Sarah E. Milam
Partner
Areas of Focus
- Capital Solutions
- Corporate & Finance
- Private Credit
- Private Capital
- Fintech
- Focuses on asset-based finance, securitization and structured private credit.
- Advises asset managers, sponsors, private credit funds, issuers and originators.
- Experience across a wide range of asset classes.
Sarah focuses on asset-based finance, securitization and structured private credit, with broad experience in a variety of financing structures, including traditional securitizations, joint ventures, forward flow and portfolio acquisition programs, hybrid financings and complex private debt transactions, across a wide range of asset classes.
She advises asset managers, sponsors, private credit funds, issuers and originators in originating or acquiring, financing and divesting assets, including regulatory considerations and bank partnership arrangements.
Sarah’s experience spans a wide range of traditional and esoteric asset classes, with extensive experience with consumer (unsecured, credit card, buy now pay later, auto, home improvement and solar, student), commercial (SME loan, trade receivables and supply chain finance, equipment and floorplan, legal services receivables) and financial (royalties, alternative and other complex) assets.
Before attending law school, Sarah spent 10 years in financial operations roles at Bank of America and an activist investment fund and was in the EY’s hedge fund audit practice. Her business-side operational experience and accounting background give her deep insight into the financial and strategic drivers behind her clients’ transactions. She is a California Certified Public Accountant (inactive).
- Represented Pagaya on its inaugural point-of-sale loan securitization to fund point-of-sale loans originated by U.S. point-of-sale platforms, as well as multiple securitizations of unsecured consumer and auto loans.
- Represented French pharmaceutical Poxel on the monetization of pharmaceutical royalties and sales-based payments related to TWYMEEG®.
- Represented a leading global asset manager in a multi-jurisdictional joint venture and financing to originate and fund trade receivable and supply chain finance transactions.
- Represented multiple investment fund managers in connection with the acquisition and financing of loans and receivables, including forward flow arrangements, joint ventures and origination arrangements, sourced or originated by fintech and other specialty lenders.
- Represented banks and finance companies in public and private securitizations backed by unsecured consumer loans, credit card receivables, auto loans and leases, debt consolidation loans and esoterics, including many first-time issuers.
Education
- J.D., Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law, 2013
- B.S., Wake Forest University, 2001
- M.S., Wake Forest University, 2001
- J.D., Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law, 2013
- B.S., Wake Forest University, 2001
- M.S., Wake Forest University, 2001
Bar AdmissionsNew York
New York
- The Legal 500 US, Structured Finance: Securitization.
- Speaker, “Market Beat: Private Credit Roundtable: Assessing Growing Concerns,” SFVegas 2025, Las Vegas, NV, 2025.
- Speaker, “ABF Industry Leaders,” Private Credit Connect: East, Miami Beach, FL, 2024.
- “The Return of Dodd-Frank Rulemaking: SEC Proposes Expansive Prohibition on Conflicts of Interest in Securitization,” The Investment Lawyer, 2023.
- Speaker, “The Rise of Neobanks,” Fintech Junction 2023 Annual Summit, Tel Aviv, 2023.
- Speaker, “How Blockchain-Enabled Payments Rails Can Speed Up Payments,” Fintech Nexus USA 2023, New York, NY, 2023.
- Speaker, “Herbie Goes to Miami: Auto ABS,” ABS East Conference, Miami Beach, FL, 2022.
- Speaker, “ESG Hub: Applications to Consumer ABS,” ABS East Conference, Miami Beach, FL, 2021.
- Moderator, “Risk Retention Finance Strategies for the Niche Lender,” ABS East Conference, Miami Beach, FL, 2019.
