Justin D. Lee

Justin is recognized as a “Rising Star” for Banking in the U.S. by IFLR1000 and recommended for Bank Lending by Legal 500 US. He was named a 2020 “Rising Star” for Banking by Law360, among The M&A Advisor’s 2020 Emerging Leaders and a 2020 “Rising Star” by the New York Law Journal. Justin was also named a “Rising Star” in Banking by New York Super Lawyers, 2016-present. Justin was also named to the LGBTQ+ Bar’s 2022 “Best LGBTQ+ Lawyers Under 40” list.

Select Experience

Leveraged Finance

• JPMorgan Chase, as administrative and collateral agent, lead arranger and joint bookrunner, in its $2.7 billion senior secured term loan facility for Clarios Global LP  as well as the Clarios’ upsized $750 million offering of 6.750% senior secured notes
• Morgan Stanley, as administrative agent, in $1.1 billion senior secured credit facilities for OUTFRONT Media, Inc. as well as the initial purchasers in a $450 million senior secured 144A/Reg S senior secured notes offering by OUTFRONT Media, Inc.
• KKR Capital Markets Partners, as lead arranger, in multiple financing transactions for ERM, a KKR portfolio company
• The arrangers and administrative agent in a $1 billion senior secured term and revolving facility for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc.
• Goldman Sachs, as first and second lien administrative agent and a lead arranger, in $2.2 billion first and second lien committed financing to support the $4.2 billion acquisition of Duff & Phelps LLC (n/k/a Kroll, LLC) by an investor consortium led by Stone Point Capital and Further Global
• The lead arrangers in $3 billion senior secured facilities to finance in part JAB's approximately $7.5 billion take-private of Panera Bread Company
• The joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners in $2.8 billion senior secured facilities for The Hertz Corporation to finance its business operations upon emerging from chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings
• Certain funds advised by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as initial purchaser, in the $441 million issuance of senior secured notes by Soho House Holdings Limited (Soho House) (a portfolio company of The Yucaipa Companies, LLC). In a simultaneous transaction, advised Goldman, as investor, in its $175 million acquisition of senior convertible preferred shares of Soho House
• Jefferies, Macquarie and Antares, as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, in $345 million first lien facilities to finance Leonard Green's acquisition of Wrench Group Inc.
• Goldman Sachs, as a joint lead arranger, in $875 million senior secured refinancing facilities and, as incremental lender, in $150 million senior secured term facilities for ProQuest LLC (a portfolio company of CIG, Atairos Management and Broad Street Principal Investments); and a $210 million senior secured incremental term facility to finance ProQuest’s acquisition of Innovative Interfaces
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management and certain other initial purchasers of $770 million second lien floating rate notes of Sotera Health LLC (a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus) to refinance existing indebtedness and $100 million of first lien floating rate notes to finance a tuck-in acquisition
• Goldman Sachs, as representative of the initial purchasers, in a $555 million senior secured notes offering by Dye & Durham Corporation
• Goldman Sachs, as agent, in $240 million senior secured term and $35 million ABL multicurrency revolving facilities to finance Palladium Equity Partners' acquisition of Kymera International as well as a $185 million incremental senior secured term facility to finance the acquisition of Reading Alloys, Inc.
• The lead arrangers in up to €7.6 billion secured multi-currency credit facilities to finance the contribution of the coffee business of JAB’s D.E Master Blender 1753 N.V. and that of Mondelez International, Inc. into a joint venture (received a personal commendation from FT North America Innovative Lawyers Report)
• The direct lenders in credit facilities to finance Five Arrows Managers' (d/b/a Rothschild Credit Management) acquisition of a majority stake in n2y
• Goldman Sachs in senior secured facilities for Mavenir Systems Inc. (a portfolio company of Siris Capital Group)
• The lead arrangers in $630 million multicurrency unsecured, senior secured and asset-based facilities to finance Triton's acquisition of Werner Co., Inc.
• Goldman Sachs and the other lead arrangers on the financing for CVC’s £800 million acquisition of Sky Bet from Sky plc and subsequent dividend recapitalization
• The lead arrangers in $1.3 billion credit facilities for Goldman Sachs and Koch Industries to finance the acquisition of Flint Group as well as the administrative agent in connection with the subsequent U.K. scheme of arrangement
• Morgan Stanley and the other lead arrangers in $1.2 billion senior secured credit facilities for CBS Outdoor Americas (now known as OUTFRONT Media)
• The lead arrangers in $125 million asset-based revolving, $440 million first lien term and $275 million bridge facilities to finance One Rock Capital's approximately $932 million take-private of Innophos Holdings, Inc.
• The administrative and non-U.S. collateral agent and joint arranger in $478 million term and $150 million multicurrency revolving senior secured credit facilities for Rain CII Carbon LLC and its Canadian, German and Belgian affiliates
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as lender alongside UBS, in $150 million of committed financing for the acquisition by Duff & Phelps LLC (n/k/a Kroll, LLC) (a portfolio company of Permira) of Prime Clerk LLC
• Goldman Sachs, as arranger, in a $140 million incremental senior secured EMEA term facility for GTT Communications, BV
• Citi in a $400 million secured multicurrency revolving facility and further $200 million incremental commitment for Livent Corporation and FMC Lithium USA Corp. (at the time subsidiaries of FMC Corporation) to finance their spin-off from FMC and Livent Corporation’s commencement of operations as a publicly traded corporation
• Mubadala Development Company, as a member of the consortium including Sony Corporation, in connection with the $1.25 billion senior secured financing for the consortium’s $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing
• JPMorgan Chase, as lead arranger and administrative agent, in a $400 million senior secured revolving facility for Etsy Inc.
• Sculptor Investments IV S.a r.l, as lender, in issuance of $75 million senior secured floating rate notes by Petroleum Geo-Services AS
• BMO in connection with senior secured credit facilities for Peterson Farms
• Antares Capital in connection with securing financings including in respect of 365 Data Centers, Asset Plus, Badger Sportswear, KidKraft, Pathway Partners, Paya and WS Packaging
• Citi Commercial Bank in connection with securing financings including in respect of Cerence, Electronics for Imaging, Etsy, EXL, Integrated Project Services and Starkey Laboratories
• MC Credit Partners in connection with secured financings including in respect of Omni Environmental Services, Precision Spine and RTIC Outdoors

Asset Based Financings

• Citi, as arranger and administrative agent, in an amended and extended $1.9 billion asset-based revolving credit facility for Tenet Healthcare Corporation
• Citi, as arranger and administrative agent, in an amended and extended asset-based revolving facilities for Steward Healthcare
• Citi, as administrative agent and a joint arranger, in a $225 million asset-based facility to support Contura Energy, Inc. and its affiliates
• Citi, as arranger and administrative agent, in an amended and restated $132 million ABL revolving facility for Warrior Met Coal, Inc.
• The lead arrangers in connection with asset-based facilities to support Innophos Holdings, Inc. and Werner Co., Inc.

Investment Grade Finance

• JPMorgan, as administrative agent in various multi-billion dollar financings for Ford Motor Company’s, including in what was, at the time, the largest aggregated credit facility with sustainability-linked financing provisions in the market
• Goldman Sachs in a $9 billion bridge facility to support the spin-off by Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. to its shareholders of a new “Fox,” an entity comprising highly-rated news, sports and broadcast businesses, as part of a series of transactions that also included the combination of the rest of the Twenty-First Century Fox businesses with The Walt Disney Company
• JPMorgan, as administrative agent, in an amended and extended $4 billion senior unsecured revolving facility featuring sustainability-linked pricing for Occidental Petroleum Corporation
• The lead arrangers and joint bookrunners, in £12.2 billion bridge financing to support Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., in its proposed approximately £11.7 billion acquisition of all the share capital it did not already own of Sky plc
• The lead arrangers and bookrunners in $3.1 billion bridge financing to support the $4.3 billion acquisition by Parker Hannifin Corporation
• The lead arrangers in a $2.9 billion committed bridge facility for Verisk Analytics, Inc. to finance its £1.85 billion (approximately $2.8 billion) acquisition of Wood Mackenzie and subsequent investment grade credit facilities as well as several follow on transactions for Verisk
• General Motors Company and certain of its subsidiaries based in the United States, Brazil and Sweden in $5 billion three-year and $7.5 billion five-year senior multicurrency revolving credit facilities
• Campbell Soup Company in connection with a $2 billion delayed draw term loan and its $1.85 billion senior unsecured revolving facility
• Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, as representatives of the initial purchasers, in a $300 million 144A/Reg S offering of 6.500% senior notes for UL Solutions Inc.

Distressed and Restructuring

• Doncasters Group Limited in its $1.3 billion credit facilities and subsequent restructuring of indebtedness through a U.K. scheme of arrangement
• Covis Pharma, a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Switzerland, as counsel to the ad hoc group of first lien lenders, in connection with Covis’ out-of-court cross-border restructuring.
• Citi as administrative agent under the DIP credit facility, in the chapter 11 cases of Garrett Motion Inc. and its affiliates, a Switzerland-based designer, manufacturer, and seller of turbocharger and electric-boosting technologies and automotive software solutions for light and commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers worldwide
• The lead arrangers in connection with financing to support a stalking horse bid for certain assets of Garrett Motion Inc.
• Onyx Centersource, in connection with the representation of an ad hoc committee of secured lenders in the out-of-court restructuring of Onyx Centersource, a leading provider of hospitality technology for commission payments and recovery solutions for hotels and travel agencies
• AIG and Prudential as noteholders in connection with a secured notes exchange for Nautical Solutions L.L.C., a provider of vessels for deep water projects, in connection with Nautical’s recapitalization and emergence from pre-packaged chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings
• Scandinavian Airlines, an airline holding company based in Sweden in connection with its restructuring efforts including with respect to its initial debtor-in-possession facility as well as a refinancing DIP
• LATAM Airlines, Latin America’s leading airline group, as counsel to Apollo Global Management and affiliated funds, Tranche B DIP Lender in connection with LATAM’s multi-tranche DIP financing totaling more than $3.1 billion in the aggregate
• TerraMar Capital and Trive Capital, as senior lenders to Fansteel, Inc. in the company’s chapter 11 proceedings
• A leading independent entertainment company in connection with a restructuring of over $700 million in funded debt through a consensual out-of-court recapitalization transaction
• In connection with debtor-in-possession and/or exit facilities for Reader’s Digest Association, Washington Mutual and Alpha Natural Resources (n/k/a Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc.)

During his time at Weil, Justin participated in an extended secondment to the Loan Negotiation Group of Goldman Sachs in both its New York and London offices.

Justin counsels pro bono clients on not-for-profit corporation law, general corporate governance, and financing arrangements. He is also actively involved with the Firm’s diversity and recruiting initiatives through his roles as Co-Chair of the Summer Program Committee, on the Executive Committee of the Diversity Committee, a member of the Hiring Committee and as a leader of Weil Pride (Weil’s LGBTQ+ Affinity Group). In 2023, Justin was individually “Commended” by the Financial Times for his leadership of WeilPride in the People & Skills category of the publication’s North America Innovative Lawyers Awards.

Justin received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 2009, where he served as Symposium Editor for the NYU Journal of Law & Business. He received his B.A. from New York University in 2006, where he graduated magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.