NEWS
Leading Fund Finance Partners Reunite to Create Premier Fund Finance Platform and Launch Paul Hastings Charlotte Office
January 26, 2026
CHARLOTTE – Paul Hastings today announced the significant expansion of its global Fund Finance practice with the addition of two preeminent teams of lawyers and the opening of a Charlotte office.
The move brings together teams from two market leaders in the fund finance space. The powerhouse combination joins the forces of Holly Loftis, from Haynes Boone; Danyeale Chung, from Cadwalader; and the heft of Paul Hastings’ existing team, led by star partner Eric Schwitzer, spanning New York, California, Texas, London and Paris.
The other new additions include partners Aleksandra (Aleks) Kopec and Mark Nesdill from Haynes Boone.
“Our market-leading global finance platform serves virtually every major bank and direct lender in the world, many of which need strong fund finance capabilities,” said firm Chair Frank Lopez. “With premier talent, like Holly and Danyeale and the broader teams from two of the top fund finance practices, Paul Hastings is primed to expand with existing clients by taking market share in the growing $1.2 trillion fund finance market, which is anticipated to more than double to over $2.5 trillion by 2030.
“Charlotte is a financial services hub and the home to many of our leading banks and asset manager clients as well as Fortune 500 companies from other sectors. We believe we are the global leader in finance and financial services and look forward to building a premier Charlotte office.”
The additions align closely with many of Paul Hastings’ core transactional strengths, including private equity, private investment funds, leveraged finance, private credit, structured credit, capital markets, M&A, real estate finance and tax.
Recognized by Chambers USA as an Up & Coming lawyer in banking and finance, Loftis brings more than 15 years of experience, predating the establishment of the Fund Finance Association, and valuable perspective from when subscription credit facilities were still a niche product. She counsels leading lenders on the structuring, negotiation and documentation of complex and cross-border subscription credit facilities and other fund finance-adjacent secured and unsecured lending arrangements, including management fee lines, GP lines, employee co-invest loans and hybrid financings. She previously practiced with Chung at Cadwalader and Mayer Brown.
Chung represents some of the largest and most prominent lenders in the fund finance industry in structuring, negotiating, documenting and syndicating multijurisdictional and multicurrency subscription facilities and other lending arrangements, often across from top-tier sponsors. Prior to joining Cadwalader, Chung practiced at Mayer Brown.
“The opportunity to reunite with Danyeale and team up with Eric, assemble an all-star roster of skilled fund finance lawyers and drop this new team into a global finance practice that is Band 1-ranked in Banking & Finance, Private Credit and Capital Markets was too compelling for us to pass up,” said Loftis. “Our market has been craving additional service providers on the lender side, and our clients have been clear that they want one-stop shopping because of the efficiencies it creates for them, for their sponsor clients and for their internal lawyers. Paul Hastings is here and ready to provide this.”
Kopec represents lenders and borrowers across a variety of finance products in fund finance and leveraged finance, including subscription line credit facilities, NAV facilities, partner loan programs and acquisition financings. She has extensive experience in the financial markets of both New York and Charlotte, advising clients on their specific lending needs and products. Kopec was a 2025 Women in Business honoree by The Charlotte Business Journal and was also recognized in The Secured Lender’s 2024 Women in Secured Finance issue.
Nesdill’s practice is focused on fund-level financings and bespoke and customized fund finance adjacent solutions. He has nearly a decade of experience representing banks, funds and other financial institutions as lead agents, lenders and participants in a variety of transactions, including subscription credit facilities, NAV facilities, hybrid facilities, management fee and GP lines, collateralized fund obligations, rated note feeders, financings for SMAs and financings for continuation vehicles.
Between them, the teams have worked across from some of the world’s largest banks and asset managers on numerous complex financings, with lender commitments in excess of $5 billion.
Coming from Chambers-ranked practices, the teams reunite on the firm’s expanding global fund finance platform, which recently added in London partner Jennifer Passagne.
In 2025, the Paul Hastings global finance team closed more than 500 debt financing and preferred equity transactions, totaling over $260 billion in aggregate financing, advising lenders and underwriters in financing transactions ranging from $10 million to over $20 billion. The firm ranked No. 1 for US Syndicated Loans in 2025.
Paul Hastings is a Chambers USA Band 1 firm for Banking & Finance, Private Credit and Capital Markets: High-Yield Debt, as well as recognized by Chambers UK for Banking & Finance: Lenders: Big-Ticket, and has been recognized as Banking Law Firm of the Year by Chambers USA.
One of the world’s leading legal advisers for leveraged finance, fund finance and private credit, Paul Hastings represents virtually every top investment bank and direct lender, including Apollo, Atlas, Bank of America, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, Franklin Templeton, KKR, Morgan Stanley, Nuveen, PIMCO and Wells Fargo, among others.
About Paul Hastings
With widely recognized elite teams across 17 core practices, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm with a culture of excellence focused on providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations.