Sean Solis.

Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has hired a top partner from Dechert focused on structuring collateralized loan obligations, in a sign of the tight competition in the specialty structured finance practice area.

Sean Solis, 40, joined Milbank on Monday after practicing at Dechert for the past six years. While at Dechert, he said he was the most senior New York partner in the firm's CLO practice. Milbank and Dechert both rank among the top in league tables for firms advising issuers in CLOs transactions.

Solis represents asset management firms, private equity firms and hedge funds in structuring CLOs, a type of asset-backed security tied to pooled corporate loans.

While Solis said he has deep admiration for Dechert, he said he joined Milbank because he was attracted to Milbank's existing New York practice for CLOs, which is larger than Dechert's Manhattan practice. At Dechert, several of the firm's lawyers in the practice area are in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Solis said the last few years in the CLO market have been very active, with a record number of deals last year. He attributed the increased activity to a global appetite from investors, relatively low interest rates and strong performance from CLOs, even during the financial crisis.

He said law firms advising on CLO transactions are getting busier because there are more deals. Still, he said few firms are entering the space because “it's a high barrier of entry” due to the complicated nature of the product and the need to have specialized experience.

Solis said it's too early to say whether clients will follow him to Milbank, but he anticipates he will be busy no matter what. “There's plenty of work to go around,” he said.

Milbank has had a series of prominent lateral hires this year, including a four-partner restructuring team from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in London and a two-partner capital markets team from Shearman & Sterling, also in London.

Scott Edelman, Milbank's chairman, said the firm's approach “is to focus on superstars when we are attracting laterally,” and Solis' addition is consistent with that strategy. Edelman called Solis a leading figure in his practice areas who is relatively young. “It's incredible what he's been able to accomplish at such as young age, and combining what he can do with what we already have,” he said, “positions us to be even more of a leader in the area.”

Milbank has seen few partner departures this year. On Wednesday, Irish law firm A&L Goodbody announced it had hired New York-based David Berkery, formerly a Milbank associate, as a partner in its aviation and transport finance team.