S&C partner Ari Blaut, a member of our Credit & Leveraged Finance practice, has been named an inaugural “Finance, Banking & Capital Markets Trailblazer” in a special supplement by The National Law Journal. The Trailblazers series spotlights legal practitioners recognized as agents of change in their given practice area from across the country.
Ari’s profile highlights his work advising a variety of clients in high-profile matters, including a number of financings over the years for S&C client AT&T related to its $108.7 billion acquisition of Time Warner, and more recently, AT&T’s proposed spin-off of the digital entertainment services operations of DIRECTV in South America and the Caribbean.
Other highlights of Ari’s recent work include advising Rent-A-Center in connection with the recapitalization of its debt structure, the arrangers in providing $4.1 billion of debt financing in connection with Global Payments’ acquisition of Total System Services, and the lenders in connection with VICI Properties’ $4.76 billion debt financing commitment with respect to the pending Eldorado Resorts transaction.
Ari’s profile also highlights his work for leading private equity and private credit providers, in addition to his work for corporates and banks. He tells NLJ that he has cultivated an interest in “how debt financing plays into larger transactions and how companies think of themselves in the life cycle.”