Our Practice

Our Finance Group encompasses a full range of debt financing expertise, including lender and borrower-side leveraged finance transactions, award-winning securitizations, significant project financings and complex derivatives structures across a broad array of industries.

Our private equity and company clients benefit from the deep market experience of our financing lawyers in structuring and negotiating debt facilities to fund acquisitions, asset-based revolving credit facilities, second lien loans and other types of debt. We understand the issues faced by leveraged enterprises, their investors and lenders throughout a company's life-cycle, from evolving techniques in acquisition finance through the tensions inherent in distressed situations.

We focus on providing our clients with tailored solutions for their specific needs.  We are at the center of some of the most innovative and complex financing matters, including the whole-company securitizations of name-brand franchises and the restructuring of multibillion dollar companies.

Leveraged Finance

The leveraged finance group at Paul, Weiss provides counsel to clients who structure and negotiate all types of leveraged finance transactions, including acquisitions, recapitalizations, refinancings and restructurings. Our clients include financial and strategic buyers, financial institutions, hedge funds and companies engaged in a variety of industries. While we are exceptionally familiar with market terms and customs, we have found that offering creative solutions to otherwise intractable issues is our greatest virtue.

We counsel clients on:

• syndicated loan facilities
• bridge loans
• private note placements
• asset-based financings
• mezzanine and second-lien debt
• amendments and refinancings
• margin loans

We work closely with Paul, Weiss's mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, funds, tax, ERISA, derivatives, intellectual property and environmental lawyers to provide seamless execution.

Structured Finance and Securitizations

The Finance Group has significant experience in all aspects of international and domestic structured finance transactions. According to The American Lawyer, "when the circumstances demand innovative solutions, [Paul, Weiss] … lawyers distinguish themselves."

We specialize in transactions with unusual structures or assets, including workouts and restructurings of structured finance and securitization transactions.  We have helped put together deals for a broad range of asset classes, including franchises, alarm receivables, trade receivables, intellectual property, patent royalties, equipment leases, billboards and contract rights, such as lottery awards and structured settlements.  We also have particular expertise in the media and entertainment industry, having developed an array of innovative structures from sports financing to film financing slate deals.

Additionally, we counsel clients on:

• whole-business securitizations
• operating assets (including franchise, entertainment, lease and IP)
• DIP securitization
• restructuring of prepetition indebtedness
• secured revenue note offerings
• commercial paper securitizations

Financial Institutions & Sponsor Finance

The Paul, Weiss Financial Institutions & Sponsor Finance Group is a premier destination for global alternative asset managers, retirement service providers, insurers, banks and other lending platforms seeking sophisticated and innovative advice on a wide spectrum of financial products and transactions, including acquisitions of financial assets, establishment of financing and origination platforms and bespoke structured financing solutions. Our lawyers combine technical and analytical skill and extensive industry knowledge to help our clients reduce risk, achieve strategic objectives and navigate specialized financing, insurance and annuities markets. We offer practical, tailored advice that reflects both our deep understanding of cutting-edge financial markets and the regulatory landscape.

We have extensive experience structuring innovative capital solutions which optimize capital structures, ratings requirements and regulatory capital treatment through a variety of complex financial products including:

• proprietary loan origination platforms
• asset-backed warehouse facilities and bespoke securitizations
• commercial real estate finance, specialized project and trade finance, and fixed annuities
• synthetic structured leverage, derivative trading platforms and other “one-of-a-kind” structures

The team integrates our firm's market-leading finance, capital markets, derivatives, investment management, M&A and tax capabilities to provide holistic, integrated solutions aligned with global compliance regimes.

Derivatives and Structured Products

Paul, Weiss advises both sell-side and buy-side clients in the design, negotiation and execution of a wide range of derivatives instruments and transactions across underlying asset classes, including credit, equity, fixed income, distressed debt, commodities and FX. We advise financial institutions, funds and their investment advisers, and corporate entities on how to structure over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives instruments for financing, hedging, leverage and synthetic exposure purposes; negotiate and implement comprehensive derivatives documentation infrastructures; and resolve related credit, regulatory, legal and risk management issues, especially in relation to ongoing regulatory reform. Our team represents users of derivatives who need to protect and enforce their rights against struggling or bankrupt counterparties; address outstanding derivatives in restructurings; or take advantage of strategic investment opportunities.