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Overview:
Covenant Review, LLC is an independent research provider that maintains a proprietary database of research reports on bond covenants for a diverse group of companies in every major industry group. Covenant Review is the only research provider focusing on the in-depth analysis of corporate bond covenants. Our analysts attended top law schools and are also practicing attorneys. Covenant Review serves many of the world’s leading mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds, and other institutional asset managers.
People:
Adam B. Cohen, Founder and Managing Member.
Adam B. Cohen graduated from the University of Florida in 1993 and from Georgetown University Law School cum laude in 1997, having been elected to the Georgetown Law Journal. His legal experience at Latham & Watkins spanned approximately six years in two stints wrapped around two years in the middle when he was an investment banker for Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong. At Latham, he represented both investment banks and sponsor-backed issuers on dozens of high yield debt and equity offerings for significant transactions that included Calpine, Magnachip Semiconductors, and XM Satellite Radio.
Adam founded Covenant Review in November 2005 as the world’s first boutique research firm focused on corporate bond covenants in order to provide institutional investors with perspectives on their rights as bondholders as seen through the eyes of experienced practicing lawyers. He was one of seven contributors to the American Bar Association’s Model Negotiated Covenants Project and is on the executive committee of the Credit Roundtable where he was instrumental in the development of a the “White Paper” for model covenants for the investment grade universe. Adam has been quoted and/or published in publications such as Barron’s, Bloomberg, Credit Investment News, Credit Magazine, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, High Yield Report, International Financial Law Review, and Leverage World, and he regularly lectures on covenant issues to investment professionals and other attorneys. He is widely considered to be the leading commentator on corporate bond covenants.
Paul Ciasullo, Business Development.
Paul Ciasullo graduated from Brown University in 1981. He had a Wall Street career that saw him run corporate bond trading desks at Smith Barney, Prudential Securities, and CSFB Securities (in London as head of a desk that traded Eurobonds as well as non-U.S. government bonds), and run a trading and sales business at Lehman Brothers in the non-U.S. government bond area in both New York and London.
In 1999, Paul conceived of what was then a new business delivering institutional investment research from an independent research firm via the internet. He founded and was the President of CreditSights, Inc., a company that has become one of the most successful providers of independent research. In 2005, Paul left CreditSights -- having built the firm from 6 to 100 employees with over 500 clients and offices in Los Angeles, London, and New York -- in order to find a new research business to build. Paul began working with Covenant Review in 2007 and is responsible for developing the Covenant Review client base.
Analysts (with J.D. degrees).
Anthony P. Canale: Anthony graduated from Columbia University cum laude in 1994 and University of Texas at Austin Law School with honors in 1997. He began his career at Latham & Watkins and worked representing both issuers and underwriters in 144A high yield debt securities transactions; representing issuers in several registered offerings of both equity and investment grade debt securities; structuring various corporate issuances with units, warrants, guarantees, subordination and original issue discount; and coordinating registered debt exchange offers (including DTC compliance issues) for previously placed issuances of high yield debt securities. Following that, he worked at Vinson & Elkins principally representing investment firms in negotiating LBOs and related financing. Anthony subsequently practiced securities law as a solo practitioner before going in-house with his largest client as Senior Counsel of broadband provider Wayport, Inc. Subsequently, Anthony was the General Counsel of the listed public company Debt Resolve. Anthony began working with Covenant Review in 2007.
Christopher Chaice: Chris graduated from Syracuse University in 1992 and from New York University School of Law, cum laude, in 1999. From 1999 to 2005, Chris practiced law at Cahill Gordon & Reindel where he specialized in capital markets transactions, primarily representing underwriters of high yield and investment grade bonds. Following that, Chris practiced law at Willkie Farr & Gallagher where he specialized in general corporate representation, including representing a large finance-oriented information and media company in its dealings in the U.S. and foreign markets. Chris subsequently worked at Southpaw Asset Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based credit oriented hedge fund, where he analyzed event-driven investment opportunities relating to bankruptcies, restructurings, mergers, liquidations, and litigation. His work at Southpaw included substantial analysis of indentures, credit agreements, and plans of reorganization. Chris began working with Covenant Review in 2008.
Alexander Diaz-Matos: Alexander graduated cum laude from Oberlin College in 1999, obtained a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2002, and received an L.L.M. (master of laws) from the University of Amsterdam in 2003. Alexander has analyzed a wide array of corporate bonds since beginning working with Covenant Review in 2006. He is principally focused on investment grade issuers with perceived event risk and analyzing the critical variances that may result in covenant arbitrage opportunities among their bonds.
Paralegals:
Nika Rawlings: Nika’s experience includes seven years working for Moody’s monitoring S.E.C. disclosure submissions and maintaining related databases, and four years conducting S.E.C. EDGAR training with Global Securities Information / LiveEDGAR. Nika began working with Covenant Review in 2007.
Estela Acosta: Estela worked for several national law firms, including Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and Greenberg Traurig, before joining Covenant Review in 2007.
Philip Jin Lee: Philip graduated with distinction from the University of Rochester in 2004 with a B.S. in Computer Science. Prior to joining Covenant Review in 2008, he was a paralegal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York.
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