Headquartered in New York City with an additional office in London, we’ve worked with this key client for several years.

During that time, we’ve assisted Centerbridge in several practice areas, including private equity and credit work, and have provided secondees to work with the client’s inhouse legal team.

The latest – associate Adnan Bekdur – is currently working in the client’s London office. He explains: “I’d previously shown interest in doing a secondment so, when their associate general counsel Sentheel Salvam asked if the Firm would provide a secondee to their legal team, I saw it as a great opportunity.

“Centerbridge appealed to me because of my previous experience working on private equity transactions, as well as other similar deals for a variety of clients, so they seemed a good match.”

“Centerbridge appealed to me because of my previous experience working on private equity transactions, as well as other similar deals for a variety of clients, so they seemed a good match.”

The secondment was strategically important for a number of reasons, especially as we look to support this key client in an even broader range of areas.

Adnan says: “My key objective has been to strengthen the relationships between the corporate and private equity partners, establishing the Firm as one of Centerbridge’s natural options in this area while making them aware of our wider offering.”

Adnan’s secondment came shortly after he’d returned to the London office following a stint in our Dubai office, but it is his first experience of working client-side.

He comments: “It has opened my eyes to a different way of working. For starters, everyone sits together, so the legal team is alongside accounts, IT, investor relations, and all different types of investment professionals.

“The hours are steady, but the team is very busy and quite intense. On any given day they can be working on a large number of deals, while keeping up with ad hoc requests (such as advising on bid letters and reviewing engagement letters and non-disclosure agreements) and providing internal legal training.

“The team at White & Case has also been there to support me at any time, which has been a great help.”

“I’ve been given a lot of responsibility, but knowing I had the support of other members of the team and could ask them questions or get help from external counsel if needed is reassuring.

“The team at White & Case has also been there to support me at any time, which has been a great help.”

The secondment has been particularly useful in helping Adnan get an insight into the inner workings of Centerbridge – something he believes will benefit him on his return to White & Case.

“I’ve come to understand the broader institution that it is,” he says, “including interaction with their team in New York, and I now have an understanding of the three pillars of their investment strategy (private equity, credit and real estate). Without seeing things from the inside, I wouldn’t have appreciated that Centerbridge is essentially three investment firms in one.

“I also feel I have a much better grasp of Centerbridge’s mission, which is to spot and trade on undervalued or struggling assets or securities and, in doing so, deliver best-in-class returns for its investors.

“Ultimately, I’ve also built several relationships that will likely continue for the rest of my career.”

During his time at Centerbridge, Adnan has worked on a deal for the acquisition of 30 per cent of Phoenix Insurance, Israel’s largest insurance business.

He says: “It was interesting and quite complex from the perspective of obtaining local regulatory consent, as Israel is only more recently opening up to foreign private equity ownership and, therefore, the regulatory process is still taking up much of my time.”

Having seen how Centerbridge works from the inside, Adnan is confident there is plenty of scope for us to grow the relationship in future.

“We are also very well placed to advise on any credit matters, public transactions, as private equity firms such as Centerbridge are looking increasingly at public-to-private deals.”