Pillsbury has acquired a large group of finance and corporate attorneys from Nixon Peabody.
The attorneys join Pillsbury as members of the firm-wide finance as well as corporate and securities practices.
The final number of lawyers to make the move has yet to be determined, but so far the team consists of five partners and several other senior lawyers and associates, including William Egler, Gregory Weston, Mats Carlston, Bart Pisella, Doug Schneller, Peter Alfano, and James Kelly.
Egler will head the ABS finance team and has experience representing major international financial institutions structuring, negotiating, and documenting credit facilities. He has represented commercial banks, investment banks, leasing companies, and international public development agencies in connection with mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, work-outs, working capital facilities, project financings, warehouse and related repurchase financings, single asset loan originations, and structured financings.
Weston joins as head of the municipal finance specialty team, representing bond issuers and underwriters in a variety of taxable and tax-exempt transactions involving infrastructure, housing, and higher education. He has experience in structuring investment vehicles, including funds, joint ventures, partnerships, and limited liability companies. He is also familiar with securitization and structured finance, having represented originators, underwriters, investors, bond insurers, and trustees in regard to CMBS, CDO, and other asset classes.
Carlston, previously head of global finance at Nixon Peabody, will head Pillsbury’s leveraged finance team. Carlston has more than 20 years of experience in leveraged finance and general banking. He has also dealt with restructurings and domestic and cross-border financings, with a focus in the private equity-sponsored buyout space.
Pisella, who will lead Pillsbury’s corporate trust team, has over 20 years of experience in representing financial institutions. He has focused on advising corporate trustees on fiduciary, custodial, administrative and agency business in traditional corporate capital markets and in complex global finance transactions, including all varieties of corporate debt offerings, project finance, syndicated loan facilities, DIP financings, and attendant workouts and default administration.
Schneller will become leader of Pillsbury’s distressed investing team and represents commercial banks, investment banks, and hedge funds that invest in distressed assets, including companies in bankruptcy. He also counsels creditors in bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings.
Alfano is a finance lawyer representing banks, finance companies, private equity funds, large corporate borrowers in domestic and cross-border financings, high net worth individuals and families as borrowers in connection with private bank and structured financings with major domestic financial institutions, and corporate trustees in connection corporate trust, fiduciary, custodial, administrative and agency matters.
Kelly will lead the leveraged buyout team in the corporate and securities practice. He represents private equity sponsors, their portfolio companies, investment banks and other financial institutions, as well as strategic companies in connection with leveraged acquisitions, control and non-control investments, divestitures, restructurings, and related exit transactions.
"The breadth of experience and excellent finance skills of Mats and his team will add depth and breadth to our strong global practice," said Jon Whitney, head of Pillsbury’s firmwide finance practice. "Their addition perfectly fits our strategic objective of growing and expanding our finance practice to ensure that we can service the wide range of needs of our clients and respond nimbly and effectively to those clients’ projects and goals as the economy completes its recovery."
Pillsbury is a full-service international law firm specializing in energy, financial services, real estate and technology sectors, health care, and education.
