Lisa Collier

Partner, Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP

Lisa Collier is a member of Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP’s corporate practice group. Lisa’s practice focuses primarily on advising commercial and investment banks in leveraged finance and asset-based lending transactions, including acquisition financings, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, bridge lending and loan commitments, and other secured lending transactions. She has represented the financing sources on a number of recent prominent transactions, including representation of the administrative agent and the lead arrangers in connection with asset-based revolving credit facilities for Albertsons Companies, Inc., US Food, Inc. and The Gap, Inc., as well as representation of the financing sources in connection with the acquisition of The Michaels Companies, Inc. by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Inc. and the acquisition of EMC Corporation by Dell Inc. 

Lisa has a broad range of financing experience in both domestic and cross-border transactions and has practiced in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, media and communications, food services, retail, manufacturing, and technology.  

When interviewing newcomers to the industry, what do you say to pique their interest about why they should accept a position in this industry?

When corporate attorneys like myself interview law students, we often hear that they are struggling to decide between a career in litigation and transactional work.  Law school tends to be heavily focused on case law and court decisions, so law students often have very little sense of what a transactional attorney does when they are walking into their first interviews.  In these conversations, I always explain that one of the primary benefits of a transactional practice like my own is that it is highly collaborative and constructive – the agents and lenders that I represent want to protect themselves and the other creditors, but they also want to achieve successful outcomes for their own clients, the borrowers.  During the early days of the pandemic, we saw a lot of historically well-performing borrowers tripping financial covenants or running into liquidity issues that they had never encountered before, and this presented an opportunity for parties on both side of the table to work together to structure creative financing solutions that helped these borrowers successfully navigate and survive this period of unprecedented shutdowns and disruptions. This was certainly one of the more interesting periods in my career, and also one of the most rewarding.  

What advice do you normally give to the junior talent you mentor? 

Use every transaction as an opportunity to learn from your clients.   While our clients rely on us to analyze document terms and give advice on market trends and potential risks and pitfalls in a given document, we rely on our clients to educate us about the types of practical risks and concerns that may not always be apparent based on the four corners of a document but that they have become attuned to as a result of their experience in the industry.   Don’t just ask clients how they want to respond on particular issues, but pay attention to the why as well, and you will start to gain a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the issues as a result. 

What are some negotiation tactics you’ve learned over the years?

It’s important to choose your battles wisely and focus on correcting the substantive issues that are the most salient for your clients rather than strive for a perfect document every time.  The final version of every document is going to include some terms that you don’t love (and even terms that you may downright hate), but as long as the overall covenant package is one that your client and the other lenders can feel good about, that is a good outcome.

With many working remotely or hybrid-style the past few years, what are some work-life balance strategies you’ve stuck with?

The most important lesson that I have learned about working from home these past two years is that it is important to actually close the door to your home office from time to time to maintain some separation. Taking this time away from your work allows you to return to it with better focus and attention.  In addition, as we finally start to return to the office in person either full-time or on a hybrid model, I’ve recognized that while we can all be just as productive at home as in the office, there are a lot of benefits to actually seeing your colleagues face to face in terms of training, professional development and building relationships that has been missing these last couple of years.