Overview
LONDON (August 2, 2018) – International law firm McDermott Will & Emery announced the arrival of structured finance partner Rachel Kelly and counsel Kerry Pettigrew to the firm’s Corporate & Transactional Practice Group in London in a move that further strengthens and expands McDermott’s structured finance and debt capital markets capabilities globally.
Consistently ranked by Chambers and The Legal 500, Rachel brings 30 years of market experience covering the full spectrum of structured finance and debt capital markets transactions, public and private, national and international. She represents and advises all market participants, including investment banks, alternative lenders, corporates, servicers, issuers, investment managers, funds and bondholders.
In particular, Rachel’s practice focuses on securitizations and other structured financings, with particular expertise in commercial and residential real estate, infrastructure and warehouse financing, as well as collateralized loan obligations, collateralized debt obligations, credit funds and other structured products. She handles portfolio purchases and sales, and has a wealth of experience in restructurings and liability management, including strategic advisory work, unwinds, refinancing, consent solicitations, bond buy-backs, exchange offers, tender offers and bondholder meetings. She also advises on debt capital markets instruments.
Rachel will work closely with real estate finance partners Laurence Rogers, Neville Wright and Tom Calnan, who joined the firm’s London office in May 2018 and will work across McDermott’s global platform to team with the recent arrivals of Jeffrey Steiner, David Broderick, Scott Weinberg, Dino Fazlibegu, Robert Unger and Brian Donnelly. The addition of Rachel and Kerry, along with other recent hires, brings the McDermott Real Estate and Finance group to more than 80 lawyers globally, making it one of the industry’s strongest.
“Rachel brings a level of experience and sophistication that will further enhance the team’s ability to support clients in highly complex transactions”, said Jeffrey Steiner, global head of the firm’s Real Estate Finance Group. “Rachel’s arrival and the overall expansion of the team makes us uniquely positioned to provide first-class service to the growing market demand at the intersection of real estate and finance in London and around the globe.”
“I’m very excited to be joining McDermott’s highly-respected Corporate & Transactional Practice Group”, said Rachel Kelly. “The firm’s impressive background in representing clients in a wide variety of transactions, including securitizations, CLOs and real estate finance, coupled with the dynamic development of its London office, was a big draw in my decision to join McDermott. I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues across the firm’s global platform.”
Joining with Rachel is counsel Kerry Pettigrew, a highly experienced structured finance and debt capital markets lawyer whose expertise complements Rachel’s in this area.
“Rachel and Kerry have an impressively broad set of skills which will play to the firm’s strengths across a wide variety of sectors. We are delighted that they are joining us”, said Harris Siskind, global head of the firm’s Corporate & Transactional Practice Group.
McDermott’s Corporate & Transactional Practice represents business interests around the world, from global corporations and industry-leading companies to privately funded and entrepreneurial driven enterprises, as well as the financial institutions that support them. McDermott consistently ranks in the leading league tables, including Mergermarket, Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg and PitchBook. The Corporate & Transactional Practice Group was named “Team of the Year” for Middle Market M&A/Buyouts by The Legal 500 and is highly ranked by Chambers in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.
About McDermott
McDermott Will & Emery is a premier international law firm with a diversified business practice. Numbering more than 1,000 lawyers, we have offices in Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. Further extending our reach into Asia, we have a strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices in Shanghai.