Structured Finance and Securitizations

Meeting the Needs of Our Clients With Innovation.

In structured finance and securitizations, Milbank is a leader in creating and applying innovative techniques to meet the growing and diverse capital needs of our clients. Attorneys in our practice are routinely involved in the development of structures for traditional as well as esoteric and “off the run” assets and have particular expertise in areas where we are traditionally strong, such as Power and Energy, Renewable Energy, Infrastructure and Water, Transportation Finance and Latin America. We also have a breadth of experience in the use of various types of derivatives in connection with asset-backed and structured securities issuances, including interest rate and currency swaps, total return swaps, credit-linked notes and default swaps and options.

Integration of SkilLs and experience

We recognize that one of the unique aspects of our Structured Finance and Securitizations Group is its inter-disciplinary nature. The delivery of top quality legal services to structured products clients requires the assistance of professionals with expertise in tax, insolvency, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, securities law issues, UCC and other commercial law issues, creditors' rights, corporate issues, bank regulatory matters and project financing issues. Accordingly, partners in each of these areas are integral members of our Structured Finance and Securitizations Group. In addition, to better meet the diverse and international needs of our clients, we advise on both New York law and English law.

Our prime objective is to ensure that the team we put forward on any transaction has the necessary balance of skills and experience to provide our clients with the requisite level of advice and support. We staff transactions as efficiently as possible, maintaining a small team that is familiar with all aspects of the transactions. Given the depth of resources available in each of our offices, we can also provide, when necessary, larger teams of lawyers to meet multi-jurisdictional needs and tight time constraints in order to ensure that complex transactions close successfully. We seek to achieve our clients' business goals while being sensitive to client preferences as to the identity and number of individuals involved in any particular aspect of the transaction.

Our Structured Finance and Securitizations Group boasts a high number of Chambers-ranked partners and the practice is annually recognized in Chambers (USA and Global) and Legal 500 as being a responsive, creative, reliable and technically excellent group of attorneys active in wide variety of high-end and complex mandates in markets around the globe.

Credit Arbitrage (CLOs and CDOs)

We have been at the forefront of the credit arbitrage market since the inception of CLOs in the late 1980s, and our attorneys in both New York and London have represented market-leading arrangers, issuers, derivatives counterparties and collateral managers on hundreds of credit arbitrage transactions involving a diverse array of asset classes. We also are a market leader in the restructuring of structured investment vehicles (SIVs), having represented senior credit constituencies in most of the major SIV restructurings to date. Our attorneys are adept at the full range of products offered in the credit arbitrage market, including market value, cash flow, synthetic and credit opportunity structures. With deep experience with diverse asset classes, from broadly syndicated and middle-market loans to asset-backed securities, project finance loans, distressed debt and distressed asset-backed securities, and our involvement on transactions utilizing innovative liability structures, including commercial paper tranches and conduits, liquidity facilities and synthetic equity tranches, we bring to our clients constructive and timely advice on current “best practices” in the credit arbitrage arena.