Paul Weiss has hired a trio of finance partners in New York from Sidley Austin, including Nicholas Schwartz, who was co-head of the leveraged finance practice at his former firm.
Schwartz, will join Paul Weiss before the end of the year alongside Mark Adler and Julie Ann Lamm, who have already completed their move. They advise corporate borrowers, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on complex debt and leveraged finance transactions. Their experience spans syndicated and privately placed financings, recurring revenue-based facilities and cross-border financings, and they are also experienced in financing in-court and out-of-court restructurings.
Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp said the trio’s skillset “will amplify our capabilities at a time when we’re seeing increasing demand by our clients for sharp, solutions-oriented financing for their most consequential transactions”.
The trio overlapped at Kirkland & Ellis before reuniting around four years ago at Sidley, where Adler and Lamm made partner at the start of 2024. At Paul Weiss they will sit as partners in the corporate department’s finance group.
Schwartz, who earlier practised at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, has advised on financing transactions ranging in size from $20m to more than $15bn. He has advised Clearlake Capital and its portfolio companies on multiple financings, including its pending $7.7bn take-private acquisition of data provider Dun & Bradstreet Holdings and its $5.4bn acquisition of Quest Software. Other key clients include Siris Capital Group and Stonepeak Capital.
The new arrivals bring Paul Weiss’s finance group to 35 partners in New York, where they will work alongside debt finance heavyweight Eric Wedel – one of a clutch of partners the firm hired away from Kirkland & Ellis in 2023 on both sides of the Atlantic – and significantly boost the firm’s leveraged finance offering in the city.
The finance group has also seen departures recently, with debt finance partner Adam Longenbach leaving for Cooley’s New York office in June.
Firms have been hiring debt and leveraged finance partners across the US this year, as a resurgence in private credit, private equity activity and M&A fuels demand. Standout moves include Paul Hastings’ hire of Corey Wright and Lisa Collier from Latham & Watkins in New York in July, and Proskauer Rose’s hire of a quartet of finance partners, including leveraged finance leader Ronald Lovelace from Cadwalader in September to open an office in Charlotte, the second-largest banking centre in the US after New York.
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