Witold Balaban is a partner in the New York office of Latham & Watkins. Mr. Balaban is global Co-chair of the firm's Capital Markets Practice and the firm's Financial Institutions Industry Group, and is a member of the Corporate Department and Derivatives Practice. He focuses in particular on equity derivatives and equity-linked products, including convertible and exchangeable bond offerings (both optional and mandatory) and related equity derivatives products (such as call spread overlays and issuer or affiliate borrow facilities), fixed and variable share forward sales and related equity offerings, issuer share repurchase transactions, hedging and monetization transactions (including equity-based finance transactions) and structured products distributed publicly and privately.
North America - United States • Finance
Latham & Watkins LLP
The ‘wonderful’ team at Latham & Watkins LLP assists clients on matters ranging from OTC derivatives to margin loan transactions and equity-linked structured products. It is also well-positioned to assist clients in investigation and litigation matters concerning CFTC regulations. Its industry expertise includes the burgeoning fintech and digital assets space. Yvette Valdez, head of the regulatory practice, is well-versed in regulatory matters concerning derivatives, including those relating to crypto-assets as well as bespoke and complex financial and market infrastructure solutions. ’Incredible’ Rafal Gawlowski has extensive experience in equity-linked capital markets, structured repurchase, hedging and derivative financing transactions as well as compliance issues surrounding equity derivatives. With ‘strong expertise in the corporate equity derivatives space’, Witold Balaban advises top investment banks and financial institutions across an array of equity-linked products. Doug Yatter expertly covers investigation and enforcement matters, including complex litigation, for banks, hedge funds, fintech companies and cryptocurrency platforms. Courtenay Myers Lima is noted for novel structured products structuring and distribution for professional and retail investors. Each lawyer highlighted practices in New York.
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘The team is responsive, talented and well-staffed. They are able to quickly respond to any inquiries and they have access to extensive precedents.'
‘Globally connected and able to work seamlessly on cross-border transactions.’
'The team is wonderful - they are one of my go-to firms.'
'Witold provides well thought through advice and is one of the most experienced lawyers in this space.'
'Rafal is an incredible lawyer - personable, knowledgeable and commercial.’
‘Witold Balan has strong expertise in the corporate equity derivatives space and is able to navigate the client and banks through very complex transactions.'
Key clients
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Matthews South
- NextDecade Corporation
- Diversified Energy Company
- Origis Energy
- JP Morgan Chase & Co.
- Goldman Sachs
- General Motors Financial Company, Inc.
- Credit Suisse AG, London Branch
- Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange
- Fidelity Investments
Work highlights
- Representing Binance founder and CEO in connection with enforcement actions against Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.
- Representing Matthews South as placement agent in a convertible notes exchange transaction, in which PROS Holdings would offer new convertible notes in exchange for existing convertible notes and enter into a new capped call transaction relating to the new convertible notes.
- Advised NextDecade in a greenfield energy equity and debt project financing with $12.3B of limited recourse debt financing and $700M of privately placed notes.
Lawyers
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Leading lawyers
Yvette Valdez is counsel in the New York office of Latham & Watkins, and is a member of the firm's Corporate Department and the Derivatives Practice.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Rafal Gawlowski, Yvette Valdez, Doug Yatter, Courtenay Myers Lima