Morrison & Foerster, a leading global law firm, is pleased to announce that Angela Kerek has joined the firm’s Berlin office as partner in its Finance Department. Ms. Kerek comes to Morrison & Foerster from Linklaters’ Frankfurt office. She brings to the firm a rare skillset and quality of experience, covering corporate finance, syndicated lending, leveraged buyouts, acquisition finance, real estate finance and alternative credit providers, and debt restructuring.
Ms. Kerek’s arrival represents a major step for Morrison & Foerster in building out a dedicated debt finance practice in Germany, with her expertise complementing the advice current Berlin partners provide predominantly as part of their corporate transactional offering, including acquisition finance, real estate financing and debt restructurings. Ms. Kerek’s acquisition finance expertise will also significantly strengthen Morrison & Foerster’s M&A and transactional offering in Germany, as well as the firm’s wider global finance capabilities, including through closer collaboration with the firm’s London and New York offices on pan-European and cross-border financings and opportunities. Additionally, Ms. Kerek is expected to contribute to the expansion of the firm’s local and global real estate practices.
“With finance capabilities in London and pre-existing transaction finance capabilities in Berlin, Angela’s arrival is a major step forward in building out our pan-European finance practice,” said Paul Friedman, Morrison & Foerster’s managing partner for Europe. “Angela is also our ninth lateral hire in Europe in just over a year, including Lokke Moerel and Alex van der Wolk who joined us in Berlin as well, as part of our Privacy and Data Security Group. With additional lateral hires at associate and counsel level in recent months, I am delighted that we have so much momentum in Europe, and I look forward to continuing to focus my attention on our strategic expansion in the region and delivering the best possible offerings to our clients.”
“We are delighted to welcome Angela to MoFo. She is a great fit for the office, both in terms of her skillset and personality,” said Hanno Timner, co-managing partner of the Berlin office. “Her international background and outlook make her an extremely valuable addition to the firm’s global finance team.”
Jens-Uwe Hinder, co-managing partner of the Berlin office, added: “Angela has an impressive track record and excellent contacts in the local financial market. She will undoubtedly bring a wealth of expertise to our M&A and real estate transactional practices in Germany.”
Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster, Ms. Kerek spent nine years at a top tier finance practice in Frankfurt, acquiring significant experience on a broad range of financing transactions, working on both lenders’ and borrowers’ side. She regularly advises on acquisition financing structures (public takeovers and private acquisitions), including vendor loan financing structures; sponsor driven private equity financing structures like leveraged buyouts and loan bond structures; real estate structures, including mezzanine and investor-led multilayer financings; plain vanilla loans for investment grade rated and cross-over corporates; and debt restructuring transactions. Ms. Kerek has worked on many high-profile matters in a fronting role, such as the restructuring and the later deleveraging of Schaeffler Group; the financing of the takeover of Italcementi by Heidelberg Cement; the acquisition of DEA Deutsche Erdoel AG by the LetterOne Group from RWE; the general group finance matters of the Hymer Group and of Funke Mediengruppe; the acquisition of 360T by Deutsche Boerse; the attempted takeover of Alstom by Siemens; the financing of CVCs shareholdings in Evonik AG; as well as advising BNPP, Fortress and JPMorgan on various real estate financings.
“I was naturally drawn to MoFo because of the firm’s global reputation and client base as well as its worldwide expertise in finance. I look forward to building out the finance practice in Germany and also working closely with my colleagues in London and worldwide to further strengthen MoFo’s cross-border finance offering,” said Ms. Kerek.
Ms. Kerek earned her law degree at Berlin’s Humboldt University and completed the mandatory traineeship at the Superior Court of Justice (Kammergericht) in Berlin. She received her PhD in 2008. While working full time at Linklaters in 2015, she also completed her executive MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University in Chicago, USA, and at the WHU, Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar/Düsseldorf, Germany, with courses at HKUST Business School in Hong Kong and at the Kellogg School of Management in Miami — a unique qualification for a German lawyer. A former professional tennis player, Ms. Kerek speaks German, English, Hungarian, and Romanian. She is a member of the HypoVereinsbank (part of UniCredit) Female Advisory Board, a non-executive body advising the management of HypoVereinsbank.
Morrison & Foerster established its German office in late 2013. The German team represents clients in M&A transactions, corporate and commercial litigation, antitrust and sector-specific regulation, tax issues, employment, real estate, finance and privacy matters.
Source: www.mofo.com
