OMelveny & Myers hired two transactions lawyers, Kenneth Yellen and Demetrios Xistris in the firms investment funds and securitization practice. Yellen joins the firms Washington, DC office as partner, and Xistris join the firms New York office as senior counsel.
Yellen and Xistris are the most recent additions to OMelvenys rapidly growing finance practice area. The firm hired Neil Campbell, a structured finance partner in Hong Kong earlier this year. Finance and restructuring partner Huey Yann Thong, who has securitization deal experience, joined OMelvenys new Singapore office in August. Additionally, counsel Bronwen May focuses on derivatives in the Hong Kong office.
Yellens practice focuses on structured finance and securitization, and his experience includes the representation of issuers, underwriters, placement agents, collateral managers, and other market participants in connection with collateralized loan obligations, collateralized debt obligations, derivative securities, repackaged securities, and other structured financial products. Before joining OMelveny, Yellen was a partner with McKee Nelson.
Xistris spent 15 years as managing director at the prominent investment banks JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, and most recently, Societe Generale, heading the in-house legal teams advising the banks on all equity and equity derivatives activities, including structured products; hedge fund derivatives; corporate, monetization, and hedging deals as well as various equity finance agreements and activities. He has significant experience with all other derivative asset classes and with master netting and trading agreements and collateral documentation, and he has worked on a number of derivative and financial products business line acquisitions.
