Quarles’ Marino dives into the deep end of businesses

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Anthony Marino enjoys learning all he can about different businesses — something that comes in handy as a business transactional attorney with Quarles & Brady LLP in Milwaukee.

“I really enjoy the transactional work and putting deals together,” he said. “It’s been a good ride.”

Marino may be enjoying himself now, but it wasn’t a straight projection. After graduating college with a degree in finance, Marino worked as an IT consultant. He soon discovered the work was not for him.

“I liked working with the different businesses, but not what I was doing. I had thought about law school off and on and saw it as a way I could still work with businesses,” Marino said.

While in law school, he took a secured credit course and then did a summer internship with a law firm that handled bankruptcy cases. That led him to focus on business transactions for companies of all sizes and in a variety of industries.

“I like learning about how businesses operate as well as their assets and any issues they may have,” Marino said.

At Quarles, he works with lenders and borrowers to negotiate and document secured and unsecured financial transactions of all sizes.

One of the biggest challenges Marino said he runs into is working on deals when businesses have operations outside of the United States. He said that can complicate deals.

“Everything is also more time sensitive than it used to be,” Marino said. “It all moves more quickly.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: What makes your work important to you?
Anthony Marino: Making sure that companies have access to capital is a critical function, so having a role in facilitating this is satisfying. I also really enjoy learning about different businesses — everything from how they got started to their competitive advantages to the challenges that they face.

WLJ: What do you do outside of work to deal with stress from the office?
Marino: I try to get outside as much as possible. I bike, run, snowboard, hike and camp.

WLJ: What’s one thing many people get wrong about what you do?
Marino: Most people who know me understand that I do some form of transactional work, but from there they are all over the map. I have friends who still, after 20 years, think I do securities or tax work.

WLJ: What’s your favorite memory from law school?
Marino: I and some friends did a semester in London our third year. I had never been to Europe before and this allowed us to travel quite a bit. I went to Italy, Ireland, France in addition to exploring England.

WLJ: Is there a certain transaction that stands out to you?
Marino: I and others at Quarles represented the agent for a syndicate of lenders who were going to make a loan to an airline when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. You may remember that airline traffic decreased substantially after the attacks, which made closing the loan extremely difficult. We worked with the lenders, the borrower and their counsel to increase the collateral package to include previously excluded aviation assets and got the deal done.