Paul Hastings Adds Premier Restructuring and Private Credit Team, Further Strengthening Market-Leading Restructuring and Finance Platforms

NEW YORK, CHICAGO, HOUSTON, and WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a move that further strengthens its market-leading restructuring and global finance platforms, Paul Hastings LLP announced today that a team of top-tier restructuring, private credit and special situations lawyers has joined the firm across multiple locations.

The team joins from King & Spalding LLP and includes Jennifer Daly, who was co-head of the global finance and restructuring practice and previously headed the private credit and special situations practice, Roger Schwartz, Matthew Warren, Christopher Boies, Zachary Cochran, Peter Montoni, Geoffrey King, Lindsey Henrikson, and Robert Nussbaum. Daly, Schwartz, Boies, Montoni, and Nussbaum will be based in New York; Warren will split time between Chicago, where he will be joined by King and Henrikson, and Houston; and Cochran will work out of the Washington, D.C., and New York offices. Prior to working at King & Spalding, Schwartz and Warren were restructuring partners at Latham & Watkins LLP.

Collectively, the team has extensive in-house experience and represents diverse clients ranging from private credit funds and business development companies (BDCs) to banks, financial institutions, and CLOs. The team’s experience spans all market cycles and demonstrates an ability to navigate complex financial issues and provide immediate value to clients.

“We are incredibly excited about building on our premier restructuring and finance platforms with the addition of one of the leading private credit and special situation groups in the U.S.,” said firm Chair Frank Lopez. “Jennifer, Roger, Matt, and the entire team will provide our clients with exceptional talent and reputations that are synergistic with our existing practices and will enable us to gain market share at the top of the market.”

“The addition of this sophisticated interdisciplinary team deepens our financial restructuring group’s capabilities and client base, and further cements our reputation as one of the few truly global destination practices,” added Kris Hansen, co-chair of the firm’s global financial restructuring group.

Chambers-ranked for Banking & Finance, Daly serves as lead counsel for private credit funds, special situation and opportunistic funds, BDCs, hedge funds, and other investment advisors. With a focus on direct lending transactions, she advises financial institutions and borrowers in LBOs, leveraged finance, as well as debtor-in-possession, unitranche, first lien/second lien, and mezzanine financings, rescues, exits, liability management transactions, and other secured and unsecured lending transactions. She also has deep experience working on in-court and out-of-court workouts and restructurings. She previously held senior roles at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Avenue Capital, and was the chief operating officer and chief compliance officer at hedge fund Hunter Peak Investments.

“We’re excited to join the firm and work across its elite finance, corporate, and restructuring practices,” said Daly. “After seeing what’s been happening at Paul Hastings, we knew we wanted to be a part of what the firm is building and bring our unique blend of experience to the firm’s preeminent practices.”

Schwartz represents companies, direct lenders, strategic and financial buyers, and investors across a spectrum of restructuring and special situations matters, including Chapter 11 cases, out-of-court restructurings and workouts, and distressed and opportunistic acquisitions, sales and financings. He also advises equity sponsors, portfolio companies, directors, and special committees in connection with liability management transactions and corporate governance issues in distressed, out-of-court situations and transactions. He previously served as senior counsel of workouts at GE Capital.

Warren advises clients on restructuring matters with an emphasis on distressed debt and insolvency issues, including Chapter 11 proceedings, distressed acquisitions, out-of-court restructurings, exchange offers, debt-to-equity conversions, rescue financing, and cross-border bankruptcies.

Boies concentrates his practice on private credit funds, special situations, opportunistic funds, BDCs, investment and commercial banks, hedge funds, and other investment advisors across the entire life cycle of financing transactions, from structuring and loan origination to in-court and out-of-court restructuring transactions.

Cochran represents companies and investors in a variety of capital markets transactions, such as offerings of investment-grade and sustainability-linked bonds, convertible bonds, preferred stock, IPOs, secondary offerings, shelf offerings, tender offers, and liability management transactions. He previously served as a senior corporate counsel at an artificial intelligence software company.

Henrikson, King, Montoni, and Nussbaum focus their practices on diverse restructuring and special situations matters.

The addition of this premier team builds on other prominent moves that have enhanced Paul Hastings' global restructuring platform, including: an elite 18-partner group of financial restructuring lawyers who joined from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; finance and special situations partner David Hong who joined from Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York; and, in London, partners Will Needham and Helena Potts, who joined from KKR and Shearman & Sterling, respectively.

The firm’s restructuring practice won three “Deal of the Year” accolades at M&A Advisor’s 2024 Turnaround Awards and advised on five matters recognized by Turnarounds & Workouts as “Successful Restructurings of 2023.” It advises on many of the world’s most complex, high-profile matters, such as representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 proceedings for FTX and WeWork Inc., and advising lenders in the $1.2 billion in-court restructuring of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) and the $4.3 billion out-of-court restructuring of Travelport.

Paul Hastings has also recently added top-tier talent in other areas, as it is quickly becoming one of the premier global platforms in leveraged finance and private credit, advising virtually every leading investment bank and direct lender in the world. Additions to the finance practice include a Band 1 finance team in Texas; a premier three-partner finance group from Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP; elite New York finance partner Morgan Bale, Stephen Gruendel, and, in London, Patrick Bright and a Band 1 high-yield team joining forces with a Band 1 finance team from Latham & Watkins LLP.

In 2024, the firm’s global finance practice has advised Blue Owl, Blackstone, and Ares in the $6.9 billion Take-Private of Squarespace; Goldman Sachs in Thoma Bravo’s $5.3 Billion Acquisition of Darktrace; the financing sources on the $5.6 billion financing of KKR’s investment in Cotiviti; the lead arrangers in connection with a $1.465 billion refinancing of Wood Mackenzie’s credit facilities; and the financing sources on the $1.45 billion financing in connection with Partners Group’s acquisition of The Rosen Group. Paul Hastings earned “Americas Law Firm of the Year – Transactions” at the 2023 Private Debt Investor (PDI) Global Awards and the “Team of the Year: Loans” award at the IFLR Europe Awards 2024 for the second consecutive year.

 

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.