Dechert has hired a four-lawyer team from Orrick in London to boost its structured credit and collateralised loan obligation (CLO) offering.

Partners Sushila Nayak and James Jirtle have joined the 165-lawyer office alongside two associates. Dechert said the hires underscored its commitment to being a market leader in the CLO and ABS space in both Europe and the US.

“The structured credit and CLO space is growing rapidly, and the added expertise of Sushila, James and their team will contribute to our practice,” said John Timperio, co-chair of Dechert’s global finance and real estate practice groups. “Their addition enhances our ability to expand our service offerings to financial institutions and asset managers worldwide.”

Nayak, who is dual-qualified in New York and England and Wales, served as co-head of the structured finance group at Orrick. She advises on CLOs, securitisations involving esoteric assets including trade receivables, commodities receivables, music and television rights, tax liens and renewable energy-backed loans, and private debt transactions for borrowers and lenders. 

Nayak has experience advising on the issuance and restructuring of structured finance products in both Europe and the US, on compliance with European risk retention requirements and on trade finance matters including receivables, vendor financing and supply chain financing. At Dechert Nayak is expected to serve as a leader of the firm’s London-based CLO effort. 

Meanwhile Jirtle brings expertise in structured credit. His experience includes advising arrangers and managers on CLOs, counselling issuers and investors in connection with the warehousing and securitisation of various assets on compliance with European securitisation regulation requirements. He made partner at Orrick last year, having joined the firm four years ago from White & Case. 

Dechert said it works with more 50 CLO managers globally – more than any other firm – and in 2024 worked on 94 deals with a collective value of more than $39.5bn. Last November the firm advised on the first-ever European mid-market private credit CLO for Barings and recently advised Golub Capital Partners on the largest CLO transaction ever, valued at $2.5bn. 

The firm has hired several partners in London recently across corporate, private equity and finance, adding Nick Tomlinson to its corporate and securities practice from Gibson Dunn, and Anthony Lombardi, who specialises in fund finance, from DLA Piper. 

Meantime the team’s departure from Orrick follows partner Daniel Wayte moving over to Akin’s London office in January to join its recently launched global capital solutions team. Last October data protection and regulatory enforcement partner Kelly Hagedorn joined Alston & Bird from Orrick’s London office. 

An Orrick spokesperson commented: “We thank Sushila and James for their contributions to our firm and wish them well.”