Uri Itkin Named a Trailblazer by National Law Journal

(New York) – Akin Gump is pleased to share that litigation partner Uri Itkin, who joined the firm this week (learn more here), has been named a Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazer by The National Law Journal.

The NLJ Trailblazers series spotlights legal professionals who are “agents of change” in their practice areas.

In his published profile, Mr. Itkin discussed the work that made him a Trailblazer. He says that an asset manager had come to him because it was concerned that a fund issuer had exploited the collateralized debt obligation’s collateral mechanism for its own gain. The strategy he used, Itkin says, was “a bit unorthodox.” He says that he “triggered certain contractual provisions imposing broader duties on the trustee and then persuaded the trustee to file a trust instruction proceeding as a neutral party so that we could appear as an objector.”

Mr. Itkin notes that the strategy worked, giving the client a path to enforce the claimed violations in court, and that his strategy set a precedent for how credit investors can use trust instruction proceedings to enforce their rights without the delays and procedural hurdles associated with securities actions.

He says that his innovation “should improve accountability in the structured credit space, as this strategy ensures that issuers, managers, and other responsible parties can be held accountable and cannot hide behind layers of bureaucracy that typically pervade complex financial transactions.”

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers and advisors in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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