Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer was formed in 2017 as a result of the merger between Arnold & Porter and Kaye Scholer. The former firm was established in Washington, DC in 1946 and had grown to seven offices in the US and two in Europe. The latter firm dates back to 1917 in New York and had a network of six offices in the United States, two offices in Europe and one in Asia.
The firm now boasts 14 offices in six countries. In the United States it has its largest offices in Washington DC and New York but is expanding in San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Newark, Houston, Palo Alto and Los Angeles.
Focusses / specialisms
The firm does good work across its offices in banking, capital markets, regulatory financial services, M&A, private equity, project finance and restructuring and insolvency.
Its M&A practice is largely based out of the New York, DC and San Francisco offices, in addition to its ever-growing Denver office. The team advised strategic buyers and sellers in acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures. The corporate practice includes a private equity team that advises sponsors on the buy or sell side of acquisitions and investments.
The capital markets team represents issuers and underwriters in corporate bonds, sustainability bonds, share offerings, IPOs and bond refinancings. It also has a separate sovereign finance practice, which advises issuers on sovereign bond issuances.
The structured finance and securitisation practice is based in the New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and DC offices. It represents clients in the banking and financial services industry as both issuers and underwriters in structured notes, covered bonds, mortgage backed securitisations, receivables backed credit facilities, ABS issuances, CMBS and RMBS fund formations.
In addition to transactional financial and corporate transactions, the firm regularly advises clients in financial services regulatory matters. The team advises clients in the banking and financial services industry on regulatory matters related to financing, acquisitions, incorporations, fund formation and securities regulations.
The DC office contains the firm’s strongest restructuring and insolvency practice.
Sectors where the firm has expertise include technology, banking and financial services and life sciences.
Key clients
Key clients for the firm include Pfizer, Cognizant, Harbour Point Capital, DC Capital Partners, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Republic of Panama, Goldman Sachs, First Republic Bank and Piermont Bank
Research period review: 30th edition (2019/2020)
Over the research period the firm was active in financial services regulatory, capital markets and M&A.
The financial services regulatory team continued to represent clients in the banking and financial services industry on regulatory matters involving securities, financings and acquisitions.
The capital markets practice advised largely issuers in numerous types of bond issuances, such as corporate, sustainability and sovereign bonds. A large majority of the sovereign bond transactions related to the Latin American region. The capital markets team also worked on the equity side of capital markets, representing issuers in possible IPOs.
The structured finance and securitization team had a diverse set of transactions it worked on. It advised both issuers and underwriters in notes and bond issuances, securitizations and CMBS fund formations.
the M&A team advised largely strategic buyers in acquisitions and mergers. The private equity practice worked largely on acquisitions, but also some fund investments. Technology, life sciences and healthcare, especially ophthalmology were big industries for the practices.
In lateral people movements the M&A and private equity practice hired partners Carol Anne Huff and Kyungseok Kim from Kirkland & Ellis and White & Case respectively, as well as counsel Jeffrey Yang from Reed Smith. Carol Anne Huff was an addition to the capital markets practice. The structured finance and securitization practice lost partners Howard Goldwasser and Skanthan Vivekananda to Orrick and partner Johnathan Arkins to King & Spalding. The regulatory financial services practice recruited partner Charles Yi, who was previously a general counsel of the FDIC.
Deal highlights: 30th edition (2019/2020)
InSight Telepsychiatry merger with Regroup Therapy
National Bank of Canada €750 million 0.750% Series CBL7 covered bond issuance
Petrotrin double tranche $570.3 million 9.75% and 6% bond exchange
Pfizer $340 million acquisition of Therachon Holdings
Republic of Panama $2.5 billion 4.5% sovereign bond issue
