Nationally ranked attorney Michael Urschel has joined Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in its Debt Finance Group, the company announced. Based in New York, Urschel will lead the firm's structured finance and structured private credit practice.
At the firm Urschel will advise a range of securitization clients, including sponsors, credit funds, initial purchasers and institutional investors, and lead the practice on a broad array of structured finance deals, according to Kirkland.
Throughout his career, Urschel has covered complex esoteric asset-backed securities such as whole business, digital infrastructure and energy asset securitization. Chambers USA, of the London-based research firm that provides rankings for the legal profession, ranks Urschel in band 1 for whole business securitizations group, while The Legal 500 U.S. names him as a Leading Lawyer, according to Kirkland's statement.
"His experience and leadership will be particularly valuable as we continue to see greater demand for structured products across private equity, credit, infrastructure, fund finance and other core areas of our transactional practice," said Jon A. Ballis, chairman of Kirkland's executive committee.
Urschel also has taken up several industry advocacy roles, including serving on the New York City Bar Association's structured finance committee. And the Structured Finance Association's Legal Counsel Committee. He also edits The Securitization Law Review, Kirkland said.
Before joining Kirkand, Urschel was a partner and head of complex securitization at Milbank, and a partner and head of structured finance at King & Spalding.
