Jon Van Gorp

Jon D. Van Gorp is a partner at the global law firm Mayer Brown where he has practiced for more than 20 years. Jon is a co-leader of the firm’s Structured Finance and Capital Markets practices and a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Previously, he served as a co-leader of the global Banking & Finance practice. He is located in both Chicago and New York.

Jon’s experience highlights his versatility and flexibility. The broad range of his work includes public and private securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, assets sales, structured finance transactions, leveraged leases, derivatives, synthetic risk transfer programs, litigation/work outs/restructurings, government relations/lobbying and financial insurance.

He develops novel approaches to funding difficult-to-finance assets such as nonperforming mortgage loans, distressed ABS and MBS, residential single family rental properties, mortgage servicing rights and servicing advances.

He also assists clients in developing innovative solutions to fund their operations, sell or acquire asset portfolios and businesses, or manage and hedge their exposures by buying and selling risk.

Jon excels at analyzing a client’s situation and proposing unique yet practical solutions. Jon’s reputation for innovation, recognized by the Financial Times, is demonstrated by his integral role in many first-of-their-kind transactions, including:

• The first auto leveraged lease transaction funded with asset-backed debt
• The first synthetic transfer of risk related to a portfolio of consumer auto leases
• The first auto receivables shelf registration statement to go effective under regulation AB
• The first publicly offered CDO of mezzanine MBS debt
• The first securitization of Mexican mortgage loans funded in the US capital markets

Jon has been consistently ranked as an outstanding lawyer by Chambers USA, Chambers Global, Legal 500 and IFLR1000 each year since becoming a partner, including being one of 12 lawyers in the US recognized in the area of Structured Finance in Legal 500’s inaugural list of hall of fame lawyers.

Jon is an active leader in the Chicago community. He is a past Leadership Greater Chicago fellow. He is a Member of the Regional Board of Bottom Line and Chair of its Fundraising and Visibility Committee.  Bottom Line provides college access and success programs for low income and first generation college students.

He is a Member of the Carrington Charitable Foundation Advisory Board, which provides support to America’s wounded servicemen and women. Jon is also the Treasurer and a Trustee of the Kenilworth Union Church.

Education :

• Calvin College, BA
• Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, JD, cum laude

Admissions :

• New York
• Illinois

Experience :

• Structured and negotiated the purchase of four large mortgage loan origination, servicing and asset management platforms; including two purchases from bankrupt sellers.
• Structured and negotiated multiple public auto loan and auto lease term securitization transactions, including transactions with asset-backed derivative instruments and financial guaranty insurance.
• During the credit crisis, led a consortium of independent mortgage servicers in a successful lobbying effort to obtain government support for servicing advance funding facilities.
• Prepared multiple Regulation AB-compliant shelf registration statements for auto receivables, mortgage loans and home equity loans, including registrations by foreign issuers.
• Negotiated asset-backed interest rate and currency swap transactions, including transactions conforming with criteria for ratings dependent swaps.
• Negotiated and documented multiple market value swaps for mortgage loan-backed and securities-backed funding vehicles.