Joanna Suna Rejoins Cadwalader’s Capital Markets Group

June 30, 2021

Leading lawyer advises issuers, underwriters, portfolio managers and monoline insurers on CLOs, securities repackagings and other types of complex structured products.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP announced today that Joanna Suna has rejoined the firm’s market-leading Capital Markets Group as counsel in New York. A senior associate earlier in her career at Cadwalader, Suna most recently worked at Perkins Coie.

Suna focuses her practice in the area of structured finance, specifically collateralized loan obligation (CLO) transactions. She has represented issuers, underwriters, portfolio managers and monoline insurers covering a wide range of transactional and regulatory issues involving CLOs, securities repackagings and other types of complex structured products. In her capacity as lead attorney on these transactions, she has assisted clients in negotiating and structuring all legal aspects of the transaction through the full deal life-cycle, including origination, warehousing, structuring, distribution, execution, closing, post-closing and liquidation. Suna has negotiated and resolved transaction issues with third-party deal participants, including collateral managers, key investors, rating agencies, monolines and other counsel and has analyzed and provided solutions to legal issues including securities laws, tax and ERISA considerations. She is also experienced in different types and uses of swaps in such transactions, as well as in warehousing and funding facilities and secondary repackagings of related products.

“We are very pleased that Joanna is returning to Cadwalader,” said Capital Markets partner Gregg Jubin. “We know first-hand that she is an exceptional lawyer, with considerable experience in CLO transactions and other structured products. She is an important addition to our team.”

“We are seeing a very active market in the CLO space, but the complexity of these transactions require a very steady hand,” he added. “We know that, in Joanna, we have the kind of experience that our clients have come to expect from Cadwalader.”

Cadwalader’s CLO team has represented issuers, underwriters, and collateral managers in collateralized loan obligation ("CLO") transactions and related product types for over 12 years. The firm has extensive experience with both "cashflow" and synthetic total return structures and has also established a dominant market position in "CLO 3.0" activity helping shape the legal aspects of CLOs as the asset class emerges from the financial downturn.

“It is nice to come back home to Cadwalader,” Suna said. “The firm is such a force in CLOs, and I am looking forward to being an important contributor to this market-leading team.”