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Christopher S. Schell
Partner
Mr. Schell is a member of Davis Polk’s Corporate Department and regularly advises financial institutions on domestic and international securities offerings of structured products, including numerous types of synthetic exchangeable securities and other equity, commodity and currency linked products. He has extensive experience developing new financial products, including innovative offerings of units, warrants, exchange traded notes and proprietary indexes, for both retail and institutional investors.
Contact
Bar Admissions
  • State of New York
Education
  • B.A., Yale University, 1993
  • J.D., Yale Law School, 1998
    • Articles Editor, Yale Journal of International Law

Work Highlights
  • Regularly advises the issuers and designers of structured products on SEC-registered, Rule 144A/Regulation S, Regulation D and Section 3(a)(2) structured note issuance programs
  • Morgan Stanley on the 2011 issuance of approximately $6.8 billion of structured products on equities, commodities, currencies, credit and other underlying assets
  • Morgan Stanley on over $40 billion of SEC-registered debt securities
  • Morgan Stanley on its investment, as part of a investment consortium, in the convertible preferred stock of Carver Bancorp, Inc., a regional commercial bank
  • Morgan Stanley Smith Barney on the distribution of securities linked to equities, commodities, currencies and rates
  • Wells Fargo Securities on numerous exchange-traded notes, structured notes and market-linked certificates of deposit
  • Morgan Stanley on the U.S. Government’s $10 billion investment in the preferred stock and warrants of Morgan Stanley under the Troubled Asset Relief Program
  • Morgan Stanley on the repayment of the $10 billion preferred securities and the repurchase of the related warrants issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including the equity and debt capital raising transactions designed to satisfy the government’s conditions for repayment
  • Morgan Stanley on the issuance of an aggregate of over $23 billion of notes guaranteed under the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program
  • Burger King Holdings, Inc. and Greenhill & Co. in their initial public offerings
  • The arrangers of the €5 billion bridge loan and related high-yield financing of the purchase of the semiconductors business of Royal Philips Electronics by a private equity consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Apax and Alpinvest

From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Schell worked in the London office and advised on numerous capital markets transactions, including the $3 billion privatization of Statoil, the Norwegian state-owned oil and gas company, and several M&A advisory assignments.

Recognition
  • Addressed the 8th Annual Conference of the Structured Products Association on legal and regulatory developments
  • Addressed the New York State Bar Association Derivatives and Structured Products Law Committee on regulatory developments

Mr. Schell was a member of Davis Polk’s structured products team that won the “Law Firm of the Year – Americas” Award from Structured Products magazine in 2008 and 2010.

Of Note

Memberships

  • Member, American Bar Association
  • Member, New York City Bar
Professional History
  • Partner, 2010
  • Counsel, 2006-2010
  • Associate, 1999-2006
  • London office, 2000-2002
  • Law Clerk, Hon. Charles P. Sifton, U.S. District Court, E.D. New York 1998-1999