Law360 Names Kasowitz Practice Group of the Year for Structured Finance

Kasowitz Benson Torres has been recognized as a 2020 Practice Group of the Year for Structured Finance by Law360, which honors the law firms behind the litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry in the past year. Winners were selected for their “landmark matters and general excellence.”

Some of the firm’s significant 2020 wins include representing:

• Astra Asset Management, a London-based asset manager, in a trust instruction proceeding against Goldman Sachs involving Astra’s investment in an Abacus CDO sponsored by Goldman Sachs.  Astra, which sought $55 million of collateral gains to be distributed to investors, rather than to Goldman, won two dispositive motions and completed all discovery in the span of nine months; Goldman Sachs settled with Astra on the eve of trial.
• A group of noteholders in the multi-billion dollar National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, including Angelo Gordon & Co., Waterfall Asset Management, One William Street Capital Management, and Libremax Capital, in nationwide litigations concerning the management and control of the Trusts, and as interested parties in CFPB enforcement proceedings against the Trusts.  Kasowitz achieved three groundbreaking wins against the Trusts’ equity owners before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court in Delaware, and the Delaware Court of Chancery.  The decisions, which affirmed the priority rights of noteholders in the securitized collateral and subjected the Trusts’ residual owners to fiduciary duties, will be instrumental in ensuring the Trusts are managed and operated for the noteholders’ benefit.  Read more about the Third Circuit and Delaware Chancery Court victories.
• Certain institutional investors in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Opt-Out Litigation.  On behalf of several mutual funds, a public pension plan, and other institutional investors, Kasowitz is pursuing direct securities fraud claims arising from Valeant’s improper accounting and billions of dollars of fraud-related losses.  Kasowitz confidentially resolved the claims that were asserted by the public pension plan due to, in part, our unique winning legal strategy to pursue opt-out claims under the N.J. RICO Act. 

Learn more about Kasowitz’s Practice Group of the Year award.