Paul Hastings has hired a partner duo in New York from Latham & Watkins to strengthen the firm’s global finance practice.
The incoming pair are Corey Wright and Lisa Collier, who bring significant experience in advising banks, investment institutions and direct lenders on a range of financing matters, including leveraged transactions, equity offerings and asset-backed loans, among other types of lending.
They count some of the world’s biggest banks among their clients, including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JP Morgan.
Paul Hastings’ chair, Frank Lopez, said: “[Wright and Collier’s] longstanding relationships serving top-tier financial institutions are highly synergistic with many of our core practices. Corey’s reputation is stellar as one of a handful, if not the leading, finance practitioner of his generation.
“Corey and Lisa’s arrival will further elevate our position as the go-to firm for complex, high-stakes financings and create significant opportunities to gain even more market share at the top of the market.”
Wright arrives at Paul Hastings after two-and-a-half years at Latham, which he joined from Cahill Gordon & Reindel, where he had worked for more than two decades. He became a partner at Cahill in 2007.
Collier, meanwhile, has trodden the same career path as Wright, joining Cahill in 2011 before moving across to Latham with Wright at the start of 2023.
The pair have advised on Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent tender offer for its outstanding debt securities, as well as advising the lead bookrunner on the company’s $17.5bn leveraged bridge loan agreement.
Other deals they have advised on include a $4bn high-yield loan related to the acquisition of mortgage provider Mr. Cooper, representing the lenders on Databricks’ $5.25bn credit facilities and advising the lead arrangers on OpenAI’s $4bn credit facility.
Wright said: “We’re excited to join a practice of this calibre and to reunite with several former colleagues. Paul Hastings has built a dominant position in various financings and direct lending, and we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be part of a firm delivering high-impact, market-shaping work for clients across the capital spectrum. I am particularly pleased to be able to continue collaborating with Lisa, who has been instrumental to building my practice.”
Paul Hastings is notable for the number of top-level lateral hires it has secured this year.
In February, it secured tech and IP lawyer Sarah Gagan from Latham to co-chair its new global tech transactions practice in Boston. A month later, it hired star dealmaker Eric Schiele from Kirkland & Ellis in New York, who joined as global co-chair of M&A to boost its large-cap public M&A practice.
And earlier this month, it boosted its bench in Washington DC with the arrival of antitrust partner Joshua Soven from Paul Weiss.
Lopez told Bloomberg Law in June that the firm was on track to grow revenue 12% to more than $2.5bn this year, describing its performance as “incredibly strong”.
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