Paul Hastings Adds Premier Insurance Transactional Partner in Chicago

CHICAGO – Further building upon the firm’s elite corporate and transactional platform, Paul Hastings LLP announced today that premier insurance transactional lawyer Brad Drake has joined as a partner in Chicago.

“Brad’s arrival continues to build our market-leading global M&A and transactional platform with premier talent,” said firm Chair Frank Lopez. “His experience in the insurance and reinsurance space is highly synergistic with our existing practice and clients, and will further position us to capture additional market share as a destination practice for leading clients in the insurance and broader financial services industries.”

Joining from Sidley Austin LLP, Drake focuses his practice on advising insurance companies and other financial institutions across a broad range of insurance-related transactions, from company formations and innovative risk transfer solutions through company and block acquisitions. He advises issuers and underwriters in connection with equity, debt, and hybrid securities offerings, regulatory reserve financings, pension risk transfers, and sidecars. At Paul Hastings, he reunites with his former insurance M&A colleagues Kirk Lipsey and Chad Vance, who joined last fall alongside insurance regulatory partner Sanjiv Tata.

“Paul Hastings has a tremendous platform and I look forward to contributing to its increasing prominence in the insurance space while also providing my clients access to the firm’s premier practices,” said Drake. “I’m also thrilled to rejoin Kirk and Chad, with whom I’ve worked closely throughout my career.”

Drake has advised numerous domestic and global life and annuity insurance and reinsurance companies, investors, lenders, asset managers and other financial institutions, including Athene Life and Annuity, Prudential Financial, Nomura Securities, JPMorgan, Bain Insurance, OneAmerica, Resolution Life, Apollo Global Management, and The Hartford.

Other notable recent additions strengthening the firm’s transactional practices include: an 11-partner premier restructuring and private credit team in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.; an elite eight-partner, 25-lawyer Band 1 finance team in Dallas and Houston; a three-partner, seven-lawyer Chambers-ranked corporate team in Houston; the private equity buyout team of Alex Temel and Bill Schwab in Boston; Colin Diamond, Shawn Kodes, and Seo Salimi in New York; Nikolaos Paschos and Frederik Mühl in Frankfurt; and Scott Joachim in Palo Alto.

About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams in finance, mergers & acquisitions, private equity, restructuring and special situations, litigation, employment, and real estate, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers, and corporations.