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Analysis Legal moves
All aboard the legal merry-go-round
by Kathryn Gaw & Shant Fabricatorian
A series of high-profile movements among CLO law firms have underscored the importance of top-tier counsels. With partners in place, the focus is now shifting to the next generation
It’s a good time to be a CLO lawyer. Salaries are up, fees are up, and just about every law firm is actively investing in their securitisation practices as demand for CLO legal services continues to grow.
“2026 is shaping up to be the next inflection point for CLO legal talent,” says Victoria Pomfret, senior manager at legal recruitment specialist Robert Walters in London. “There is a clear sense that an active year is coming for the leveraged and structured finance market, and nobody — particularly elite London firms — wants to be caught under-resourced when issuance accelerates again.”
The sheer volume of CLO activity took the industry by surprise
Law firms have been preparing for this growth era for some time. The general consensus is that 2021 took the industry by surprise in terms of the sheer volume of CLO activity, and nobody wants to be the reason for delayed issuance. This has led to a race for talent which has played out in the headlines over the past couple of years.
Domino effect
A major catalyst for this round of moves was Milbank partner John Goldfinch’s departure from Milbank at the end of 2023. He subsequently moved to Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman), along with senior associates Peter West and Adrian Kwok. Milbank recovered by bringing over a group of senior lawyers, led by Alex Martin, from rival firm Latham & Watkins, bolstering its European structured finance practice to its largest ever size.
The move left Latham with just one CLO lawyer in London, but that didn’t last for long. In January 2025, a team of nine lawyers followed partners Franz Ranero and James Smallwood from A&O Shearman to Latham, effectively bringing A&O’s CLO business to an end. In the meantime, Proskauer Rose has been steadily building out its own practice on both sides of the Atlantic.
Just when it seemed that the hiring market had settled, Orrick surprised everyone by lifting almost every senior CLO lawyer from Wall Street’s oldest law firm Cadwalader in October 2025. The move — led by partner David Quirolo — saw 37 lawyers depart Cadwalader in one fell swoop, and heralded Orrick’s arrival as a major player in the CLO legal space.
Cadwalader moves to plug gaps
Cadwalader may have lost its spot as a top CLO manager and arranger counsel, but it is not giving up on the market just yet. Within hours of the Orrick hires being announced, the firm promoted two associates to partner and now has four CLO partners in London and eight across the firm, as well as 20 additional attorneys who work on CLO-related matters. Cadwalader’s capital markets practice co-chair Stuart Goldstein, says that following the firm’s upcoming merger with Hogan Lovells, he hopes to see its CLO business recover and even expand.
“It’s a sign of the times, as law firms look to expand their offerings by hiring legal talent,” says Goldstein. “We feel our combination with Hogan Lovells will give us a great advantage in competing for top talent at all levels.”
CLO techniques are being utilised in private capital
Franz Ranero
Partner
Latham & Watkins
The competition for lawyers is expected to remain intense, but the next hiring movements are expected to be more strategic, rather than full-team lifts. Experienced associates are the new focus for legal head-hunters, amid a shortage of available partners. Competitive salary offers will be key to attracting the best names, and this has led to an uplift in remuneration across the market.
“The supply-demand imbalance is a major issue when it comes to top-tier CLO lawyers,” says Pomfret. “With specialist skill demands and not enough talent trained up, firms are now paying the price as competition intensifies — and this is impacting compensation packages.”
Pomfret has seen some salary growth over the past year, while several CLO managers and investors have told Creditflux that legal fees have also risen recently. But lawyers say fees have not risen enough.
“If you can’t match the salaries firms are paying and you’re still expecting your associates to work quite hard, it’s hard to retain staff,” says one London-based CLO lawyer.
In order to entice a team to move, there needs to be a good offer. But the best CLO lawyers have a lot of bargaining power in the current hiring climate. They aren’t only driven by the best financial packages — they also want to know that the infrastructure is in place to expand. The reputation and internal culture of firms is also becoming increasingly important. For example, disagreements with management decisions were believed to be one of the factors behind the Cadwalader/Orrick move.
There is also a growing awareness of the unique depth of expertise that CLO lawyers bring to a practice. CLO law as a discipline is still relatively new, and many of today’s CLO partners started out in adjacent practices, such as fund finance, asset management, securitisation or capital markets.
“It takes years to become well-versed in how to execute a CLO and how to apply the requisite broad skills to the specific market,” says Franz Ranero, a partner in the structured finance practice at Latham & Watkins. “To be a CLO lawyer, you need to be a lot of things simultaneously. It sits in the intersection of numerous disciplines. When we hire people into our team, they don’t necessarily have specific CLO expertise.”
Training the next generation
Increasingly, law firms are investing in training processes to bring junior associates up to speed on everything from warehouse documentation, to investor due diligence, to regulatory integration.
“We do training for our lawyers,” says David Quirolo, a partner at Orrick. “You can get a lot of experience very quickly when you’re working on a lot of transactions and you’re getting that deal flow. I think a lot of young associates are seeing the benefits of coming in and getting secondments on these deals.”
Quirolo has noticed a lot of new interest from young lawyers in the CLO space, and he believes that the next wave of CLO legal talent will come from the existing associate level, as law firms look to round out established teams and future-proof their CLO businesses.
“There’s a lot of new young talent coming through,” says Quirolo. “There’s a lot of interest from associates. And I think law firms in this space are looking to ensure that they’re going to have enough people.”
This is a theme that seems to run across the legal space. At Latham, there has been a focus on hiring people who have experience in broader finance and then training them up, Ranero says. This involves both on-the-job experience and formal training, to develop them into market experts. “We’ll keep on doing that,” he adds.
There is plenty of work ahead for CLO lawyers
Lawyers are increasingly specialised
In the past, some lawyers have worried that over-specialisation could stymie their career ambitions, but now the legal field appears to be specialising even further in order to meet niche demand in the ever-expanding CLO universe. At some firms, a split between private credit and BSL CLO lawyers is starting to emerge, while other lawyers are choosing to develop their skills in the warehouse or arranging stages only. This also reflects the realisation that many CLO skills can be easily transferred into other disciplines.
“It’s a highly specialised market, but actually the skill base that goes into it is very broad,” says Ranero. “A lot of the very complicated CLO techniques have started to be utilised elsewhere as private capital firms find more efficient ways to finance their strategies.”
There’s a lot of new young talent coming through
David Quirolo
Partner
Orrick
For example, private credit funds which once used leveraged fund finance techniques are now looking at CLO-type financing arrangements, says Ranero. His CLO team is often tapped to work on deals in departments where skills overlap.
As for the future legal hiring landscape, there is every reason to believe that AI could be the next disrupting force. Firms are already using AI tools for document review, precedent comparison, due diligence on underlying loan portfolios and managing large volumes of disclosures, which frees up time for junior staff to get more experience sitting in on deal discussions and learning the ins and outs of CLO transactions.
There’s a sense an active year is coming
Victoria Pomfret
Senior manager
Robert Walters
“AI is already being used in CLO transactions, but mainly as an additional process and efficiency layer, not a judgment one,” says Pomfret. “Firms which combine strong CLO expertise with smart use of technology will reap the biggest rewards, not those which rely on AI as a substitute for real experience.”
For now, the hiring merry-go-round may have slowed down, but it certainly hasn’t stopped moving. “Everyone’s trying to hire associates because it’s looking like it will be another consistently busy year,” says Ranero. “I’d be surprised if any of the big teams aren’t trying to hire.”
There is plenty of work ahead for CLO lawyers, and those firms that have invested early in securing the top legal talent will soon be reaping the dividends. According to multiple lawyers in the CLO space, there are dozens of deals in the pipeline at present, with both resets and new issues expected to match 2025 numbers in the year ahead.
Law firms are looking to expand by hiring
Stuart Goldstein
Capital markets co-chair
Cadwalader
There is also ongoing innovation and incoming regulation in both the US and European CLO markets, which will require sharp legal insights and guidance. Infrastructure, CRE and private credit CLOs are expected to see a surge in issuance, while the growing trend of multi-currency CLOs will require legal thought and problem-solving.
As more US managers move across the Atlantic into the growing European market, it is also possible that we will see London-based teams being targeted by US firms seeking to establish an immediate foothold in the region. Retaining talent will remain a challenge for the top CLO law firms — at least until the next generation of skilled CLO professionals starts to break through.
