2025 ILLINOIS ATTORNEYS TO WATCH
JOHN ABLAN
AGE 39
FIRM Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
LAW SCHOOL Vanderbilt University Law School
“
AREA(S) OF PRACTICE Capital markets, corporate and financial services
John takes every issue seriously, communicates effectively, and offers first-rate service.
”
J ohn Ablan has extensive experience advising both issuers and financial institutions in a broad range of domestic and cross-border capital markets transactions, including: invest- ment grade and high yield debt offerings; initial public offerings and follow-on equity offerings; de-SPAC transactions; preferred equity offerings; and liability management transactions. Ablan also advises companies and other market participants on the securities law aspects to mergers and acquisitions and restruc- turing matters. In addition, Ablan regularly provides counsel to public companies on their securities law compliance obligations, stock exchange listing requirements, corporate governance and other matters. Ablan has that rare but necessary skill that all top corporate and capital markets attorneys possess: the ability to quickly pro- cess the complex issues of a deal while simultaneously under- standing the big picture. And as his peers say, Ablan is fiercely dedicated to his clients. "John takes every issue seriously, communicates effectively and offers first-rate service," said one fellow attorney. During his career, Ablan has counseled some of the largest companies across the globe on complex capital markets trans- actions. A recent example? Ablan led the Willkie capital markets team in connection with Xerox's $800 million senior secured notes, offering to refinance existing debt to help finance the ac- quisition of Lexmark International II, LLC.
This transaction involved both first-lien and second-lien notes, each of which had to fit into Xerox's already complex capital structure that already included a first-lien term loan, asset-backed revolving credit facility and other secured indebt- edness. Despite these complexities, Ablan and his team helped Xerox smoothly close this deal. Ablan also co-led a team advising the underwriters in the registered public offering of $1 billion of senior notes by The Dow Chemical Company. He served, too, as a key member of the team that advised Saks Global on its Rule 14A/Regulation S senior secured notes offering for an aggregate principal amount of $2.2 billion as financing for the acquisition of Nieman Marcus in 2024 for a total enterprise value of $2.7 billion. Earlier in his career, Ablan advised Morgan Stanley on a $1.325 billion aggregate principal amount taxable high-yield notes offering for Brightline Trains Florida as part of a series of ground-breaking transactions that provided financing to sup- port the design, development and construction of high-speed- rail projects for Brightline. "Early in his career, John has already earned the status as a go-to advisor for some of the world's largest and most suc- cessful companies and organizations," said one nominator. "He has proven himself as an invaluable asset in advising clients on a broad spectrum of domestic and cross-border capital markets transactions."
40 Under Forty 2025
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CHICAGO LAWYER & CHICAGO DAILY LAW BULLETIN
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