Clifford Chance has added two partners to its structured finance team with plans to expand its commercial real estate securitization practice.
James Cotins and Matthew Lyons will work with lead partners Lee Askenazi and Robert Villani, and are joining the New York-based firm from Alston & Bird where they advised clients in CRE-related securitizations, including commercial mortgage, resecuritizations, and CRE CLOs as well as net lease and single-family rental securitizations.
"With Jim and Matt coming onboard, we now have four structured finance partners with extensive experience in CRE CLOs 1.0 and 2.0," said the firm’s Americas Capital Markets practice area leader Jon Zonis. "Combining this additional depth with our leading funds, REIT, real estate and tax departments further enables us to deliver market-leading capabilities to CRE companies, from structuring and formation to capital raising, financing and securitization."
Clifford Chance’s U.S. structured finance group is part of a broader real estate sector practice, covering real estate, funds, capital markets, investments and joint ventures, mergers and acquisition, finance, securitization, tax and regulatory matters.
Cotins and Lyons have represented sponsors, issuers, underwriters, collateral managers, loan sellers and rating agencies in public and private financing transactions, according to a release.
Both men were partners at Alston & Bird for more than six years.
