Michael Best & Friedrich LLP announced the hire of a former Sherman & Howard LLC attorney with experience working on a wide range of capital markets matters as a partner in Denver.
Harsha Sekar joined Michael Best's securities and capital markets practice group earlier this month after spending the last two years as a public finance partner with Kline Alvarado Veio PC. Sekar also spent about three years with Sherman & Howard and three years with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in its member regulation department.
He told Law360 Pulse on Friday that Michael Best's fast growth in Denver along with its strong capital markets platform were some of the main factors driving his decision to join the firm.
"The firm's tremendous growth and sense of optimism which I think is buttressed by our market-leading venture capital practice is truly infectious," Sekar said. "Michael Best's platform provides the opportunity for me to grow my core practice while also doing capital markets work in other verticals, cross-sell and offer additional and enhanced services to my clients, and continue to cultivate my many relationships in Colorado and elsewhere."
Sekar graduated from Tulane University Law School, and his practice focuses on a wide range of venture capital and private equity transactions, which include representing clients with the issuance of high-yield municipal securities, corporate debt and equity securities. According to the firm, he's represented investment banks and issuers as disclosure counsel on over 100 high-yield municipal debt offerings with a combined worth in the billions of dollars.
"My clients are experts at putting together creative, complex credit structures that both benefit issuers and provide the marketplace with unique and innovative financial products," Sekar said. "This necessitates careful disclosure in offering documents and other transaction documents on just about every deal—while challenging, we are virtually always able to find pragmatic solutions that work for all transaction participants."
One highlight is Sekar's 2020 representation of Colorado on the formation of the state's CLIMBER loan fund, created to provide over $250 million in COVID relief funding to small businesses.
"Representing the state on this matter has been one of the biggest highlights of my career," he said. "While the loan fund has a very complex capital structure that required us to consider a variety of legal and regulatory issues, participating in the program from the standpoint of a lender or a borrower is very intuitive and easy to do."
Along with his work as an attorney, Sekar will begin teaching a seminar on public finance and capital markets as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law for the spring 2023 semester. He's also involved in a number of community organizations, serving on the boards of the Denver Family Institute, Wyatt Academy Charter School, Moonshot eDventures, and the South Asian Bar Association of Colorado.
"Harsha is an example of the strong talent the firm continues to bring into our Colorado offices and beyond," Colorado managing partner Shawn Stigler said in a statement. "We're excited to welcome him into our new space here in Denver and tap into his background in banking and municipal markets."
Sekar's hire was made public the same week that Michael Best announced the hire of Chicago-based corporate and transactional partner Patrick Stura. Last year, the fast-growing firm made many additions throughout its 17-office portfolio, including the merger with the 23-attorney Forrest Firm, which added more than five offices throughout North Carolina.