Alston & Bird LLP

Robert Ardern

Public and private clients, across a wide variety of sectors, welcome Rob's diversity of experience and ability to analyze their businesses from a practical perspective as they explore new avenues for capital raising, execute on complex cross-border transactions, and govern their organizations. He focuses his practice on international and domestic corporate finance transactions. He advises both public and private companies and financial sponsors across multiple sectors on a broad range of complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, joint ventures, carve-outs, restructurings, corporate governance, and other general corporate advisory matters.

James Ashe-Taylor

Clients contemplating mergers, acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures trust James to help them navigate EU and UK regulations and identify where antitrust boundaries lie. James focuses his practice on competition law at the European Union level and in the UK. He has broad experience encompassing competition litigation, merger control, state aid, and the antitrust aspects of joint ventures and distribution and agency agreements. In addition to his antitrust experience, James has extensive knowledge of EU payments legislation, is a frequent speaker at fintech conferences, and mentors startup companies in the fintech sector. Before joining Alston & Bird, James was a resident in Brussels for several years, served as partner-in-charge of the antitrust practices for both international and U.S. law firms, and spent two years at JP Morgan Inc.

Gupinder Assi

Gupinder helps clients navigate the complex world of global payments and fintech. His experience as head of legal for Asia at a major global payments company is an asset to clients in this rapidly evolving sector. He focuses his practice on advising companies on legal and commercial issues relating to fintech and the payments industry and negotiating commercial agreements with merchants, financial institutions, payment service providers, card schemes, and fintech companies. Before joining the firm, Gupinder was based in Singapore and served as head of legal for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region for one of the world’s largest global payments companies, dealing with issues across APAC, including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Australia, and South Korea. His in-house counsel experience includes advising on merchant agreements, agreements with payment service providers including ISOs, MSPs, and payment facilitators, agreements with financial institutions for both issuing and acquiring services, and agreements with card schemes/associations and providers of alternative payment methods. Gupinder also advises payment industry participants on new market entry and new product rollouts, joint ventures, share and asset acquisitions and disposals, and shareholder agreements, as well as various commercial arrangements.

Adam Biegel

Antitrust counseling and litigation, including government and internal investigations, mergers and joint ventures, pricing and distribution practices, trade associations, compliance counseling and training, multidistrict litigation, and pre-merger reviews under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Act.

Steve Blevit

A pioneer in the single-family-rental structured finance asset class, Steve provides counsel to a wide variety of clients, assisting them with structuring, negotiating, and documenting debt and equity transactions. A leading lawyer in the single-family residential housing industry, Steve has handled more than $100 billion of transactions involving single-family homes, including term and warehouse financings, single and multiborrower securitizations, joint ventures, investment funds, and mergers and acquisitions. Steve’s clients include Wall Street banks, special opportunities hedge funds, private market lenders, private equity funds, debt funds, and public and privately held companies. Steve is known for his ability to handle a wide variety of novel transactions involving the financing of single-family homes. He developed the financing and securitization documentation that is widely used at all levels of single-family rental finance today. Steve also structured and handled the novel Zillow 2021-1 and 2021-2 securitizations.

Teresa Bonder

High-stakes litigation, complex business issues and a focus on results define Teresa's experience across multiple practice areas and various industries. Her thoughtful but aggressive approach to antitrust and financial services litigation served clients well in helping them achieve their goals.

Jennifer Bonneville

An experienced litigator and trial attorney who clients rely on for insight and advice both inside and outside the courtroom. With over 20 years of experience, Jennifer excels in leading high-profile cases and simplifying complex issues for clients and juries. Jennifer works with energy companies, manufacturers of specialty consumer and automotive products, industrial and commodity chemicals, pesticides, and medical devices to defend a diverse array of product and premise-based suits in cases involving wrongful death, property damage, personal injury, and medical monitoring claims. Combining her background in business and experience as a six-sigma agent with litigation skills and experience in federal and state courts across the country, Jennifer handles all aspects of litigation from advising clients pre-litigation to developing and executing trial strategy. Jennifer has a wealth of experience in all facets of litigation including preparing and defending corporate witnesses, negotiating favorable settlements, developing experts, focusing discovery and trying cases. In her role as national counsel, Jennifer works closely with clients to develop long term strategies and ensure litigation tactics align with their business goals. She also regularly advises clients on Medicare compliance and reporting issues.

Sophia Bouygues

Clients rely on Sophia’s extensive knowledge on complex arbitration matters to resolve their legal issues effectively and efficiently. Sophia focuses her practice on commercial and investment arbitration. She has represented clients under the London Court of International Arbitration, International Chamber of Commerce, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and United Nations Commission on International Trade Law rules.

Meaghan Boyd

For 20 years, companies have relied on Meaghan to develop their complex environmental and toxic tort litigation defense strategy, and to guide them through the hoops of compliance with federal statutes such as RCRA, CERCLA, and the Clean Water Act, and their state counterparts. Meaghan Boyd is co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources Group. She defends companies in complex environmental and toxic tort litigation in federal and state courts. She also routinely counsels clients on compliance and enforcement matters involving many federal environmental statutes, including CERCLA, the Clean Water Act, and RCRA, and their state counterparts, as well as hazardous materials transportation regulations.

Nick Brocklesby

Nick has extensive experience in commercial and financial services litigation, often encompassing an international element and includes cases in both the English Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. A go-to litigator, his clients depend on him to provide pragmatic strategies to their most complex, high-stakes disputes. Nick advises major corporate entities, investment banks, hedge funds managers, private equity houses, and other financial institutions on commercial litigation and banking and financial services disputes.

Kristine Brown

Kristy takes a strategic, results-driven approach to complex commercial litigation, with a strong track record of defeating class certification, shaping effective litigation strategies, and delivering exceptional outcomes. She is a nationally recognized litigator known for providing clear, creative counsel in high-stakes matters at both the trial and appellate levels. Kristy has deep experience in class actions and government investigations involving privacy and cybersecurity. She has defended class actions and multidistrict litigation arising from some of the largest data breaches in history. A seasoned privacy litigator, she regularly represents and advises clients across industries in high-profile, high-exposure matters under a broad range of state and federal privacy laws. She is also an accomplished first-chair trial lawyer, often called upon to handle trials and arbitrations of complex business-to-business disputes involving hundreds of millions of dollars in exposure.

Tara Castillo

Tara represents clients in warehouse finance, structured finance, specialty finance, securitizations, and other asset-backed transactions. Tara represents borrowers, issuers, lenders, placement agents, underwriters, and other industry participants across a broad spectrum of asset classes, including auto loans and leases, consumer loans, credit card receivables, elective medical health receivables, equipment loans, home improvement loans, lease-to-own receivables, merchant cash advance loans, solar loans, and timeshare receivables. Tara has extensive experience representing fintech platforms with bank partnerships and forward flow arrangements. She also advises on the receivables financing aspects of large industry mergers and acquisitions.

Greg Christianson

Greg has a proven track record representing clients in environmental litigation, with a particular focus on Superfund cost recovery, natural resource damage claims, toxic tort actions, and federal and state enforcement actions. Greg also achieves results for his clients using alternative dispute resolution methods, pursuing cost-effective, cooperative solutions with regulators, property owners, and potentially responsible parties to avoid litigation. Greg represents private and public entities at sites throughout the country, including various federal and state Superfund sites. Greg advises both individual clients and joint-defense groups at a wide range of facilities, including sediment sites, mixed-use landfills, former mines, and other industrial operations. He has also pursued CERCLA, RCRA, and common-law claims through litigation and mediations, obtaining substantial funds for clients’ environmental cleanup work. In many cases, Greg has negotiated creative settlements, including multiparty federal and state consent decrees, and has defended settlements against third-party challenges at trial and appellate courts. Greg has significant experience working with experts in the technical aspects of litigation, including contaminant fate and transport, identification of potentially responsible parties, and the range of factors affecting multiparty cost allocation. Greg’s work also includes defending clients in multiparty toxic tort actions for personal injury, medical monitoring, and property damage claims based on alleged groundwater contamination, surface-water releases, and air emissions.

Alex Clamon

Alex guides clients through all phases of complex corporate debt financings, leveraging his experience in various lending structures, as well as international insolvency matters. Alex is a partner with the Corporate Debt Finance Team. He represents corporate borrowers, sponsors, banks, and private credit institutions in complex lending transactions, including leveraged buyouts and acquisition financing, investment grade corporate debt, and distressed debt/workout transactions. His experience includes secured and unsecured lending structures across a wide variety of industries.

Cynthia Cole

Cynthia Cole is a former CEO and general counsel who helps clients confidently navigate AI, data, and technology with practical, globally informed strategies. Cynthia brings unparalleled insight to technology, data, and AI matters drawn from her background as a former CEO and general counsel and her decades of experience guiding companies through complex commercial, digital, and cross‑border initiatives. She advises clients across the technology, life sciences, industrial, energy, media, and consumer sectors on structuring and negotiating strategic technology transactions, intellectual property arrangements, data‑driven collaborations, and cloud and platform deals that support innovation while addressing operational and regulatory risk. Cynthia counsels executive teams and boards on global privacy and cybersecurity obligations, including compliance with the GDPR, CCPA, and emerging national and international AI and data governance frameworks. She also helps clients prepare for and respond to cybersecurity incidents, coordinating forensic investigations, and multijurisdictional notification and regulatory engagement. Her experience leading technology organizations and technology transformations positions her to help clients operationalize data protection, build cross‑functional AI governance structures, and create practical contracting frameworks for novel technologies and data uses. She also supports M&A and private equity transactions by identifying and mitigating intellectual property, privacy, AI, and data‑related risks in acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic alliances.

Shanell Cramer

Shanell guides investment banks and other financial institutions through a variety of commercial and residential mortgage loan, single-family rental, and other asset-backed transactions. She represents investment banks, private credit funds, and other financial institutions in a variety of mortgage banking and financing transactions. She focuses on the purchase and sale of residential, commercial, and multifamily mortgage loans and single-family rental properties, as well as structuring and negotiating warehouse lines, various government insured and guaranteed loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity, real-estate-owned properties, and residential securities. Shanell has particular expertise in assisting clients in launching and acquiring warehouse lending platforms and counsels clients on a variety of syndicated financing transactions. She also has significant experience with bankruptcy safe harbors.

Aimee Cummo

The most active issuers, originators, investors, and financial institutions seek Aimee’s counsel and guidance on capital markets and the regulatory environment. She helps large financial institutions and nonbank lenders in all asset classes navigate the structured finance market. She advises commercial and investment banks, hedge funds, REITs, and other capital market participants on all aspects of the finance, acquisition, management, and disposition of financial assets. She has extensive experience with repurchase and warehouse facilities, syndicated lines of credit and other secured lending programs, securitizations and other structured finance arrangements, acquisition finance transactions, and structured asset sales. Aimee’s practice involves such diverse assets as performing and distressed residential, investor, and commercial mortgage loans, mezzanine loans, single-family rental properties, servicing rights, consumer and small-business loans, and equipment and auto leases. In addition, she has experience with workouts and restructuring distressed facilities.

Lindsey Deere

Lindsey understands the value of business relationships. She brings this perspective to her work advising major financial institutions in their role as trustee. She advises major financial institutions on a wide variety of capital markets transactions, with a focus on structured finance and other debt offerings. Lindsey represents major financial institutions in their trust and agency services in public and private securities offerings and has a varied transactional practice with a primary focus on securities backed by residential mortgage and personal loans and sponsor or majority-owned affiliate retained interests. Before joining Alston & Bird, Lindsey served as in-house counsel for a mortgage servicing company. Lindsey served as an assistant special counsel to the North Carolina attorney general, advising on and implementing policy, legislative, and law enforcement objectives of the attorney general.

Maki DePalo

With over 25 years of experience in technology, marketing, and legal practices, Maki is a trusted advisor for global companies across industries, effectively navigating complex matters in the areas of privacy, cybersecurity, emerging technologies, and AI and information governance. Maki’s background enables her to focus on clients’ business objectives and practical advice with actionable plans. Maki is a client advocate and problem solver who counsels clients on privacy and cybersecurity compliance, AI and data strategies and governance, and complex outsourcing and technology transaction matters. She advises companies on designing and operationalizing data protection programs for compliance with state-level comprehensive privacy laws, utilizing a keen understanding of the intersections of laws and regulations impacting consumer privacy, children’s privacy, health privacy, financial privacy, and employee privacy. As the AI legal landscape continues to develop, Maki collaborates with clients’ cross-functional teams to develop and implement enterprise-level governance models customized to meet their compliance needs, as well as the goals of their business. Maki also advises on general corporate matters, enabling clients of various sizes and industries to successfully navigate business challenges as they arise.

Jeffrey Dintzer

A leading attorney both in California and nationwide, Jeffrey Dintzer represents energy, manufacturing, and defense industry clients in complex environmental, toxic tort, land use, and class action litigation. Over the course of his 37-year career, Jeffrey has played a prominent role in precedent-setting cases affecting the way industries do business in California. His deep expertise in hydrogeology, toxicology, epidemiology, and other life sciences helps his clients navigate ecological personal injury and property damage claims, particularly those involving emerging chemicals such as PFAS and perchlorate. As one of the deans of the environmental bar in California, Jeffrey represents California’s major oil and gas interests on upstream matters, helping them navigate the growing complexity of the state regulatory landscape and the challenges of increasingly litigious nongovernmental organizations.

Thomas Dunn

Admitted in England, Wales, Ireland, and Brussels, Tom excels in cross-border structured and warehouse financing. He supports U.S. investment into Europe and the UK and works with European and UK-based entities on U.S. investments. Tom focuses on domestic and international structured, warehouse, and real estate finance transactions. He represents investment banks, commercial banks, issuers, debt and equity funds, noteholder groups, and other market participants on a variety of structured transactions (including CMBS, RMBS, CLO, and ABS), loan transactions (including private credit, loan syndications, and senior/mezzanine financings), and warehouse arrangements. Tom has particular expertise tailoring U.S. transactions to facilitate EU and UK investment (and vice versa), including risk retention and regulatory compliance. Tom has additional experience acting for both sellers and purchasers of whole loans, subordinate debt, and mezzanine loans, as well as acting for third-party loan servicers in their appointments. He has also acted on Shariah-compliant financings, including murabaha and ijara structures. Tom combines his experience with “real world” experience gained as part of the investment team of the European Real Estate Debt Fund at a leading institutional asset manager, where he focused on private credit whole and mezzanine loan originations across the UK, Western Europe, and the Nordics.

Michael Elkin

Michael is a precedent‑setting trial and appellate lawyer who defends technology and media companies in industry‑defining copyright and digital media disputes, helping clients manage existential risk, reshape liability standards, and protect innovative distribution models. Michael’s practice includes trial and appellate litigation involving copyright, trademark, patent licensing, and trade secret claims, particularly matters addressing secondary liability, user‑generated content, and generative artificial intelligence applications. Michael has extensive experience litigating claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including disputes involving safe‑harbor protections, and large‑scale allegations tied to subscriber or platform activity. He has tried bet-the-industry digital media trials and argued appeals that have helped shape the boundaries of copyright law in the digital media revolution. He regularly represents internet service providers, online platforms, and content distributors facing claims with significant financial exposure. A three-time Am Law Litigation Daily “Litigator of the Week” winner, Michael represents technology, media, publishers, and entertainment companies in complex intellectual property disputes arising from the distribution of digital content and the use of emerging technologies. Recognized by World Trademark Review WTR 1000 (2026) for counsel that is “not only wise, but also clear and precise,” he is described by clients as “truly the best and the brightest.”

James Fisher

Corporate trustee and agency clients rely on James to advise them on a full spectrum of financial products throughout the life cycle of their financial transactions. James is a finance lawyer focusing on debt capital markets, structured finance, securitisation, and derivatives transactions, with a particular focus on advising corporate trust, agency, and issuer clients across a broad spectrum of cross-border and domestic financings. In addition to new deals, James has extensive experience in post-closing matters such as debt restructurings, defaults, remediations, bondholder meetings, and exercises of discretion.

Anna French

Anna represents clients in securitizations, warehouse finance, participations, forward flow arrangements, and other types of structured and secured lending transactions. Her clients include public and private borrowers, originators, issuers, lenders, underwriters, placement agents, and investors. Anna has experience with a broad spectrum of asset classes, including timeshare loans, consumer loans, equipment leases, merchant cash advances, agency and private-label residential mortgage loans and mortgage servicing rights, and servicing advance receivables. She also advises on customer acquisition cost financings and the receivables financing aspects of large industry mergers and acquisitions and bankruptcies. In addition, Anna has experience with cross-border transactions and intercreditor issues.

Jonathan Garforth

Fintech and banking clients rely on Jonathan to be their quarterback attorney. From fintech startups looking for that first down to mature institutions finding themselves third and long on a highly strategic matter, Jonathan draws on his unique experience in consumer finance, payments, and digital assets to get his clients over the line. Jonathan Garforth established his career working with some of the world’s leading financial regulatory practitioners, initially at a top Australian firm before joining the Magic Circle in 2010. Before fintech was coined as a buzzword, Jonathan was following his passion for financial innovation, pivoting away from traditional high street bank regulatory work to focus on fintech clients and their disruptive business models. His fintech clients include digital payments and credit providers, P2P platforms, digital assets businesses, and others whose products harness blockchain technology and AI. He continues to advise banks and investors like private equity and venture capital firms on fintech and consumer finance deals. His clients are international, with clients – particularly those from North America and Australia – turning to Jonathan for strategic advice on new product launches, regulatory change projects, M&A, and corporate finance transactions in the UK and Europe. Jonathan works closely with his market-leading fintech team colleagues to serve his clients’ needs more broadly throughout the U.S. Beyond financial regulation, Jonathan’s become a trusted advisor to his clients who rely on him to navigate broader matters such as employment, IP, data protection, and tax, as well as regulatory breaches.

Jennifer Golinveaux

Jennifer is a trusted and precedent-setting intellectual property trial lawyer guiding technology, media, and consumer brands through high‑stakes copyright, trademark, and innovation‑driven litigation. She guides clients through disputes at the intersection of intellectual property law, technology, and business strategy when legal outcomes have significant operational or reputational impact. Jennifer is a widely recognized litigator who focuses her practice on intellectual property litigation and counseling, representing clients across a variety of industries, including digital media, technology, consumer products, financial services, and food and beverage. Her work centers on disputes involving copyright, trademark, trade dress, design patents, right of publicity, and internet‑based claims, often arising from digital platforms, online publishing, and emerging technologies. Jennifer regularly handles complex matters involving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, secondary liability, and generative AI (GenAI). Her experience includes representing media and technology companies and online platforms in claims related to use of content online, enforcing and defending trademark rights for global brands, and litigating unfair competition and false advertising disputes. She also represents clients in high‑stakes matters involving digital media distribution, online marketplaces, GenAI, and content moderation issues. Through her litigation and advisory work, Jennifer helps clients protect and enforce intellectual property assets while navigating evolving legal standards governing online content and brand use.

Maya Grasse

Clients count on Maya to chart a strategic course through complex environmental land use, regulatory and permitting matters, particularly where they involve air quality and GHG laws. She has experience with the environmental challenges facing oil & gas, mining, manufacturing, and other industrial clients in project development, permitting, environmental compliance, and administrative enforcement. Maya counsels clients on compliance with a range of environmental regulations, particularly regional, state, and federal air quality regimes and land use controls, with a focus on the issues faced by oil and gas, mining, industrial, manufacturing, and recycling clients. Maya advises clients in formal and informal proceedings before state and local agencies in land use and environmental permitting matters, enforcement actions, and agency rulemaking efforts, representing industrial, commercial and energy clients as they work with oversight agencies including local air quality management districts, particularly the South Coast Air Quality Management District, and the California Air Resources Board. Her practice includes securing and negotiating development entitlements for industrial, commercial, residential, and energy projects and preparing and reviewing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documents. She advises clients on compliance with environmental regulations, including CEQA, the California and federal Clean Air Acts and Endangered Species Acts, and California’s Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA), as well as local planning, zoning, and environmental regulations.

Paul Greaves

Dual-qualified in England and Wales and Belgium, Paul Greaves leverages his substantial international experience to deliver ready-to-implement solutions to his clients’ data and technology-related challenges. Paul advises on all aspects of privacy, cyber, and data law across a diverse range of clients - from global technology firms to life sciences startups expanding into Europe. His extensive experience includes advising on EU and UK GDPR compliance projects, cross-border data transfers, and personal data breaches. Paul also regularly advises multinational companies on EU digital strategy laws including the EU AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act, Digital Services Act, and Data Act. Paul also has experience working as an in-house privacy lawyer in a highly regulated sector and studied law in Paris.

Andrew Hatchett

Andrew counsels and defends clients in a wide range of high-stakes antitrust and complex commercial litigation matters. Clients count on Andrew to bring top-flight advocacy and strategy to all phases of trial and appellate litigation. He brings a seasoned perspective to his representation of pharmaceutical and life-sciences companies in cases at the intersection of U.S. patent and antitrust law. Andrew represents clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation with an emphasis on antitrust cases in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors. Andrew has represented clients in cases alleging horizontal and vertical conspiracies, unilateral monopolistic conduct, and a variety of other traditional and novel antitrust theories. Andrew also has an active appellate practice, having represented clients in appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court, the First, Second, Third, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, and various state Supreme courts.

Paul Hespel

Paul has a deep understanding of corporate finance and restructuring engagements, with core competencies in transactional finance and private credit matters. Clients value his hands-on, commercial approach. Paul focuses on transactional finance matters, including leveraged acquisition financings and transactional finance matters in distressed settings, representing corporate borrowers, financial sponsors, portfolio companies, financial institutions, and alternative capital sources. He handles both domestic and cross-border engagements. He has extensive experience in structuring and negotiating secured and investment grade credit facilities; first-lien, second-lien, mezzanine, and multitranche financings; liquidity lines; and high-yield debt offerings. He also counsels clients on forbearance arrangements, out-of-court restructurings; debtor-in-possession and exit financings; and special situations requiring complex restructuring solutions. Paul routinely represents private equity funds and alternative capital sources, including business development companies (BDCs), small business investment companies (SBICs), mezzanine funds, and private debt funds in the structuring and documentation of private credit transactions. During his more than 25 years of practice, he has developed sector experience in education, financial services (including asset management), REITs, health care, life sciences, manufacturing, and TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications).

Will Hooker

Clients rely on Will for his strong advocacy and pragmatic, strategic approach. With his experience handling over 50 arbitration matters across the globe, Will welcomes the challenge to take on the most complex, multilayered disputes. His goal is to always achieve the best results for his clients, working in tandem to provide meticulous counsel with their business objectives in mind. Will focuses his practice on complex commercial and investment arbitrations. He regularly represents clients in arbitration matters under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, LMAA, ICSID, LAMC, and UNCITRAL, as well as in ad hoc arbitrations. Will’s practice is truly global in scale, representing clients on every continent. With his broad range of experience spanning over a decade, clients trust Will to help them navigate high-stakes and high-value disputes. Will’s experience includes handling cases with over $1 billion in matter value. Will has represented companies across a variety of industries, including oil and gas, financial services, telecommunications, mining, and energy. In particular, he has extensive knowledge and expertise in disputes between joint venture partners and in arbitration claims stemming from M&A deals. Additionally, Will has significant experience acting as an advocate before the English and DIFC courts in arbitration-related matters.

Donald Houser

Donald has more than a decade of experience defending clients against privacy and data breach class action lawsuits. He has represented clients—including clients in the consumer, financial services, and health care industries— in high-stakes, high-profile cases in courts across the country. As the prevalence of privacy and cybersecurity class actions continues to grow, Donald is at the forefront, routinely defending clients in some of the biggest and most complex privacy and data breach cases in the country. His experience spans all aspects of privacy and data breach litigation, including developing global defense strategies, defending motions for class certification, and negotiating extremely favorable resolutions. In addition, Donald has significant experience defending clients in high-stakes litigation, both consumer and business-to-business. He represents some of the world’s largest companies including health care organizations, financial service institutions, and consumer products companies.

Deanna Kashdan

Deanna represents lenders, arrangers, borrowers/issuers, sponsors, and underwriters in various corporate debt finance transactions, including syndicated credit facilities, private placements, and public debt offerings. Deanna has acted as counsel to several of the largest U.S. commercial banks and other lending institutions on a broad range of finance transactions. Her practice also includes representing borrowers, issuers, and sponsors in complex public and private debt transactions. Deanna’s effective representation of both lenders and issuers gives her the unique ability to be efficient in negotiating the best outcome for her clients.

David Keating

Clients trust David to provide practical counsel for even the most complex technology and data issues. As the leader of the Technology & Privacy Group and co-leader of the Privacy, Cyber & Data Strategy Team, David has more than 20 years of experience representing clients that stretch from emerging technology companies to Big Data and internationally to the EU. He assists clients with compliance strategies, policy development and implementation, data monetization and data use analyses, new product development, privacy and security issues in transactions, and privacy enforcement matters. Particular areas of focus include emerging technologies, generative AI, California Consumer Privacy Act compliance, European Union data protection, and children’s privacy. David’s technology practice is focused on high-technology companies and strategic technology and outsourcing initiatives at public and private corporations across industries. His technology experience includes strategic sourcing and procurement initiatives, including information technology and business process outsourcing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and complex software, cloud computing, systems integration, and other technology transactions.

Matthew Kent

Fortune 100 companies trust Matthew to prosecute and defend global price-fixing cartels and other complex disputes. The counsel he provides allows his clients to minimize risk while achieving their business objectives. Matthew is former co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Antitrust Team, focusing on bet-the-company antitrust litigation and counseling. Matthew and his team have recovered nearly $1 billion in settlements for clients. Matthew prosecutes and defends global price-fixing cartels for Fortune 100 companies and has extensive experience with the competition issues at the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry. He advises clients on antitrust issues related to joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions, including filings under the HSR Act and international premerger notification regimes. Matthew assists clients with substantive merger reviews by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and foreign competition authorities in a host of industries. He also provides ongoing antitrust counseling to clients that enables clients to minimize antitrust risk while achieving their business objectives.

James Kousoulas

Jim guides his real estate clients through complex commercial loan transactions and litigation management strategies. Jim provides trusted counsel to banks, private equity firms, private lenders, debt funds, life insurance companies, and other corporate clients related to their commercial lending and transactional real estate matters. He has over 25 years of experience helping clients through a variety of complicated commercial loan transactions, including commercial mortgage-backed securities, mezzanine financings, secured and unsecured real estate and asset-based borrowing facilities, letter of credit facilities, secured and unsecured revolving lines of credit, and construction and bridge loans. Jim works with clients throughout the United States, often on multistate transactions, across a diverse array of asset types such as multifamily, office, industrial, retail, and mixed-use.

Steven Krivinskas

With nearly 25 years of experience in his field, including time as in-house legal counsel at a leading UK bank, clients rely on Steven for his unique expertise on structured credit matters and complex asset-backed transactions. Steven centers his practice on structured credit, representing many of the world’s leading credit funds, banks, and corporations on complex funding structures, portfolio sales, securitization transactions, and warehouse lines. He represents sponsors, originators, issuers, borrowers, lenders, underwriters, and other market participants in structured finance and securitization transactions. He advises on a wide range of asset-backed transactions, including consumer and buy-now-pay-later loans, small business loans, and student loans, as well as commercial and residential mortgages and other esoteric asset classes.

Jason Levin

A trial attorney for over 25 years, Jason simplifies complex issues for judges and juries alike. Clients in various industries rely on him for their litigation needs, including products liability, toxic torts, and environmental. Jason focuses his practice on products liability and toxic torts, California’s Unfair Competition Law and anti-SLAPP statutes, class actions, Lanham Act and false advertising, environmental litigation, Proposition 65, Consumers Legal Remedies Act, and other California consumer protection statutes.

Patrick Lightbown

Clients rely on Patrick for his broad expertise in securitization and structured finance, derivatives, and structured products, and portfolio sales. Patrick represents a variety of market participants, including arrangers, investors, issuers, originators, trustees, and swap providers. He has advised on public and private transactions across a range of jurisdictions and asset classes, including consumer and mortgage loans, and his experience covers several sectors, including financial services, fintech, and transport.

James Litwinovich

James has extensive experience representing institutional lenders with respect to commercial real estate financing and a wide range of other financial services matters across the real estate and banking industries. He represents institutional lenders in sophisticated commercial real estate secured financing across a diverse array of asset types, such as multifamily, office, industrial, retail, and mixed-use. He works alongside clients across the United States with their complex real estate financing transactions, including acquisition and development loans, construction and bridge loans, permanent financing, and mezzanine and other subordinate financing.

Katrina Llanes

Chair of the firm’s Structured & Warehouse Finance Team, Katrina represents lenders, underwriters, investors, borrowers, sponsors, and issuers in a variety of corporate finance transactions, including structuring and negotiating warehouse lines, securitization transactions, asset-based finance, structured and secured lending, acquisition finance, and conduit financing arrangements across a broad range of assets. Clients look to Katrina for counsel on financing agency and private-label mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), excess servicing spread, servicing advance receivables, residential and commercial mortgage loans, home equity investments (HEIs), and participation interests. Katrina has an active pro bono practice, representing women and children seeking immigration relief under the Violence Against Women Act and U-visa petitions.

Clay Massey

Clay is a trial lawyer specializing in environmental and toxic tort litigation. He has tried cases across the country, including in some of the most hostile venues for defendants. His clients include some of the world’s largest chemical companies, manufacturers, mining companies, and industrial processing facilities. Clay is known for his creative and forward-thinking litigation strategies, courtroom advocacy, and ability to explain complex scientific evidence simply and understandably. He also has decades of experience coordinating and managing mass tort litigation at a national level and developing and executing successful strategies to defend his clients facing mass tort claims.

Parker Miller

Parker supports his clients’ business objectives by leading their antitrust litigation and protecting their IP. He works with his clients to develop strategy while also protecting their budget. He assists industry-leading companies with antitrust and competition law issues in mergers and complex civil litigation matters, particularly those with antitrust enforcement and antitrust civil litigation. Parker advocates for clients accused of anticompetitive conduct in the U.S. and globally, leading teams that respond to government and private plaintiff scrutiny of strategic mergers and acquisitions. He counsels clients on antitrust compliance and potential litigation issues by using a reasonable approach to antitrust risk. Parker also assists clients who are victims of anticompetitive conduct by marketplace participants.

Adam Monich

Adam structures and negotiates secured financings in commercial lending transactions. His experience ranges from representing lenders in single-bank deals to broadly syndicated investment-grade credit facilities, but his focus is representing banks and financial companies in middle market cash flow acquisition financings. Adam’s practice involves financings in a wide array of industries with a particular focus on the music and entertainment, insurance, financial services, health care, and technology sectors. Adam serves as the relationship partner for Alston & Bird with multiple top-ten U.S. banking institutions and also represents Fortune 500 companies as primary outside finance counsel in their debt financing transactions.

Kate Moseley

Kate handles finance transactions and debt restructurings for banks, debt and hedge funds, corporate borrowers, and private equity sponsors. This work includes representing lead agents, lead underwriters, and borrowers in syndicated transactions, debt offerings, and club deals. Kate concentrates her practice on asset-based and cash-flow-based financings, fund finance, lender finance, leveraged buyouts, second-lien financings, unitranche financings, and debt offerings. She has extensive experience negotiating intercreditor arrangements and workouts. Her sector experience includes real estate, health care, media, technology, transportation, financial services, insurance, and retail.

Jens-Olrik Murach

As a distinguished antitrust lawyer with more than two decades of dedicated practice in Brussels and Germany, Jens has earned a reputation for providing pragmatic and invaluable legal counsel to his clients worldwide. His practice covers the complete range of EU and German antitrust matters across a wide spectrum of industry sectors. Jens also has significant experience handling foreign direct investment screening and EU foreign subsidies matters. Jens has advised on many complex and high-stakes merger control matters, both before the European Commission and the German Federal Cartel Office. His broad experience includes significant transatlantic deals, and he also has strong experience in managing global merger control investigations in virtually every part of the world. Jens has represented multiple companies in cartel and monopolization investigations, including handling leniency applications, settlement negotiations, and appeals. He also has significant experience advising on vertical distribution matters and represents clients in commercial and administrative antitrust litigation.

Jordan Myers

Advising clients in all stages of lending relationships, Jordan represents lenders and borrowers in a variety of secured financing transactions, focusing on structuring and restructuring complex finance transactions. He represents private credit funds, commercial banks, private equity funds, and corporate borrowers in a broad range of secured financing transactions, including cash-flow loans and asset-based loans related to acquisition financings, dividend recapitalizations, corporate refinancings, and debtor-in-possession financings. He also advises clients on intercreditor and subordination issues, debt restructurings, out-of-court workouts, credit bidding matters, bankruptcy 363 sales, and Article 9 foreclosures. His industry experience includes retail and consumer products, restaurants and other franchised business models, industrials, business services, gaming, and wealth management and investment advisory services.

Wim Nauwelaerts

Wim provides critical privacy, cybersecurity, and data protection support for multinational organizations to ensure their valuable data assets are used appropriately and safeguarded from risk. Wim is the partner-in-charge of Alston & Bird’s Brussels office, leading the firm’s European Privacy, Cyber & Data Strategy Team. A true veteran in his field, Wim has been advising multinational companies on privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity matters for almost 25 years. His practice spans a variety of industries, with a particular emphasis on life sciences, media, and new technologies (including AI). Wim has developed internationally recognized experience in assisting clients with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance projects, including implementing cross-border data transfer strategies negotiating GDPR-related contract terms. In his cyber practice, clients who have suffered a cyber breach usually bring Wim in at an early stage to help assess their legal obligations and develop a strategy on notifications to regulators and affected individuals. Wim has written and spoken widely on privacy and cyber-related topics, such as data transfers out of Europe, cross-border breach notifications, and GDPR enforcement.

Anna Nolan

Anna draws on her restructuring and insolvency experience to deliver inventive and comprehensive solutions to stakeholders who are often involved in complex transactions with a cross-border element. With over a decade of experience, Anna works on high-stakes matters for debtors, creditors, trustees investors and insolvency practitioners. Anna has extensive restructuring and transactional experience with all stages of stressed and distressed, domestic, and cross-border transactions. Anna is business-focused counsel in complex restructurings, refinancings and difficult transactions often with a structured finance element. Anna provides creative and practical advice from contingency planning and investment analysis stage to implementation of formal turnaround processes, M&A deals and refinancings. Anna helps her clients find consensual solutions, although she also advises on schemes of arrangements, restructuring plans, CVAs, and administrations. Anna is actively involved in several restructuring and finance organizations and professional committees.

Mike Parisi

Mike leads private credit lenders, bank lenders, corporate borrowers, and private equity sponsors through a variety of cash flow and asset-based lending transactions, including leveraged buyouts and acquisition financings. Clients value Mike’s ability to navigate intricate finance transactions and his recognition of commercial dynamics. Mike has extensive experience in cross-border transactions, unitranche financings, intercreditor and interlender issues, debt restructurings, and secured creditor and bankruptcy rights. His experience extends across a wide range of industries, including software, technology, health care, restaurants and other franchised business models, marine services, retail and consumer products, metals and mining, and manufacturing.

Kimberly Peretti

A former DOJ cybercrime prosecutor and former director of PwC’s cyber forensics group, Kim delivers top-of-the-line cyber-risk management and cybersecurity counsel to her clients. She led benchmark cybercrime cases as a former senior litigator for the DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. Kim’s background as a 25+ year information-security professional enhances her practice in managing technical cyber investigations, assisting clients with data-security-related regulatory inquiries, and advising boards and senior executives in cybersecurity and risk matters. She services clients in matters of privacy, national security process and requests, and payment systems compliance and risk mitigation.

Alice Portnoy

Alice draws upon her experience in the data & technology and media & entertainment sectors to help clients with their most complex data privacy issues. Alice focuses her practice on technology and data privacy matters with experience counseling national and international companies across the media and entertainment, pharma, scientific research, education, nonprofit, and food and retail sectors. Alice is a Certified Information Privacy Professional, Europe (CIPP/E).

Jon Ruiss

Institutions look to Jon for counsel in navigating the highly technical and complex world of structured mortgage products. Jon counsels investment banks and other financial institutions on the purchase, sale, and financing of mortgage loans (residential, commercial, and multifamily), mezzanine loans, single family rental properties, and other mortgage assets. Jon’s clients lean on him to provide exceptional service in negotiating a diverse array of financing arrangements including master repurchase agreements, term loan facilities, and syndicated financing. Jon is also a certified public accountant and was previously an auditor at a global public accounting firm. As an auditor, his clients ranged from financial institutions to not-for-profit entities.

Alex Shattock

Alex’s extensive experience encompasses high value and complex commercial disputes, often with a cross-border element. Alex has run litigation in a wide variety of sectors and has a particular focus on corporate, financial services, payments, and contentious restructuring disputes. He is well versed in coordinating multijurisdictional proceedings and international enforcement strategies. Alex Shattock has 15 years of experience in financial services and commercial disputes. He has represented a range of clients including financial institutions, payments services institutions, trustees, agents, funds, corporations, life sciences businesses, and public authorities in cross-border, high value, and complex disputes across a wide variety of sectors.

Conor Shevlin

Conor is a commercial and financial services litigator who represents multinational corporations and financial institutions in complex disputes which often have an international element. Conor focuses his practice on complex commercial and financial services litigation and arbitration, advising major corporate entities, investment banks, hedge funds, private equity houses, and other financial institutions on a range of high-stakes contentious matters.

John Snyder

With more than a decade of experience as a federal antitrust enforcer, John provides valuable insights and practical advice to his clients facing government antitrust investigations, including clients seeking regulatory clearance for strategic mergers and acquisitions. John provides comprehensive antitrust services, including merger clearance, litigation, and counseling. He regularly represents industry-leading clients before the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general, including clients in the financial services, health care, and technology sectors.

Natalia Souza

Clients rely on Natalia to guide them in a variety of structured finance, loan agency, and corporate debt transactions. Her fluency in Portuguese and Spanish broadens the array of clients she advises through complex corporate trust transactions. She represents corporate trust and agency clients across a broad spectrum of U.S. and UK cross-border financing transactions, including high-yield debt transactions, loan agency, project finance, and structured debt financings. Her prior experience as a bank analyst gives her unique insight to her clients’ complex financial transactions.

Troy Stram

Troy counsels and defends clients in a wide range of high-stakes antitrust and complex commercial litigation matters. Clients across diverse industries trust Troy to handle their most complex and enterprise-threatening matters. And Troy’s food and beverage clients depend on his counsel when their brand or product’s reputation is on the line. Troy is a seasoned litigator who represents clients in a wide range of antitrust and complex commercial litigation. He has represented clients across the country in complex litigation and arbitration involving commercial disputes, antitrust, RICO, and consumer-protection claims, with a particular focus on the pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries. Troy has represented and advised clients through government investigations and on antitrust issues related to joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.

Phillip Taylor

Clients value the support, guidance, and leadership that Phillip brings to a situation, and his technical and commercial approach to delivering innovative solutions to the most complex issues involving international restructuring, special situations, and insolvency. Phillip has over 20 years of experience handling complex international restructuring, special situations, and insolvency matters and has been closely involved in many of the world’s most significant cases. He represents companies, creditors, and investors in all parts of the capital structure, as well as corporate trustees, agents, directors, and insolvency practitioners. Phillip routinely handles both contentious and non-contentious matters, in-court and out-of-court restructurings, and contingency planning and advisory mandates. Phillip’s clients include multinational corporations, private capital funds, banks, insurance companies, and restructuring office holders.

Chris Underwood

Chris represents private credit funds, commercial banks, and specialty lenders in middle market cash-flow and asset-based credit facilities. He focuses his practice on sponsor-backed leveraged acquisitions, traditional ABL facilities, lender finance facilities, and receivables financings across a variety of industries, including technology, health care, franchise, retail, and manufacturing.

Olivia Weber

Olivia brings a practical, solutions-oriented approach to advising clients across the financial services sector. She focuses her practice on a range of corporate and regulatory matters, including mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, and federal securities law compliance. Olivia brings experience working with both public and private companies across the financial services sector.

Valarie Williams

Fortune 100 companies rely on Valarie to resolve critical multinational antitrust issues in the boardroom and courtroom. Known for her strategic expertise, Valarie has defended clients of all sizes in high-stakes litigation. Her innovative strategies for determining the optimal timing and jurisdiction to bring antitrust claims have resulted in substantial recoveries for her clients. She focuses on cartel litigation with a multinational dimension. Clients also depend on Valarie to help navigate complex regulatory landscapes, including government and civil challenges to mergers and acquisitions.

Richard Willis

For 25 years Richard has been a legal resource for the payments industry worldwide. Richard has extensive payments industry knowledge, particularly in leading sophisticated cross-border transactions and new market entry for his banking, payments, and fintech clients, and advises on regulatory and compliance matters for clients of all types and sizes. He focuses on the general representation of both public and privately held entities within the payments industry. Richard concentrates his practice on mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances and has particular experience with cross-border transactions. As part of serving payments industry clients, he routinely advises on regulatory and compliance matters, as well as new market entry, across the globe. Richard has extensive experience with complex, international acquisition, and long-term joint venture transactions. He also has nearly 20 years’ experience in counseling and serving as lead counsel to payments industry participants, including global financial institutions, merchant acquirers, card issuers, card schemes/associations, ISOs and MSPs, and B2B payment companies. Richard has served as lead counsel in scores of acquisitions and joint ventures/strategic alliances throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia (including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Iceland, India, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom).