Deborah Festa is a partner in the Los Angeles and New York offices of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy and a member of the firm’s Alternative Investments Group. She leads the firm’s West Coast investment management practice.
Primary Focus & Experience
Ms. Festa represents financial markets participants in the context of established and sophisticated investment management platforms and capital raising strategies, and in the structuring of new financial services businesses, with a dual emphasis on innovation in product development and on financial regulatory compliance.
She represents investment managers, commercial banks, and other financial institutions in the sponsoring, issuance and management of securitizations, investment funds and structured products. Within securitization, Ms. Festa has a decade of experience representing clients in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Her practice also covers sub-advisory arrangements, joint ventures, and the acquisition and divestiture of asset management businesses. Ms. Festa also advises clients on financial services regulatory and compliance matters, and engages in strategic counseling in the context of complex financing arrangements with multiple parties that have competing interests.
Recognition & Accomplishments
Ms. Festa earned her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall, and received her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles. The Legal 500 has recommended her in its “Structured Finance: Securitization” category. In 2011, the Daily Journal recognized her as one of the “Top 20 Lawyers under 40” in California. Ms. Festa is the author of “New Challenges Facing CLO Managers,” The Deal (November 2010); and co-author of “From Collateral Damage to Cautious Optimism: The U.S. CLO Market Forges Ahead,” The Banking Law Journal (May 2012), “CLO Update,” The Banking Law Journal (July 2011), “Industry Insight - CLO Restructurings,” The Deal (April 2009), and “Lehman Bankruptcy Judge Prevents Trigger of CDO Subordination Provision Based on Credit Support Provider and Swap Counterparty Bankruptcy Filings,” The Banking Law Journal (April 2010). She is president of Phi Beta Kappa Alumni in Southern California (Alpha Association).