Leonela Vaccaro Padrón
Leo has served as senior legal counsel at a construction and development company, where she oversaw the legal workstreams related to public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects in North America. She also provided advice and input to project management and commercial teams on legal issues related to procurements and assisted in structuring certain aspects of the transactions, such as joint ventures among equity and operating partners, as well as the financing of the projects.
While working at various law firms in New York, Paris, and Miami, Leo represented lenders and borrowers in domestic and cross-border, secured and unsecured finance transactions, including project finance, bilateral and syndicated loan facilities relating to restructuring of existing indebtedness, acquisition finance, subscription line finance, hedge fund finance, leverage finance, and high-yield bond issuances, among others. During her time at a major New York law firm, she worked as a legal secondee at an investment banking institution, where she served as an in-house attorney covering project finance, leverage finance, middle-market lending, and emerging markets desks. Leo also has experience representing institutions and sovereigns in domestic and international corporate transactions in finance and project finance (secured and unsecured); contracting for the engineering, procurement, construction, and operation and maintenance of energy projects; and domestic and cross-border joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions.
Related Practices
Related Industries
Experience
Representative Matters
- Represented a major Latin American oil driller and operator in refinancing its debt capital structure, including project bonds and syndicated project financings
- Represented a major real estate-focused private equity fund in various fund financings, including subscription line facilities, NAV facilities, and hybrid facilities
- Represented major financial institutions providing fund financing products to private equity funds throughout various industries and jurisdictions
- Represented a major Asian corporate in its first broadly syndicated working capital facility, secured by assets of various subsidiaries located throughout various jurisdictions in Asia, the UK, and the United States
- Represented a major real estate developer in its secured, bilateral working capital facilities
- Represented a major tool and construction materials manufacturer in its secured, syndicated working capital facility
- Represented a major financial institution in extending various asset-based financings to various payment-processing companies in Mexico and Colombia
- Represented a major financial institution in a club, and secured a working capital facility for a Peruvian oil and gas storage company
- Represented a major Latin American oil driller in the sale and leaseback of shallow water jack-ups to an Asian operator
- Represented a cannabis wholesaler in setting up its direct lending platform and drafting its form lending agreements
- Represented a major children’s clothing retailer in the refinancing of its secured, syndicated working-capital facility
- Represented a private equity fund in the acquisition financing for the purchase of a portfolio company
- Represented a private equity fund investor in a direct lending investment in another private equity fund
- Represented a private equity fund in a joint venture agreement with its equity partners for the development of a crypto-mining facility
Insights
Credentials
Education
- J.D. New York University School of Law 2012
- Dean’s Scholarship
- Staff editor, Journal of Law and Liberty
- Fellow, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
- Member, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) and Immigrants Rights Clinic
- Visiting professor, Hauser Global Law School Program
- Social co-chair, Latino Law Students Association
- B.A. International Relations cum laude University of Pennsylvania 2009
Bar Admissions
- New York
- Florida
Professional Memberships and Activities
- Deputy, VAMOS (Venable Attorneys Making Our Success)
Languages
- Spanish
- French
- Business-proficient in Portuguese and Italian
- Rudimentary knowledge of Mandarin