Katten's Claudine Chen-Young to Head Women in Securitization

(WASHINGTON, DC) Katten announced today that Claudine Chen-Young, a partner in its Structured Finance and Securitization practice in Washington, is the newly named chair of Women in Securitization (WiS), an arm of the Structured Finance Association (SFA) offering education and other resources to help women develop, advance and remain in the industry.

"Claudine's excellence as an attorney and her innovativeness as a strategist in the field make her an ideal choice for this role," said Anna-Liza Harris, co-chair of Katten's industry-leading Structured Finance and Securitization practice, consistently ranked among the top issuers' counsel for issuers of asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities nationwide. "Claudine is a proven leader who understands what is required to elevate women in our industry and is very much equal to the task."

Chen-Young previously served as WiS vice-chair. In her practice at Katten, she helps banks, private equity firms and similar institutions buy and sell mortgage assets and structure the financing of them, including through securitization. Her extensive experience with buying and selling all types of residential mortgage loans, including growth mortgage products, allows her to negotiate tough transactions efficiently and effectively.

The SFA works to help the economy grow by helping to enable greater credit access to the industry, consumers and investors. Further, the group seeks to safeguard essential protections for consumers and the financial system and to facilitate valuable dialogue among financial services market practitioners and policymakers.

Last year, Harris was chosen to helm the Board of Trustees of the Structured Finance Foundation, an SFA affiliate that supports students pursuing secondary education. The foundation recently began a partnership with the University of the District of Columbia School of Business and Public Administration to provide scholarships, mentoring and pipeline opportunities for its students pursuing degrees in business disciplines. Harris, who also is a partner in Katten's Transactional Tax Planning practice, has been a member of the Executive Committee of the SFA Board of Directors and is a past chair of the SFA Tax Policy Committee.

Because Katten's Structured Finance and Securitization practice consolidates in one place the tax, bankruptcy, banking, derivatives and ERISA knowledge necessary to move transactions smoothly and efficiently, it is noteworthy in the legal industry. Within the span of one year, this practice has completed deals totaling more than $20 billion.