McGuireWoods LLP announced today the addition of four partners to its debt finance practice group in Charlotte. Attorneys Eric Burk, Jim Hedrick, David Lapp and Kent Walker, from the Charlotte office of Winston & Strawn LLP, will expand McGuireWoods’ debt capital markets depth and capabilities by continuing their representation of clients in a variety of syndicated finance and corporate lending matters.
The new partners bring more than 50 years of collective experience to the firm’s debt finance practice. They join a debt finance team that is one of the nation’s leading groups in general corporate lending and syndicated finance.
“We are excited to welcome this excellent group of attorneys to the firm, as they not only bring extensive client relationships that match our long-term strategy for growth and service in debt capital markets, but they will also strengthen our representation abilities for our existing clients,” said partner Bob Cramer, chair of the firm’s Debt Finance Department. “Their collective experience will undoubtedly strengthen our firm’s national standing in syndicated and corporate lending, and we look forward to putting their experience to use for our clients.”
“This move to McGuireWoods is a great opportunity for each of us to expand the scope of work we do for our existing clients, while also providing us a chance to assist the firm’s current financial clients with their debt financing needs,” Walker said. “Having previously known and worked with the attorneys in the group, I know what a great team we will have at McGuireWoods and we are looking forward to getting started.”
Walker, Hedrick, Burk and Lapp will continue to focus their practices on structuring, negotiating and documenting secured and unsecured domestic and international syndicated and single-bank credit facilities. Walker earned his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1993; Hedrick received his J.D. from Duke University in 1994; Burk earned his J.D. in 1997 from West Virginia University, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif; and Lapp received a J.D. in 2000 from the College of William and Mary, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif.
McGuireWoods’ debt finance practice is one of the nation’s select groups in general corporate lending and syndicated finance, having served as counsel in closing many hundreds of bilateral and syndicated loan transactions with total commitments of more than $150 billion over the past decade. The firm’s practice is consistently ranked in the top 20 firms nationally in syndicated loans by volume of credit exposure and number of deals by Loan Pricing Corporation’s Law Firm League Table. In 2010, the firm ranked 11th overall by dollar volume and 12th overall by deal volume representing lead arrangers/administrative agents in major syndicated finance transactions.