Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

Firm Details:
Firm Management: David Efron (Co-Managing Partner), Marc Elovitz (Co-Managing Partner), Stephanie Breslow, Susan Frunzi, Eleazer Klein, Peter White, Boris Ziser, Richard Piotrowicz (CFO), Brian Schare (COO)
Number of partners: 81
Number of other lawyers: 265

Firm Overview:
As one of the leading law firms serving the financial services industry, Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP serves clients from strategically located offices in New York, Washington, DC and London. SRZ regularly advises on corporate and transactional matters, as well as provides counsel on regulatory, compliance, enforcement and investigative issues. The firm takes a cross-disciplinary approach to client service by employing the expertise of multiple practice groups, and SRZ lawyers are recognized for their ability to develop cuttingedge solutions for their clients’ most complex legal and business challenges.

Main Areas of Practice:
Bank Regulatory:
SRZ advises a large and diverse group of financial institutions on chartering new institutions, structuring new products and investments, and guiding mergers and acquisitions. SRZ also has one of the nation’s leading payments practices.

Broker-Dealer Regulatory & Enforcement:
SRZ provides regulatory and compliance advice to broker-dealers and other financial services firms and handles SEC and SRO examination and enforcement matters. SRZ also assists banks and hedge funds in their dealings with broker-dealers, and acts as regulatory counsel in connection with acquisitions involving broker-dealers.

Business Reorganisation:
SRZ provides critical counsel to domestic, foreign and international secured creditors, unsecured creditors, debtor-in-possession lenders, acquirers, equity holders, plan sponsors and others in Chapter 11 reorganizations and out-of-court workouts.

Employment & Employee Benefits:
SRZ represents clients with respect to the entire employment relationship. With an emphasis on preventing employment disputes, SRZ advises employers on all aspects of labor relations and collective bargaining, benefits law and ERISA.

Environmental:
SRZ counsels major institutions and Fortune 500 companies on a wide range of national and international environmental issues. SRZ also advises on preventive methods, and has both the technical knowledge and legal experience necessary to provide the best advocacy.

Finance:
SRZ’s practice covers the entire debt stack, and has extensive experience in middle-market and large-cap leveraged transactions, representing both traditional and alternative lenders. SRZ advises clients in a variety of debt financing transactions, including lender representations on behalf of banks, commercial finance companies, private investment funds and business development companies, as well as borrower representations on behalf of private equity clients and their portfolio companies or other corporates.

Individual Client Services:
Representing many of the nation’s wealthiest individuals, SRZ advises on tax planning, succession planning, charitable giving, will contests and family law matters, including mediation of large divorce matters.

Intellectual Property, Sourcing & Technology:
SRZ has expertise in all aspects of intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition and trade secrets, portfolio monetization and information technology licensing, development and outsourcing.

Investment Management:
SRZ is the most sought-after law firm for the world’s leading private investment funds. With a great depth of practice, SRZ lawyers have across-the-board expertise on the formation and operation of a wide array of funds. SRZ advises funds and managers with varying investment strategies, including credit funds, private equity funds, distressed funds, real estate funds, activist funds, hedge funds and hybrid funds, among others. SRZ is also one of only a few firms with a large regulatory and compliance practice within the funds practice, with lawyers dedicated full-time to regulatory and compliance issues.

Litigation:
SRZ’s litigation group has premier capabilities in complex commercial litigation and the specialised areas of securities enforcement, white collar criminal defense and investigations and prosecutions (AML, OFAC and FCPA matters). Clients benefit from extensive trial experience and proven track record of success in complex civil and criminal matters, as well as negotiation and dispute resoution expertise.

Mergers & Acquisitions:
SRZ regularly advises on M&A deals worth billions of dollars, and has experience working with some of the most talented foreign law firms in the world on crossborder deals. SRZ works on public and private transactions, proxy contests, spin-offs and joint ventures, regularly tackling some of the most complicated deals for many of the world’s largest private equity funds.

Real Estate:
SRZ handles a wide variety of complex and sophisticated real estate and real estate finance matters on behalf of prominent real estate and financial institutions. SRZ is skilled in all aspects of the real estate business, including acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, development, construction lending, financing, mezzanine lending, workouts, restructurings and commercial lending.

Regulatory & Compliance:
SRZ is one of only a few law firms with a dedicated regulatory and compliance practice within its private funds practice. SRZ has specialized expertise on issues private fund managers face in setting up, running and growing their businesses. SRZ also provides compliance reviews, training on compliance issues, and assistance in drafting policies and procedures.

Securities & Capital Markets:
SRZ provides transactional and ongoing regulatory and compliance advice for US and non-US participants (issuers, investors, banks) of all sizes and stages, across all major industries, engaging in US and global capital markets transactions, including: SEC-registered, Regulation D, Rule 144A and Regulation S offerings.

Shareholder Activism:
As the dominant global law firm for activist investing, SRZ assists with all matters relating to activism, including campaign strategies, corporate governance, proxy rules, trading and affiliate rules, Sections 13 and 16 compliance, antitrust regulations, federal and state securities and corporate laws, tax and regulatory issues and litigation.

Structured Finance & Derivatives:
SRZ structures and negotiates a variety of complex structured finance and securitization transactions, including collateralized loan obligations and assetbacked securitizations, as well as regulatory capital offerings, on behalf of a wide range of market participants, including investment managers, issuers, purchasers and sellers of assets, underwriters, placement agents, borrowers and investors.

Tax:
SRZ provides tax planning for mergers, sales and other dispositions, and acquisitions and leveraged buyout arrangements, including analysis of cross-border financing and transfer-pricing issues. SRZ structures sophisticated financing transactions and advises on special tax issues confronting foreign investors making corporate, portfolio securities and real estate investments in the US. Tax advice is also provided to managers of domestic and foreign hedge, private equity and mutual funds.