Law, Policy & Markets

Send us Fan Mail ESG #12: How can law firms, corporations and other employers foster a culture of opportunity that encourages success for everyone? For diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to succeed, they must be grounded in authenticity, intentionality, respect and trust. In this episode, host Allan Marks speaks with Mikeisha Anderson Jones, Milbank’s global Chief Diversity, Equity...

Send us Fan Mail Airlines in Asia have been slow to recover since the pandemic slammed the brakes on the fastest growth market for global aviation. In this episode, host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank Transportation and Space partner Paul Ng about the current state of Asia’s aviation market, recent restructurings and prospects for future growth in air traffic.  They explore the shape of the recov...

Send us Fan Mail A Canadian scandal holds a mirror up to media and politics in Canada, with implications for the US and other advanced democracies, and it's not a pretty picture. In this episode, host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank Litigation partner Tawfiq Rangwala about his new book What WE Lost: Inside the Attack on Canada’s Largest Children’s Charity , misinformation and political gamesm...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #11: Investors, borrowers and financial institutions are using Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles and metrics to shape the ways they attract capital, screen investments, set terms in complex transactions, and meet evolving compliance and disclosure requirements. The trend to incorporate ESG and sustainability considerations into debt issuances seems l...

Send us Fan Mail Legal recruiting in 2022 is a story of disrupted supply chains. Law firms have faced the same labor pool disruptions as other financial and professional service firms during the Great Resignation.  In this episode, “Hiring Professionals is Changing: Culture Wars and the Battle for Talent , ” host Allan Marks speaks with Milbank hiring partner Alexander Lees and Milbank’s new Direc...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #10 - "This is a critical moment to accelerate our work to improve domestic cybersecurity and bolster our national resilience."  With these words, on March 21, 2022, the White House released a formal statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on U.S. Cybersecurity “to improve domestic cybersecurity and bolster our national resilience” due to evolving intellig...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #9 - "This is a critical moment to accelerate our work to improve domestic cybersecurity." With these words, on March 21, 2022, the White House released a formal statement by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. “to bolster our national resilience” due to evolving intelligence and heightened risks of “malicious cyber activity against the United States….[C]ritical in...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #8 - Will the drivers of record deal activity in 2021 – investor confidence and ample liquidity – drive similar strength in 2022?  Either way, market breadth, low cost of capital, a focus on ESG, and the shift from commercial banks to capital markets and institutional investment should be continuing trends across sectors for European private equity, credit and infrastru...

Send us Fan Mail A charity encounters surprising roadblocks to building a new cemetery for low-cost Muslim burials in Stafford County, Virginia. In this episode, host Allan Marks follows the cemetery’s path to justice with the lawyers who handled the civil rights case, Tawfiq Rangwala and Melanie Westover Yanez , and their pro bono client, the All Muslim Association of America, at the intersection...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #7:  Are climate goals and economic development on a collision course?  As COP26 gets underway in Glasgow, the energy transition is top of mind.  Shifting energy production away from coal, oil and natural gas toward greener energy sources like wind and solar power and renewable fuels is critical to cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.  In the...

Send us Fan Mail The market for collateralized loan obligations ("CLOs") has had a record year, with over $1 trillion in new issuances, refinancings and resets globally so far. Debt and equity investors are clamoring for more. What’s fueling the boom in securitizations and leveraged loans, and what’s on the horizon for 2022? In this episode, host Allan Marks and alternative finance partn...

Send us Fan Mail Working remotely creates challenges to the creativity, cohesiveness and culture of any professional firm. How do you get to know each other and foster community when you’re stuck on video calls all day and you’ve lost the spontaneity of seeing people in the office? For some of the lawyers in Milbank’s Los Angeles office, the answer was to form a book club. In this episode, host Al...

Send us Fan Mail Immigration is a complicated and controversial issue. Well over 50,000 unaccompanied children seek entry to the United States at our southern border each year. Who are they? And why are they so desperate to flee their home countries that they leave everything and everyone they know behind? What legal and moral responses should we have to them?  In this episode, host Allan Marks sp...

Send us Fan Mail Asia’s financial markets – flush with liquidity and riding a wave of economic growth – are at an inflection point. Corporate issuers, investment banks, hedge funds and private investors have evolved over the past two decades, just as capital sources and economies have become more diverse. A burgeoning middle class across India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and ot...

Send us Fan Mail Biopharma is on a roll. Biologics and recombinant antibodies have advanced the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.  Messenger RNA technology – an essential part of the newly developed Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines – promises a new frontier of medical breakthroughs and future advancements in immuno-oncology and cancer therapeutics. Genetic treatments for diseases su...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #6: Regenerative development enhances sustainability and resilience through a sophisticated understanding of how all living systems are interconnected. Linking diverse people and places through international scientific alliances and hands-on local projects (like regenerative finance, convenings at the Commonwealth of Nations, and Project CETI with whales) creates innova...

Send us Fan Mail SPACs, or “blank check” Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, have surged over the past two years, raising over $75 billion (about half the total US IPO market) last year alone.  Recent SEC statements add complexity to accounting and disclosure rules for SPACs and could chill the market. Even so, De-SPAC (the merger of a SPAC into a private company, taking it public) transactions...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #5: As the world transitions from fossil fuels to renewable power and other clean energy technologies, we are entering a “super cycle” of demand for new materials. The digitalization of the global economy also drives this demand, as power grids become smarter, sustainable and more resilient.  What do all these green initiatives have in common?  Batteries. The World Bank...

Send us Fan Mail European companies are benefitting from investors’ huge appetite for new equity offerings. Showing the strength of European capital markets in 2021, Germany's first IPO of the year closed in February: AUTO1 Group SE , a multi-brand technology company that develops solutions for online car buying and selling. In this episode, Milbank Global Corporate partners Norbert Rieger an...

Send us Fan Mail Brazil’s capital markets are surging, with new IPOs and follow-on equity offerings in 2021 extending the hot market from last year, the best in over a decade.  Brazil is a bellwether for emerging markets globally.  What is causing this flurry of activity, and how long will it last?  In this episode, São Paulo Global Capital Markets partners Fabiana Y. Sakai and Tobias Stirnberg sp...

Send us Fan Mail Starting in their fourth year of practice, Milbank associates spend a week together on campus at Harvard Law School Executive Education each year for three years in an interactive, intensive and comprehensive professional development program. In the classroom, the curriculum, developed in partnership with Harvard Law School Executive Education, covers finance and accounting, leade...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #4: Two proxy advisory firms wield vast power over America’s public companies, with little accountability or transparency.  Institutional investors who control an estimated 80% of the market capital of U.S.-publicly listed companies often rely on these advisors in setting stewardship policies and in voting for or against company directors or on corporate governance matt...

Send us Fan Mail Last year, disgorgement accounted for $3.6 billion in monetary remedies for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, or three-quarters of all monetary remedies in SEC enforcement actions.  Two recent Supreme Court decisions – in 2017 and 2020 – sharply curtailed the SEC’s authority to pursue disgorgement.  To affirm the SEC’s powers, a new law on January 1, 2021 amended the Secu...

Send us Fan Mail Like a fine musician performing a complex work before a discerning audience, practicing law at an elite level can be as much art as science. Today, we take a breather from complex business issues in this bonus episode featuring Milbank Global Project, Energy & Infrastructure Finance partner Allan Marks and Litigation & Arbitration partner Alex Romain , who compare notes on...

Send us Fan Mail ESG Series #3:  Renewable energy technology and transactions have evolved globally since the early days of wind power in California. In this episode, Milbank Global Project Energy & Infrastructure Finance partners Karen Wong (who retires this year) and Allan Marks (host) look at how the practice of law is evolving, as technology allows for increased responsiveness and producti...