Willa Cohen Bruckner is a partner in the Financial Services & Products Group in the firm’s New York office. She concentrates on derivatives, structured products and alternative investments and brings to her practice over 28 years of experience as a financial services attorney. Ms. Bruckner has worked extensively in new product development and in the negotiation and documentation of a wide variety of derivatives products and complex financial transactions, and she advises on derivatives products under the Dodd-Frank Act. Ms. Bruckner works with clients throughout the lifecycle of a trade or investment, up to and including termination and dispute resolution. Her advice is practical and draws on her experience as internal counsel on both the buy-side and the sell-side.
Prior to joining Alston & Bird, Ms. Bruckner was general counsel for a family investment office and fund of funds and a capital markets attorney for major financial institutions. She received her J.D. from The University of Pennsylvania Law School, her M.A. in economics from Yale University and her B.S. with High Distinction and with Highest Honors in mathematics from the University of Michigan.
- Advising a wide variety of financial companies, investment funds, energy companies and corporations on the application of Dodd-Frank and related regulations to existing and future businesses.
- Assisted buy-side clients to establish arrangements for third-party segregation of collateral.
- Advised financial institutions on clearing arrangements for derivatives products.
- Advised multiple institutional investors, hedge funds and corporations on legal issues regarding the trading of complex and plain vanilla derivatives transactions and on negotiation of documentation for all derivatives products, repurchase transactions and prime brokerage arrangements.
- Represented a fund manager in structuring a facility to provide first loss protection, by means of total return swaps, on a dynamic portfolio of assets warehoused for securitization.
- Advised a dealer on cross-border derivatives transactions collateralized by interests in foreign investment funds.
- Represented hedge funds in structuring and negotiating trading platforms for synthetic positions in distressed debt.
- Advised a leading renewable energy company on structuring and documenting wind derivatives as part of long-term financing transactions.
- Analyzed the effect of counterparty default across the full range of trading with dealer counterparties for a major global investment bank.Advised leading issuers of structured products on equity-linked and index-linked products.
- Representation of various derivatives counterparties with aggregate exposure in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in excess of $1 billion.
- Advised a commodities broker in the review and overhaul of documentation for all derivatives trading.
- Advised a seller of protection in terminating credit default swaps with aggregate notional amounts exceeding $7.5 billion, involving novel legal and valuation issues and cross-border insolvency issues.
- Advised trustees of securitizations in connection with defaulted derivatives and related termination.
- Advised a major institutional investor on cross-border netting arrangements involving multiples forms of derivatives.
- Represented an investor obtaining currency hedging on investment notes through a complex program involving embedded derivatives products.
- Represented an investor in a dispute regarding a highly structured, principal protected, hedge fund-linked product.
- Represented a corporate borrower in a £21 million tax dispute involving a complex derivative embedded in a loan structure.
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August 8, 2011
In the Press
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June 15, 2011
In the Press
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June 9, 2011
In the Press
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January 10, 2011
In the Press
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"A Guide to Dodd-Frank for Users of Swaps," The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, Vol. 46, No. 8, April 17, 2013.
April 17, 2013
Publications
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December 16, 2009
Advisories
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"ISDA Publishes Close-out Amount Protocol," Derivatives Financial Products Report, May 2009.
May 2009
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November 21, 2008
Advisories
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"New York to Regulate Credit Default Swaps as Insurance; SEC Seeks Legislative Authority to Regulate Credit Default Swaps," Futures and Derivatives Law Report, October 2008.
October 2008
Past Events
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September 19, 2012
Seminar
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May 16, 2012
Seminar
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April 17, 2012
Webinar
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October 13, 2010
Seminar
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July 20, 2010
Seminar
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June 15, 2010
Seminar
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May 11, 2010
Seminar
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October 29, 2009
Seminar
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September 10, 2009
Seminar
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June 16, 2009
Seminar