Juliana Obregon

Counsel, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP

Juliana Obregon is counsel in the New York office of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP where she focuses her practice on matters relating to Lending & Capital Markets. With more than 15 years at Cahill, Juliana has been a key member of the firm’s ABL practice, helping drive Cahill’s impressive growth during that period.

Juliana represents leading investment banks and commercial banks in connection with debt financings, including asset-backed loans, syndicated institutional loans, debt offerings, high yield bond offerings and exchange offers in connection with acquisition financings, leveraged buyouts, going-private transactions, recapitalizations, bridge lending and loan commitments, out-of-court restructurings and other financing transactions.

This broad practice has equipped Juliana to analyze different debt instruments and how they interact, protecting clients through their most complex multi-layered debt transactions, which often involve side-by-side ABLs, first/second lien term loans and/or secured and unsecured bonds. 

Fluent in Spanish and French and with conversational Italian and Portuguese, Juliana puts her language skills to work on deals that span multiple international jurisdictions. She is also the mother of three girls.

What advice would you offer to women just starting out in the industry? 

I generally offer four insights to young women as they enter the firm.

First, love your trade. Enjoying your work makes it easier to show up, put in the hours and then excel. No matter how small the assignment, if you do it well, people will begin to trust you with more complex and meaningful assignments.

Second, I recommend associates be pro-active and take ownership of deals. Don’t wait for a more senior attorney to ask for help completing certain closing deliverables. Show initiative and volunteer to get the ball rolling without an explicit request. 

Third, don’t miss the forest for the trees. When working on a complex credit agreement, it is easy to get bogged down in the weeds and miss the bigger picture. For instance, if you are asked to prepare a credit agreement schedule, don’t just focus on the items listed on that particular schedule, but rather think through why the schedule is needed, the context where it is referenced and how it fits in the overall transaction.

Fourth, I try to help women find their voices. Numerous studies have examined how and when women speak-up at work – or don’t. These findings resonated with me and I share the concepts with the female associates I work with. They helped me better understand how and when I might hesitate to speak -- and serve as an important reminder to be assertive. 

What do you enjoy most about your role? Least?

I enjoy the substance of the work. Working with ABLs and other credit agreements is like building a complex puzzle, with various moving pieces. Every deal is interesting in its own, unique way, as you tailor each company’s covenant package to their specific business needs and industry and, in the case of ABLs, the borrowing base to each company’s specific assets and operations. The negotiations are often a balancing act, where we aim to reconcile the views of our bank clients, who seek to mitigate the risk profile of debt instruments, and sponsors or companies, who seek to maximize their flexibility to operate with fewer restrictions. I also enjoy cross-border deals and the challenges resulting from having loan parties and subfacilities in different countries, with separate borrowing bases and with multiple asset classes across several foreign jurisdictions. Also, the constant evolution of what is “market” keeps the practice interesting.

How do you balance work/personal time?

I am a mother of three girls, so I have developed a few strategies to ensure I am getting quality time with them. First, I aim to be 100% focused during office hours so I can be as efficient as possible and get home at a reasonable hour to be with my daughters. Second, I live close to work, thus reducing my commute. In the COVID era, of course, I am commuting across the house to my laptop. And third, I work hard to maintain a schedule that consistently carves out time for my kids. I plan each day so that I can be there for the important moments of theirs, creating and maintaining important family rituals.