Lawrence Berkovich

Practice Areas

Larry is a partner in our structured finance practice, based in New York. He has over 25 years of experience, 20 years of which have been dedicated to collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) and other structured products. His practice places emphasis on broadly syndicated and middle-market CLOs, rated and unrated leveraged loan warehouse and structured term financing facilities, as well as CLO refinancings, resets, reissuances, upsizings and restructurings.

Larry represents underwriters, issuers, collateral managers, administrative agents, banks acting as co-lenders and debt and equity investors. Larry's experience includes serving as principal outside counsel to two major investment banks in the development of their CLO and leveraged loan warehousing platforms and to various investment banks in the development of their risk retention financing facilities. Larry also has extensive experience with derivative products (such as credit default swaps, total return swaps, interest rate swaps and currency swaps), federal securities laws, Dodd-Frank, the Volcker Rule and other regulatory compliance issues (including US and EU credit risk retention rules) related to CLOs.

Larry founded Allen & Overy’s post-financial crisis US CLO practice group in 2017, and spearheaded its rise as one of the most active in the US CLO market. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is often quoted in the financial press on topics related to CLOs.

Lawrence is widely recognized as a leading securitization lawyer, having been recognized in the most recent editions of Chambers USA and Legal 500. A client shared with Chambers USA that “Lawrence is really smart, savvy and knowledgeable about the space"" and ""he is a smart and innovative lawyer who can handle complex issues."" Another client enthuses that ""his depth of understanding as well as his relationships really stand out, especially when navigating situations fraught with complexity."" A client also shared with Legal 500 that he “runs an exceptional team of talented partners and associates. All of them are highly focused and skilled in their field and offer excellent guidance that demonstrates the breadth and depth of knowledge in the CLO space.