Paul Hastings Enhances Market-Leading Finance Practice with Premier London Partner

LONDON (AUGUST 13, 2024) – Continuing the strong trajectory of its market-leading global finance practice and robust London platform, Paul Hastings LLP announced today that Reena Gogna has joined the firm as a partner in London.

Gogna represents a wide range of top-tier financial institutions and direct lenders in connection with banking and finance matters, including leveraged finance, senior debt and high yield financings, debt restructurings, and refinancings. She joins from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

"Reena is a stellar lawyer with deep experience and a client roster that further elevates our leading finance platform and enhances our strong reputation in London’s leveraged finance and private credit market, where we are top-of-market," said firm Chair Frank Lopez. "Her hire demonstrates our continued investment in what we believe is the leading global finance platform in the world and reflects our strategy of adding premier talent in London, and globally, to continue taking market share.

Consistently recognised as a top practitioner for finance by Legal 500, Chambers UK, and IFLR1000, including in the “IFLR Women Dealmakers Hall of Fame 2023”, Gogna’s clients include Apollo Credit, Ares Credit, JP Morgan, and Permira Credit. She also represents KKR Credit, where Paul Hastings restructuring partner William Needham served as European General Counsel and, previously, as KKR & Co., Inc’s European head of restructuring.

Gogna has pre-existing relationships with several members of the Paul Hastings global finance team, including partner Patrick Bright, who joined in 2022 as part of a Band 1 high-yield team from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and the Band 1 finance team led by Ross Anderson and Mo Nurmohamed, who joined from Latham & Watkins LLP. Last week, the firm added another of Gogna’s former Weil colleagues, premier structured finance lawyer Brian Maher.

"I am excited to reunite with former friends and colleagues on the Paul Hastings platform, joining forces to bring immediate synergies to our clients," said Gogna. "Paul Hastings’ tremendous global finance practice is a powerhouse that advises virtually every leading investment bank and direct lender in the world, and I look forward to collaborating with the team to continue taking market share."

The Paul Hastings global finance practice had a record year in 2023, closing more than 300 debt financing and private equity transactions. The firm earned "Americas Law Firm of the Year – Transactions" at the 2023 Private Debt Investor Global Awards and "Team of the Year: Loans" at the IFLR Europe Awards 2024 for the second consecutive year.

The practice remains a destination for premier talent—both individuals and groups—from the world’s top law firms, adding more than 30 partners globally within the past year, including an elite 8-partner Band 1 finance team in Texas; a premier three-partner group from Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP; and, most recently, a top-ranked 11-partner private credit and restructuring team from King & Spalding.

In London, the team has closed or launched more than 50 deals in 2024, ranging from large cap to mid-market transactions, and across the full spectrum of finance products, from widely syndicated bank-led TLBs, high yield and private credit unitranche deals. Prominent matters include advising the banks, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, on Oakley Capital’s refinancing of Phenna Group, advising 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 financing sources on the $1.45 billion financing in connection with Partners Group’s acquisition of The Rosen Group.

Paul Hastings’ London office had a record first quarter of financial performance in 2024, driven by the addition of premier talent over the past few years across several practices, including energy and infrastructure, litigation, arbitration, restructuring and finance. Most recently, it hired litigation duo Stuart Alford KC and Oliver Browne from Latham & Watkins LLP, market-leading ESG and sustainability lawyer Ruth Knox from Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and continued building its restructuring platform with partners Needham, from KKR & Co., Inc., Helena Potts and Tom McKay, both from Shearman & Sterling, and Jessica Ling from Akin Gump LLP.

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.