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Jordan Yarett

Jordan E. Yarett

Adjunct Professor of Law

A partner in the Corporate Department and co-head of the Finance Group at Paul Weiss, Jordan E. Yarett has over 25 years of experience as a financing lawyer focusing on structured finance and securitization transactions. He has handled both innovative structured finance deals involving unusual asset classes as well as securitizations and bond financings involving a wide range of more traditional assets.

In 2007 The American Lawyer selected Mr. Yarett as a “Dealmaker of the Year” for his representation of Lehman Brothers Inc., the lead underwriter and sole structuring agent for Dunkin’ Brands Inc. in its complex $1.7-billion whole-business securitization. He was also selected as a Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyer in America for conceiving and executing the Dunkin’ Brands transaction. Mr. Yarett has been recognized by Legal 500 US (2007) for his structured finance and securitization transactions, and has been quoted in numerous publications including The Economist, The Daily Deal, The American Lawyer, The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. and The Analyst (published in India).

With regular representation of issuers, investors, underwriters, credit enhancers and other financiers of securitized debt, Mr. Yarett’s representative investment banking and insurance clients over the last ten years have included Lehman Brothers, Goldman, Sachs & Co., MBIA Insurance Corp., UBS, Morgan Stanley and Bear, Stearns. In addition, he has represented many of the most innovative specialty finance companies in the asset-backed finance business. Mr. Yarett also acts as primary financing counsel for Major League Baseball and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

As part of his practice, Mr. Yarett has worked on many groundbreaking transactions including what are believed to be the first U.S. whole company securitization involving intellectual property, first cash flow secured franchise loan securitization, the first rated time share loan securitization, the first telecom receivables commercial paper conduit, the first structured settlement conduit program, and the first fully effective SEC registered offering of pass-through certificates in a pool of secondary market municipal bonds, as well as many early and innovative drug royalty and equipment lease securitizations. In addition, he has regularly represented established clients in connection with more conventional asset classes such as trade receivables, auto loans and leases, home equity loans, mutual fund fees and credit cards.

Since as early as 1985, Mr. Yarett has also been an active participant in the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. He has worked on a full range of transactions including Regulation S and Rule 144A transactions, public offerings and commercial paper conduits for assets such as hotels, office buildings, multi-family housing, golf courses, restaurants and shopping centers. He has acted on behalf of borrowers as well as lenders in these transactions.

A frequent speaker and author on developing issues in the structured finance arena, Mr. Yarett has written a chapter on derivatives litigation for Derivative Risk and Responsibility and two chapters in Securitization Legal and Regulatory Issues published by American Lawyer Media, Inc.

Mr. Yarett was comment editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He is a member of the ABA Subcommittee on Securitization of Assets, a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Securitization.