Trio of Partners Honored as Notable Women in Law by Crain’s New York Business

New York partners Nicole Fanjul, Alex Kelly, and Katherine Rocco have been recognized as 2026 Notable Women in Law by Crain’s New York Business. The prestigious list, which this year highlighted just 131 lawyers statewide, honors women attorneys who are “leading the work that keep systems functioning and rights protected” and who are “defining New York’s next era of law, all while mentoring the next generation of legal professionals.”

• Nicole Fanjul is Co-Deputy Office Managing Partner for Latham New York and a member of the firm’s Banking & Private Credit Practice. She represents lenders and corporate borrowers in a variety of complex financings, with a particular focus on syndicated leveraged finance and direct lending transactions. Drawing on her sophisticated understanding of the debt financing market, Fanjul develops creative solutions for clients using a range of loan products. She serves as a go-to advisor to a number of large, multinational investment banks and direct lenders, as well as corporate borrowers from across industries. Her most recent success includes representing Blackstone in a landmark financing for Zendesk’s US$10.2 billion acquisition by an investor group led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira, the largest privately financed leveraged buyout in history by debt size at the time. Fanjul also advised on the significant financings for Quikrete’s US$11.5 billion acquisition of Summit Materials.


• Alex Kelly is Global Co-Chair of the M&A and Private Equity Practice. She represents market-leading strategic and private equity clients in complex corporate transactions, particularly within the asset management, financial services, technology, and infrastructure sectors. Her strategic vision and commitment to excellence have propelled Latham’s M&A and Private Equity Practice to unprecedented heights, establishing the firm as a transactional powerhouse, ranked number one globally. Recently, she represented Ares in its US$3.7 billion acquisition of GCP International; One Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus on the US$2.1 billion sale of Eco Material Technologies; Hg in acquisitions of A-LIGN and Payworks; and Hunter Point Capital on investments into Nuveen, Equitix, and several other asset managers.


• Katherine (Kate) Rocco is Co-Chair of Latham’s New York Litigation & Trial Department and a member of the firm’s Antitrust & Competition Practice. In her practice she regularly leads clients through their most complex antitrust matters, including by securing clearances from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for high-stakes mergers, and defending companies in a wide range of antitrust litigations, investigations, and criminal cartel matters. Over the past 20 years, Rocco has advised private and public companies on more than US$200 billion worth of transactions and hundreds of individual matters. In addition to helping advise Paramount in its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, recently she represented Endeavor in its US$21 billion merger with WWE; Silver Lake in the US$55 billion EA Sports take private with PIF; and Skydance in its US$28 billion transaction with Paramount. Rocco also represents Claritev (formerly Multiplan) in the nationwide algorithmic pricing MDL as well as numerous clients in confidential investigations before the DOJ, FTC, and other agencies.