Rising up, Ariel Goldman, a companion in Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s finance observe, was not brief on individuals who pushed him to suppose more durable.
Goldman’s father labored as medical director on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being simply exterior of Washington, D.C. And a mess of aunts, uncles and different family labored as scientists and medical doctors. Household gatherings all the time included full of life debates. “Their scientific strategy to the world had a big effect on me,” he mentioned. “They taught me to ask questions and suppose critically about my issues.”
“I needed to forge my very own path and thought the legislation was a great place for me to use a few of that essential pondering in a distinct route,” he mentioned.
After graduating from Georgetown College Regulation Heart, Goldman’s authorized path led to Cahill Gordon’s Manhattan workplace, the place he represents banks in leveraged buyouts, recapitalization, debt and fairness choices and different company finance transactions.
“We continuously have these conditions the place an organization has wants and the financial institution has wants,” he mentioned. “You must thread the needle of bringing the 2 sides collectively.”
The havoc the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked on corporations and staff gave him renewed appreciation for his specialty, mentioned Goldman, recalling his work on funding financial institution offers that helped hold corporations like SeaWorld and The Hole afloat.
“To work on a financing transaction the place you’re really serving to individuals hold their jobs, it’s simply very rewarding,” he mentioned. “You’re not simply paying some dividend or serving to transfer cash from one pile to a different. It’s maintaining the lights on at corporations that make use of hundreds and hundreds of individuals.”
Goldman and his colleagues represented funding banks, corresponding to JPMorgan Chase & Co., in serving to SeaWorld faucet $500 million in secured notes in April 2020 to realize extra liquidity.
Cahill’s finance group labored on subsequent financings that enabled the amusement park operator to refinance a few of that debt with extra favorable phrases.
The Hole, a retail large, raised $2.25 billion in secured notes in Could 2020 by way of financing from Morgan Stanley and different funding banks, hashed out by Goldman and his group because it struggled with closed shops throughout the pandemic.
“It’s very rewarding to assist these corporations and assist the banks work with these corporations to get to a profitable decision of a unprecedented, sudden downside,” he mentioned.
Goldman’s work constantly demonstrates his creativity “when the information that he encounters are new or nuanced,” mentioned Douglas Horowitz, a companion in Cahill’s company observe group who has labored with Goldman.
“He’s fairly facile with the banking aspect in addition to the excessive yield aspect,” Horowitz mentioned.
His mental flexibility additionally extends to complicated financing in mergers and acquisitions. Goldman represented funding banks, together with Credit score Suisse and Deutsche Financial institution, within the financing of T-Cell’s mammoth acquisition of Dash, then a rival wi-fi provider when the deal was introduced in April 2018. “It was a really giant financing with a really sophisticated construction,” he mentioned.
The deal, which required asset gross sales for regulators’ approval, closed in early April 2020, simply as monetary markets had been reeling. “I confronted plenty of challenges in juggling these completely different issues, and I believe I actually grew as an lawyer.”
“The Covid wrench on the finish was actually an unwelcome shock, however one thing we had been capable of navigate by way of,” he added.
Vigorous train helps him take care of the job’s stress, Goldman mentioned. Throughout the pandemic, he resumed long-distance biking and now rides about 150 miles every week. He typically rides out to Bear Mountain State Park, about 50 miles every approach from his residence in Manhattan.
The train is an “alternative to clear your head and never have the cellphone ringing or the emails coming in.”
The daddy of three younger kids additionally enjoys taking his children biking alongside the Hudson River.
“It’s one thing we love about residing within the metropolis, attending to take pleasure in that inexperienced house,” he mentioned.
