Tamer Bahgat
Partner – Alston & Bird

Description of field of expertise

Tamer Bahgat focuses his practice on leveraged finance, with an international insight on high yield and term loan Bs, and restructuring. He regularly advises private equity firms, issuers, and underwriters with wide-ranging strategic advice such as 144A/Reg S high-yield notes offerings, liability management, and finance and restructuring.

Tamer earned his J.D. from Howard University School of Law and his master’s degree in finance, with a focus on corporate finance, from the London Business School. He was the first Middle Eastern/African editor-in-chief of the Howard Law Journal. He received his B.A. in economics and international relations, summa cum laude, and a B.S. in biochemistry, magna cum laude, from Calvin College.

Tamer is a board member of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) High Yield Division. He regularly speaks on high yield and leveraged finance topics and has moderated panels at AFME’s annual conferences. He has published several articles on matters related to his practice and he is a regular visiting lecturer at the London Business School. Tamer is also an advisory board member of the Egyptian Stock Exchange.

 

What advice would you offer to new attorneys interested in your field?

Finance, especially Leveraged and/or Acquisition Finance, is very technical and numbers-driven. Don’t be afraid of numbers (or run-on sentences for that matter); instead get familiar and comfortable with basic Accounting and Finance. This will help you understand your client better (whether they are investment banks, private equity sponsors, or corporates) – learn to listen to their needs and the strategy they expect to execute, and think of how best to achieve that for them – therefore be there as an advisor, not just their lawyer.  Keep an open mind, be patient with the process, knowing that it gets more interesting (and challenging) as you get comfortable with the process.  Always ask questions when you don’t understand, but otherwise, trust yourself and instinct throughout the process.

 

Final thoughts…

Read the precedents, read the papers to understand your client and what their competitors are doing.  Build relationships.  People will remember you and want to work with you because you are a solid lawyer and a team player.  Internal and external clients are equally important.