Debevoise & Plimpton LLP announces that Joe Binder, Conway Blake, Charu Chandrasekhar, Luke Eldridge, Kristen Matthews, Lena Smith and Douglas Zolkind will become partners of the firm, effective July 1.
Joe Binder is based in the San Francisco office and a member of the firm’s Investment Management Group. His practice focuses on advising sponsors of private investment funds across a range of strategies, including venture capital, growth equity, buyouts and secondaries. Mr. Binder received his J.D. summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2013 and his B.A. magna cum laude from Northeastern Illinois University in 2008.
Conway Blake is based in the London office and a member of the office’s Litigation team and the firm’s International Dispute Resolution Group. His practice focuses on representing corporates, sovereigns and international organizations in a range of contentious matters, particularly in investor-state arbitration, public international law disputes and commercial arbitrations governed by various substantive laws and conducted under the major arbitral rules, and appearing as advocate in courts at all levels. He received his PhD in public international law from the University of Cambridge in 2010, his LL.M (First Class) from the University of Cambridge in 2006, and his LL.B (First Class) from the University of the West Indies in 2004.
Charu Chandrasekhar is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense and Data Strategy & Security Groups. Her practice focuses on securities enforcement and government investigations defense and cybersecurity regulatory counseling and defense. Prior to joining Debevoise, Ms. Chandrasekhar served as an Assistant Regional Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and as the Chief of the Division’s Retail Strategy Task Force, and as a Senior Advisor and Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement’s Market Abuse Unit. From 2004 to 2005, Ms. Chandrasekhar clerked for the Hon. Sonia Sotomayor when Justice Sotomayor sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ms. Chandrasekhar received her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2004 and her B.A. cum laude from Yale University in 1998.
Luke Eldridge is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Investment Management Group. His practice focuses on advising sponsors of private investment funds across a range of strategies, including debt, energy, growth capital, emerging markets and venture capital funds. Mr. Eldridge received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2014 and his B.A. with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011.
Kristen Matthews is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Insurance and Financial Institutions Groups. Her practice focuses on advising clients in connection with mergers and acquisitions, bulk reinsurance transactions and other complex transactions in the insurance industry. Ms. Matthews received her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2013 and her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.
Lena Smith is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s Tax Group. Her practice focuses on advising clients, including private equity sponsors, on a broad range of M&A transactions and in the formation of private equity funds. Ms. Smith received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School summa cum laude in 2015 and her B.A. magna cum laude from Boston University in 2011.
Douglas Zolkind is based in the New York office and a member of the firm’s White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group. His practice focuses on white collar criminal defense, government investigations and internal investigations, including the defense of corporate and individual clients in criminal and regulatory enforcement matters around the world. Prior to joining Debevoise, Mr. Zolkind served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), leading investigations, prosecutions, and trials involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), business and political corruption, securities and fraud offenses, money laundering and cybercrime. From 2009 to 2010, he clerked for the Hon. Janice Rogers Brown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and from 2008 to 2009, for the Hon. P. Kevin Castel on the U.S. District Court for the SDNY. Mr. Zolkind received his J.D. summa cum laude from Cornell Law School in 2008 and his B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.