Katten Muchin Rosenman

Private Credit

Kumar leads the Banking team in the London office. He has spent almost two decades practicing as a debt finance lawyer, including nearly 10 years working directly in the banking industry as the head of the legal department, and also in a commercial role as director, at Lloyds Banking Group plc in London. Today, he draws on that vast experience by advising a range of clients on a broad spectrum of domestic and cross-border debt-finance matters.

Kumar represents global banks, alternative/direct lenders, investors and sponsors across different levels of the debt capital stack, particularly on senior/mezzanine loan structures, which involve complex intercreditor arrangements. He regularly advises on cross-border private credit transactions, often involving structured (leveraged) or general corporate lending, as well as traditional secured asset classes such as real estate or aircraft financing and leasing. He is widely respected in the UK as a leading attorney on such transactions, having helped establish the LMA Intercreditor Agreement for real estate finance transactions in 2014. His experience of working on complex intercreditor arrangements also includes advising on stretched-senior, senior-secured second lien and secured mezzanine/subordinated notes. He also advises on unitranche, synthetic mezzanine loans and preferred equity arrangements.

In addition to leading the legal department at Lloyd's Banking Group plc, Kumar also worked as a banker within loan distribution/capital markets. His deep understanding of investment and credit risk explains his ability to consistently find agile and innovative commercial solutions to facilitate trade. This includes his development of a secondary loan review due diligence product that provides a unique "x-ray" analysis of loan documents in a data room. The system provides crucial information to asset managers (CLOs), direct lenders and banks buying, warehousing or trading debt in the secondary market, and allows them to take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities. Offering that kind of legal counsel gives Kumar's clients a unique commercial edge in the market.