Barnes & Thornburg has lured an experienced corporate finance lawyer to its office in Atlanta.
Shawn Rafferty, who was previously at Troutman Sanders, is now a partner at Barnes & Thornburg. Rafferty has amassed more than 20 years of experience in the realm of aircraft and equipment financing and leasing. His clients include investors, lenders, lessors, manufacturers, and others involved in transactions and restructurings in this space. Rafferty’s practice encompasses subsidiary issues such as conversions, maintenance, modifications, charter agreements, and training agreements involving aircraft, equipment, and airports.
Rafferty joins Barnes & Thornburg at a busy juncture for lawyers in this area. In an interview with IFLR1000, Rafferty said that at the moment, more equity appears to be changing hands, more new equity is going into transactions, and more new debt is being raised in financings.
“All of that financing seems to be on the uptick over the past year or so. I’m also seeing more new enterprises being formed and more R&D investment in businesses than I saw four to five years ago. We heard about the economy improving three to four years ago, and recently I’m seeing evidence of it in the deal flow. We’re seeing new transactions, and people are now deploying capital that had previously been sitting on the sidelines,” Rafferty commented.
On the flip side, debt disputes have diminished and the volume of restructuring work is lower than a few years ago.
“But at the same time, the urge to avoid write-downs seems weaker these days for some lenders, which in turn seems to have led to some more rapid enforcement of creditors’ rights with respect to troubled transactions,” Rafferty added.