Evan Palenschat

EVAN PALENSCHAT focuses on private credit and complex leveraged finance. He counsels direct lenders, banks, hedge funds, and other credit investors and borrowers on direct-lending and syndicated facilities for acquisitions, growth capital, refinancings, recapitalizations, and liability-management solutions. His practice spans the full credit stack — first-lien/second-lien, unitranche and bifurcated structures, mezzanine and unsecured notes, holdco PIK instruments, and debt-like preferred equity — with a particular emphasis on speed-to-close, execution certainty, and commercially practical negotiations in competitive sponsor processes.

Evan also regularly advises on opportunistic and special-situations transactions, including structured capital, bridge-to-refi, non-pro rata solutions, rescue financings, and NAV/asset-backed facilities, and guides credit investors and borrowers through amend-and-extend, exchange/uptier and liability-management transactions, as well as workouts and restructurings. He has worked on more than US$50 billion of financing value across sectors including software/tech, healthcare, business services, industrials, consumer, and fintech. Evan is recommended in Legal 500 United States (2023–2024).

Clients choose Evan for clear, execution-oriented advice that helps them achieve their goals, efficient document negotiation, and market-grounded judgment on terms that matter to downside protection and portfolio durability.

• Member, Business Law Section, American Bar Association
• Member, Private Equity Committee and Healthcare Committee, Association for Corporate Growth
• Member, Leadership Council, Communities In Schools