Adam Massaro interviews global finance partner Chris Hand to explore his work in debt financing transactions and the emerging world of crypto. Chris discusses how he approaches securitizing digital assets, navigating multi-jurisdictional loans, structuring control agreements, and protecting lender interests. Chris also shares insights from his path to partnership and how he balances the demands of high-level transactional practice with life outside the office. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Welcome to Disputes in Perspective, a Reed Smith podcast. This podcast series will discuss disputes-related trends, hot topics, and developments occurring in the global legal landscape, and hopefully provide you with some helpful insights and practical tips. If you have any questions about any of the episodes, please feel free to contact our speakers.  Adam: Welcome back to the podcast. I've got with me Chris Hand, a partner in the Denver office of Reed Smith, and I am Adam Massaro, also a partner in the newly founded Denver office. Chris, welcome to the pod.  Chris: Thanks, Adam. I'm glad to be here.  Adam: So how long have you been at Reed Smith?  Chris: I joined the firm in February of 2025. We really hit the ground running over here. We were able to bring over quite a few clients in some existing matters. So I really jumped right in with some of our existing Denver clients and then started integrating with some of our Chicago and New York team as well. So it's been only a few months so far, but a really good start.  Adam: What practice group are you in? So I'm in the corporate practice group. Really, I'm a transactional attorney, but I specialize in debt financing transactions.  Adam: And debt financing. Give us the listeners a little more information about that.  Chris: Yeah, it feels like a pretty broad term. You know, more specifically, my practice, I represent capital providers. So that could be large national banks. It could be regional banks, private credit funds or just other private investors. When those capital providers are making secured loans to certain partners. So the debt financing transaction is anytime you have a lender making a loan to another party, that party's going to pay back the loan with interest. And if they fail to pay it back, there's going to be some assets that are acting as collateral security for that loan. That's where I step in.  Adam: You mentioned that you came over with a team. Who else did you come over with to help found the Denver office?  Chris: Yeah, I came over with a really strong team who I've worked with for a while. Jay Spader, specifically, he's the head of the debt financing group here in Denver. Brendon Leanos, another debt financing partner I've worked with for about 18 months now. And Jason Larkin on our team as well, who I've worked with for nearly five years at this point. We all came over together. We each have a practice that is all within the debt financing realm, but a little bit different. And each one of us has a slightly different specialty.  Adam: What's your focus?  Chris: So me specifically, like I said, I represent capital providers, but I think my work really fits into two main buckets. The first would be large, broadly syndicated loan transactions that provide working capital to existing, well-established companies. So just to unpack that a little bit, syndicated loan transaction is typically when you have one large bank acting as an agent that puts together the deal. And then that bank goes out and finds other lenders that want to participate. paid. They come in with a commitment and they all join together to provide some portion of the debt financing to a borrower. I work on those facilities. They usually, like I said, provide working capital, so help a company manage their day-to-day cash needs. And then the other large bucket is acquisition financing. So I'll represent a lot of borrowers, but also private equity sponsors and lenders. Anytime somebody's b