The Secured Lender profiled McGuireWoods’ Debt Finance Department in its July/August 2024 issue, noting that the department is “laser focused on client service and firm culture.”
Pittsburgh office managing partner Penny Zacharias and Chicago office managing partner Ying Hsu spoke to The Secured Lender about the department and industry trends. Zacharias said keeping up with regulatory pressures and market trends is a challenge, but McGuireWoods has the depth and knowledge base to help clients stay ahead of the curve.
“Staying on top of the current market trends is something that our clients expect from us, and there’s been a ton of change over the last several years,” Zacharias said. “With a department as large as ours, it’s a huge benefit of being at a firm with so many internal resources.”
Hsu said the relationship between a borrower and lender is often quiet and stable and “we might not hear anything other than maybe one or two amendments during a transaction’s three- to five-year term and then a payoff.”
“This year we’re touching so many of our deals with some sort of issue, some small, some larger, and I think that credit approval for those changes has been more challenging than it has been in the past,” she said.
The two leaders said McGuireWoods takes a collaborative and inclusive approach to client service.
“When we kick off transactions, we have deal teams, partners and lawyers at all levels, and our more junior colleagues have the chance to do valuable, important work,” Zacharias said. “It’s not like some places where for the first five years you’re sitting in a corner doing the signature pages. That’s an important part of the work, but it’s not the only thing.”
Hsu said debt finance lawyers also enlist summer associates to assist the team with transactions.
“They can come in thinking they want to do tort litigation and then leave wanting to do what Penny and I do,” she said.