Sidley Austin is adding to its haul of US partners from Clifford Chance, poaching a five-partner group in New York and Washington
Lee Askenazi, who co-led Clifford Chance’s financial markets team, is joining Sidley in its Manhattan office, the firm said Thursday. Structured finance partners Alistair Dunlop, Rebecca O’Brien and Robert Hagan are jumping to Sidley as partners in its global finance practice, while James Gouwar is joining the firm’s tax group
“When the opportunity came about for our team to speak with Sidley, we immediately just were on the same wavelength as everybody on the management and executive committee on how we see the market going and the opportunities with clients,” Askenazi said in an interview. The firm “is really representing asset managers and institutional clients that are forging the new wave of private credit that uses structured finance as a component of their business,” he said
“I actually started my career at Sidley when I was a summer paralegal assistant when I was 20 years old so I look forward to retiring from Sidley,” he said
Lee Askenazi
Sidley
Sidley this year has bolstered its finance capabilities, including through hires from Clifford Chance. Cliff Cone and Michael Sabin, the former US heads of Clifford Chance’s funds and investment management practice, joined Sidley in January, along with partner Daniel Drabkin. Clifford Chance is trying to claw back $5.8 million in pay from Cone and Sabin, according to a lawsuit the pair filed last month
Askenazi, Dunlop, Hagan and O’Brien have extensive experience in structured capital markets and structured finance, working with clients across a range of securitization and asset-backed financing transactions, regularly representing sponsors, issuers, investors and asset managers on complex structured products, Sidley said. Gouwar’s practice concentrates on the tax aspects of structured finance transactions such as mortgage- and asset-backed transactions, collateralized loan and debt obligations.
“It’s just a really quality team,” said Brian Fahrney, chair of Sidley’s executive committee. The group brings “a wealth of additional skill sets and client relationships” to Sidley’s securitization and structured finance practice, he said
Askenazi and Gouwar were a part of the Clifford Chance team that advised Pacific Investment Management Company LLC on its investment to develop Meta’s Hyperion Data Centerin Lousiana. Askenazi also advised A10 Capital on a US$200 million capital facility with Crayhill Capital Management
Dunlop and Gouwar advised KKR on its acquisition of student loans from Sallie Mae through a multi-year agreement and its purchase of an equity stake in Harley-Davidson Financial Services
Clients are keen on consolidating their service providers, such as law firms, Askenazi said
“It’s not simply from a perspective that they want fewer numbers of people to deal with and they want fewer bills,” Askenazi said. “Our clients want to be working with law firms that have a really deep embedded understanding of their business,” he said
Sidley’s other notable hires this year include Jeffrey Ross, the former head of finance at Debevoise & Plimpton, as well as O’Melveny & Myers partner Ike Chidi and Wachtell Lipton’s Sumita Ahuja. The firm also picked up Latham & Watkins partner Jeremy Trinder in London
The Clifford Chance group’s move to Sidley was brokered by Alejandra Nagel and Sabina Lippman of legal recruitment firm CenterPeak LLC
Bloomberg Law provides trusted coverage of current events enhanced with legal analysis
Log in to keep reading or access research tools and re
