King & Spalding has rehired two structured finance partners, Katie Weiss and Martin Eid, who left the firm last year for Milbank. This move unravels a group hire by Milbank that recently saw another partner, Michael Urschel, depart for Kirkland & Ellis.
Weiss and Eid are returning to King & Spalding’s Manhattan office, after being part of a three-partner group who transitioned to Milbank in April last year. Urschel, the third partner, exited Milbank in May for a partnership at Kirkland & Ellis, where he is now developing a borrower-side practice.
Weiss and Eid maintain their roles as lender-side advisors on niche capital markets securitizations, including whole-business, digital infrastructure, and media royalties securitizations. They also continue to operate in the private credit market. King & Spalding emphasized that the rehiring will bolster its finance practice following the departure of approximately 20 lawyers to Paul Hastings earlier this month, and the addition of five finance partners in London from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
Carolyn Alford, head of King & Spalding’s finance and restructuring practice, mentioned, “Asset-backed credit, including the form of complex securitization Katie and Martin are so skilled in, is experiencing strong growth as banks and asset managers look for innovative ways to meet the demand of private credit funds in search of assets.”
The Urschel-Weiss-Eid group had achieved industry recognition at both King & Spalding and Milbank before their split. Earlier this year, Milbank announced that the team had completed a dozen esoteric securitization transactions across various asset classes, including whole-business securitizations of franchise royalties, structured financing of outdoor advertising receivables, data center revenues, and digital infrastructure securitizations.
On LinkedIn, the group appeared to part amicably. Urschel wrote that Weiss and Eid had his “support and friendship as they steward the wonderful lender and underwriter practice we built together,” and looked forward to working with them “across the table.” Weiss and Eid congratulated Urschel on his new role, expressing enthusiasm about building the lender-side practice he founded.
Weiss stated, “We are excited to be rejoining our friends and former colleagues at King & Spalding and to bring our practice back to this strong and growing platform, with leading finance and private credit teams and the firm’s significant commitment to continuing to grow them.”
A spokesperson for Milbank did not respond to a request for comment. Jon Ballis, Kirkland & Ellis’ chairman, mentioned that Urschel’s addition to their 300-lawyer debt finance practice will meet the “greater demand for structured products across private equity, credit, infrastructure, fund finance, and other core areas of our transactional practice.”