O'Melveny Expands Securitization and Derivatives Capabilities with Additions of Kenneth Yellen and Demetrios Xistris
Contact:
Piper Hall
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
(202) 220-5022
Erika Tucker
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
(213) 430-7792
WASHINGTON, DC - October 6, 2008 - O’Melveny & Myers LLP is pleased to announce that two experienced and well-regarded transactions lawyers, Kenneth Yellen and Demetrios Xistris, have joined the Firm’s Investment Funds and Securitization Practice. Yellen joins the Firm’s Washington, DC office as partner, and Xistris joins the Firm’s New York office as Senior Counsel.
Yellen and Xistris are the most recent additions to O’Melveny’s rapidly growing finance practice area. The Firm welcomed Neil Campbell, a structured finance partner, in Hong Kong earlier this year. Finance and restructuring partner Huey Yann Thong, who has securitization transactions experience, joined O’Melveny’s new Singapore office in August. Additionally, counsel Bronwen May focuses on derivatives in the Hong Kong office.
"Ken and Demtri are terrific lawyers joining us at the right time," said Daniel Passage, a partner in O'Melveny's Investment Funds and Securitization Practice. "We have been pushing hard to find lawyers of their caliber and with their specific skill sets. Our clients continue to demand more assistance with completing, analyzing, and in some cases, unwinding very complex transactions. Adding partners on the East Coast, as well as in Asia and Europe, who have deep experience with distressed debt, derivatives, and complex securitizations has been one aspect of our broader effort to enhance the depth and diversity of our firmwide finance practice, and a top strategic goal for some time. This has only become more important for us as the recent crises have been generating client needs in all of the key financial centers in the US, Europe, and Asia."
Yellen’s 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. Prior to joining O’Melveny, Yellen was a partner with McKee Nelson.
Xistris spent 15 years as managing director at the prominent investment banks J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas, and most recently, Société Générale, 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 transactions; and 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.
“O’Melveny is a respected name with the perfect platform in securitization, structured finance, and derivatives to support the work that Demetri and I have been doing for years,” said Yellen. “We are thrilled to be joining such a deep and talented team with global capabilities.”
“This is the ideal time to return to private practice and join a well-regarded law firm like O’Melveny,” said Xistris. “I’m looking forward to helping develop and handle the kind of complex financing transactions that financial institution, fund management, and issuer clients increasingly are turning to O’Melveny to provide.”
As O’Melveny pursues the goal of growing its Investment Funds and Securitization practice across all geographies, it also continues to search for additional partners with experience in all areas of finance for its New York, London, and Asia offices.
About Kenneth Yellen
Yellen graduated from University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in literature in 1991. He earned his J.D. in 1995,
magna cum laude, from Boston University School of Law, where he was a distinguished scholar and an editor on the
Annual Review of Banking Law.
About Demetrios Xistris
Xistris, a US and Canadian citizen, earned an A.B. in political science from Columbia College in New York in 1981. He received a Bachelor of Civil Law (B.C.L.) in 1984 from McGill Law School and a Bachelor of Common Law (J.D.) the following year, also from McGill, where he was managing editor of the
McGill Law Journal.
About O’Melveny & Myers LLP
With more than 1,000 lawyers in 14 offices worldwide, O’Melveny & Myers LLP helps industry leaders across a broad array of sectors manage the complex challenges of succeeding in the global economy. We are a values-driven law firm, guided by the principles of excellence, leadership, and citizenship. Our commitment to these values is reflected in our dedication to improving access to justice through pro bono work and championing initiatives that increase the diversity of the legal profession. For more information, please visit
www.omm.com.
October 6, 2008
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