Attorneys

< Directory Julia Lu

Drawing on her background in securities offerings and her previous experience as the acting chief operating officer of a trading desk, Julia Lu focuses her practice on distressed debt and derivatives markets. She advises clients in transactional and regulatory aspects of their trading businesses, and collaborates with them to formulate strategic, pragmatic legal solutions to complex trading and risk management issues.

Julia focuses her derivatives practice on total return swaps, credit default swaps, credit- and equity-linked notes, equity swaps and options, and other derivatives transactions, and the application of the new U.S. legislative and regulatory regimes pertaining to these transactions. In particular she has substantial experience handling a variety of derivatives transactions based on secured and unsecured loans and other debt instruments in North America, Europe and Asia.

Due to her deep background in the credit derivatives transactions, Julia was elected by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee as a pool member to be called upon to conduct external reviews of the determinations made by the Determinations Committee. She works with other members of the RK&O team in performing RK&O’s duties as the “Designated Law Firm” in connection with the Continuity Procedures for the North American “bullet” loan credit default swap.

In her distressed debt trading and special situations practice, Julia collaborates with her clients – major broker-dealers and hedge funds – to formulate policies and procedures, and to structure and draft standard documentation, used in trading bank loans, bankruptcy claims, reorganization equities and other distressed assets. She also helps clients to formulate strategic approaches to special situations trading and investment opportunities in the distressed markets. In recent years Julia has worked extensively on the trading and investing in derivatives and other financial claims in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Julia’s recent notable engagements include:

Advising The Loan Syndications and Trading Association in connection with its lobbying efforts relating to the impact of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on the loan and loan derivatives markets
Advising a major broker-dealer in structuring and documenting loan total return swap programs and in resolving significant trading disputes using bespoke total return swaps
Representing a major broker-dealer and end-users in bespoke tranched portfolio loan credit default swap transactions
Representing the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, The Loan Syndication and Trading Association and industry working groups in collaborative efforts in designing and documenting the standard North American and European loan credit default swap products
Advising a broker-dealer working group in designing the framework used for loan settlement into credit default swaps in conjunction with the ISDA “Big Bang” protocol
Representing a major broker-dealer in the structuring and drafting of market-standard documentation in trading liquidation trust units

Julia is a frequent speaker on derivatives and financial claims trading at industry conferences. In addition, Julia serves as a director on the board of Rega Capital Dynamic Value Fund, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund.

In 2006, Julia worked at Goldman Sachs as the Chief Operating Officer of the Bank Loan Syndication and Trading Desk as a secondee.

Julia is admitted to practice in New York and California.