With over 15 years’ experience, Hahnelt’s practice is centred on all aspects of complex domestic and international private credit, direct lending, and leveraged finance transactions. He also has extensive experience in corporate lending, PIK-HoldCo structures and financial restructurings.
His clients include credit/debt funds, financial institutions, private equity investors and corporate companies.
He joins from Simmons & Simons with two counsel - Markus Cejka and Dr. Nikolas Koutsós
Hahnelt completed his studies both in Germany and the US, including the LL.M. program at Madison Law School, Wisconsin and the Executive Education Program at Harvard Law School, Cambridge.
He is recognised by Handelsblatt and The Best Lawyers as a leading lawyer for banking and finance law and by WirtschaftsWoche as a Top-Lawyer for Banking & Finance in Germany.
Panos Katsambas, co-chair of Reed Smith’s Financial Industry Group, said: “We have recently been significantly investing in the growth of our private credit team and Oliver’s arrival enhances our robust offering. He is a leading lawyer in his field and we’re very pleased to welcome him to the firm.”
Octávio de Sousa, Reed Smith’s Frankfurt managing partner, added: “Oliver is a standout name in the market and a truly talented lawyer. His extensive debt finance experience dovetails perfectly with the finance practice in both Germany and on an international scale and will further broaden the offering of our private equity practice. I’ve known him for many years and I’m certain he will prove a huge asset to our clients.”
Hahnelt commented: “Reed Smith has ambitions to become one of the dominant firms in the private credit space and with its impressive global reach, collaborative approach and hugely talented team it’s an exciting time to be joining. I look forward to working with the team to help grow the practice both in Germany and internationally.”
This latest hire continues the trend of senior lawyers joining Reed Smith in Germany this year, following the arrival of partner Germar Enders in July and partner Dr. Nikolaus von Jacobs and senior counsel Christian von Sydow in May.
Reed Smith is among a select group of global law firms with a dedicated private credit group that can provide seamless, full-service, cross-border advice on private credit transactions. The firm’s global private credit practice includes teams in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East focused on, special situations & distressed, speciality finance and direct lending, with a particular emphasis on bespoke sector-agnostic finance and hybrid credit solutions.