficult assignments’) and Michael Seaton are the key partners for financial products. Moldenhauer and Wagman advised the major shareholders of AB InBev on its acquisition of SABMiller, including on critical tax matters and deal financing, while Catalano provided assistance to Madison International regarding its Real Estate Liquidity Fund IV, targeting $1.35bn. Seaton supported Enstar Group and an investment manager of UBS in the formation of an alternative asset reinsurance company in Bermuda called Aligned Re. Donald Carden stepped down as partner and is now of counsel.

The New York-based tax practice at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is headed by Avishai Shachar and Neil Barr. Shachar advised Baker Hughes on its merger with General Electric’s oil and gas business. Rachel Kleinberg assisted the lead deal managers of GE with several exchange offers of common stock as well as the purchase of outstanding notes from some of their capital funding subsidiaries overseas, while Po Sit and Lucy Farr advised Morgan Stanley & Co on multiple SEC-registered global notes offerings totaling more than $16.5bn in 12 months.

Shearman & Sterling LLP’s financial products lawyers concern themselves with transactions, strategic tax planning, asset management and tax controversy. Co-leader Michael Shulman, who functions as the sole domestic outside counsel for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), as well as Robert Rudnick and Kristen Garry form the core team in Washington DC. Garry and Rudnick are representing the estate of Andrew J McKelvey, the founder of Monster.com, in a $41m deficiency dispute on gains from forward contracts with respect to Monster.com shares. Also noted are counsel Nathan Tasso, who supports Shulman in ISDA matters, and associate Jeffrey Tate, who represented Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan and Santander as global coordinators and BBVA, Citibank and UBS as joint bookrunners in Argentina’s historic $16.5bn bond offering.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP’s sizable financial products group consists of 11 partners (all based in New York) and handles both advisory and contentious matters. The global leader of the regulatory practice, David Rievman, advised Yahoo! on the $4.83bn acquisition of its operating business by Verizon and also supported DuPont in its combination with Dow Chemical in an all-stock merger of equals with an announced value of $130bn. Brian Krause is advising Atlas Resource Partners in a proposed pre-packaged Chapter 11 reorganisation plan to restructure its secured and unsecured funded debt.

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP’s New York-based financial products practice is led by Ronald Creamer, who recently advised AB InBev regarding its agreement with SABMiller to acquire all of SABMiller’s outstanding share capital, worth $71bn. Jeffrey Hochberg assisted SoftBank Group Corporation with its monetization of $8.9bn of its shares in Alibaba Group Holding through the issuance of exchangeable trust securities. Together with David Hariton, Hochberg regularly acts for the Federal Tax Committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in discussions with the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concerning new regulations; most recently, the rules regarding the tax treatment of equity derivatives.

Robert Culbertson and of counsel Kurt Baca in Washington DC are the key lawyers in Covington & Burling LLP’s financial products practice. Baca regularly advises major sports leagues and clubs on the structuring of financing arrangements as well as on tax accounting on debt and financial instruments. Other regular work includes bond structuring, restructuring of hedging programs and representing clients before the IRS. BNP Paribas, ING and Commerzbank are among the firm’s client base.

Clients of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP include MSD Capital, London Stock Exchange Group, AstraZeneca and UBS Securities. Robert Scarborough in New York and Claude Stansbury in Washington DC lead the practice and handle matters concerning structured finance, equity and debt securities, internal tax investigations and the syndication of private investments, and they also serve as counsel to underwriters. Scarborough advised WireCo WorldGroup on its $1bn-plus debt and equity recapitalization, including the refinancing $825m of existing debt and a $260m majority equity investment by Onex Capital. Another one of his highlights was acting for Morgan Stanley, UBS Securities, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and RBC Capital Markets as underwriters during the issuance of preferred stock worth $145m by Chimera Investment Corporation, in which he was supported by counsel Dennis Caracristi. Stansbury supported ConvaTec in raising $1.8bn through an IPO and listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Mayer Brown’s practice is based across New York, Chicago and Charlotte and consists of 16 partners, who advise clients such as HSBC, Barclays and Macquarie Group on the development of new products and trading strategies. The ‘exceptional’ George Craven (an ‘expert on excise tax and permanent establishment rules’) advised Global Benefits Group on a possible private equity sale or IPO of stock of its parent company, while Mark Leeds (a ‘market-leading US tax adviser on equity-related matters’) assisted a leading investment bank with the systematization of withholding rules applicable to dividend equivalents paid on US stocks. Steven Garden, who represented the underwriters in a $1.6bn issuance of three classes of notes secured by mobile phone finance plans, was promoted to partner in January 2016.

The financial products team at McDermott Will & Emery LLP - based across New York and Chicago - has ‘considerable experience in the derivatives arena as well as a goal-oriented approach to tax planning’. The firm advises investment banks, businesses and high-net-worth individuals on financial transactions and product structuring, with a special focus on state and local tax (SALT), energy tax (such as advising Morgan Stanley on the acquisition, financing and development of solar photovoltaic systems), and tax related to finance and capital markets transactions. John Lutz, David Taub and Alan Schwartz assisted Deutsche Bank with an extensive internal project to restructure certain parts of its US operations to comply with the intermediate holding company regulations. Lutz also handles SALT matters for Barclays on a regular basis. Andrea Kramer has ‘unparalleled subject matter expertise and yet is refreshingly practical’ and William Pomierski has an ‘impressive ability to navigate the complex, interrelated fields of derivatives and benefit plans’.

Morrison & Foerster LLP’s financial products practice mainly acts for leading banks in relation to tax structuring, stock offerings, development of new products and tax investigations. Tax co-chair Thomas Humphreys in New York and Remmelt Reigersman in San Francisco advised Bank of America on a series of exchange agreements as well as over 100 debt issuances over the course of a year. They also supported Bank of Montreal in the development of new platforms for the issuance of structured products, and advised RBC Capital Markets on the US tax aspects of its issuances of a variety of structured notes, including equity-linked, commodity-linked and ETF-linked products. Associate David Goett is developing a specialism in the area and works with several banks on the tax aspects of a variety of capital markets transactions. In March 2017, Michelle Jewett moved to Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.

At Sidley Austin LLP, financial products lawyer Robert Kreitman leads a team of four partners and 11 associates in New York. He recently advised JPMorgan Chase on its first securities offering entirely backed by its owned mortgages since the financial crisis, as well as Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool on its $100m Bosphorus catastrophe bond. David Miller and Nicholas Brown acted for Simon Property Group in a $1.35bn underwritten public offering of 5-year and 10-year notes and also in a $1.10bn underwritten public offering of 10-year and 15-year notes.

Jeffrey Koppele and Timothy Santoli are the key lawyers in Dentons’ New York-based financial products practice and handle risk-sharing, risk-transferring, security-lending and financing transactions. They both advised Xerium Technologies in a senior secured note offering worth $480m. Koppele acted for Bank of Tokyo MUFG in a 20-bank, $240m financing for Johnson Controls, and handled an accelerated stock repurchase transaction for James Hardie International Finance.

Linklaters LLP’s financial products practice, spanning New York and Washington DC, includes Gordon Warnke, Jasper Howard, David Brockway and Andrew Morris. Morris advised Wells Fargo Bank on its role as administrative agent under a $700m first-lien reserve-based lending facility to Atlas Resources Partners, while Warnke handled the sale of all shares from client Visa Europe to Visa, with a total matter value of €18.37bn. Warnke also supported Deutsche Börse in its €21bn all-share merger of equals with London Stock Exchange Group. Other clients include Saeta Yield and Société Générale.

Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP’s three-partner New York-based financial products team focuses on corporate and individual taxation, including in relation to bankruptcy and insolvency as well as private equity transactions. Head of practice Jeffrey Uffner represented J.P. Morgan Asset Management in structuring a complex Section 892-compliant tax-driven investment vehicle to permit a foreign investor and a domestic investor to each acquire interest in a private REIT and other corporate entities. Mayer Greenberg assisted PBF Holding Company with its $500m offering of secured senior notes, while Micah Bloomfield is acting for an ad hoc group of first lien bank lenders - holding a majority interest in Caesars Entertainment Corporation’s and Caesars Entertainment Operating Company’s $5.4bn of first lien term loans - in connection with Caesars’ $20bn Chapter 11s. Michelle Jewett joined from Morrison & Foerster LLP in March 2017.