Amir Shenaq
Co-Founder / Partner
Amir Shenaq is a partner and co-founder of Park Laureate Partners (“PLP”) and specializes in providing advisory services to law firms, corporate claimants, universities, and other parties seeking litigation financing. In addition, Mr. Shenaq also provides finance consulting services to law firms in transition.
Prior to Park Laureate Partners, Mr. Shenaq served as Chief Business Development Officer for one of North America’s largest advertising law firms, where he was responsible for the firm’s capital raising efforts, along with identifying and deploying capital into unique investment opportunities in the legal space to accelerate the firm’s growth.
Prior to this, Mr. Shenaq was a career investment banker, most recently within the leveraged finance group of Wells Fargo Securities. During his investment banking career, Mr. Shenaq advised on, structured, and facilitated over 100 financing transactions worth in excess of $40 billion. Since then, Mr. Shenaq has replicated these efforts, procuring substantial amounts of capital for his clients who have sought litigation financing.
Mr. Shenaq earned his bachelor’s in business from University of Houston and his JD from Emory University School of Law, where he was a Managing Editor of the Bankruptcy Law Journal and is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, and his MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business. When not at work, Amir enjoys spending time with his family and three young children.
Omar Saleh
Co-Founder / Partner
Omar S. Saleh is a partner and co-founder of Park Laureate Partners. He specializes in assisting law firms in obtaining working capital and case specific financing for individual cases and mass tort dockets. He also advises hedge funds, private equity funds, individual creditors, and investors on the acquisition and maximization of distressed positions and claims inside of and outside of bankruptcy court.
Before co-founding PLP, Mr. Saleh practiced law at three of the most prestigious law firms in Texas. From 1996 to 2007, Mr. Saleh was an attorney in the commercial litigation and bankruptcy sections of Andrews Kurth LLP. After leaving AK, he practiced law for three years at the Lanier Law Firm, where he was the Group Leader of the Lanier Law Firm’s Bankruptcy Litigation Group. Mr. Saleh then joined the nationally renowned law firm of McKool Smith, P.C., where he was a shareholder in the firm’s bankruptcy litigation section. While at these three firms, Mr. Saleh was responsible for obtaining settlements and judgments for his clients in excess of $150 million. Mr. Saleh has also been involved in the restructuring of more than a billion dollars in debt transactions and litigated and advised on multiple structured finance transactions in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Mr. Saleh obtained his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989 and his law degree from Creighton University School of Law in 1996, where he was a member of the law review. He currently resides in Houston, Texas with his two children.
Bill Pakalka
Senior Advisor
Bill is an accomplished trial attorney, with 45 years of experience representing corporate clients involved in high stakes commercial litigation, arbitration and civil and criminal antitrust matters, including trial experience as a senior partner at Norton Rose Fulbright (previously known as Fulbright & Jaworski), a large international law firm with over 3,000 attorneys. Over his 45 year career as a trial lawyer, Bill has successfully prosecuted and defended claims involving a variety of legal issues in federal and state courts throughout the United States and has represented large national and multi-national corporations in some of the most high-stakes complex commercial litigation and antitrust matters.
Bill has also served as outside general counsel to clients and has regularly provided advice concerning antitrust compliance, litigation strategy, litigation finance, case management, claim valuation, risk assessment and mitigation, alternative dispute resolution, insurance coverage, settlement negotiations, contracts, and other issues. Prior to joining Norton Rose Fulbright in 1973, Bill served as a law clerk to the Honorable Irving L. Goldberg, Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Bill has been included in Chambers USA’s Best Lawyers for Business – Antitrust, An International Who’s Who of Commercial Litigators, (one of 100 U.S. antitrust lawyers listed and 13 from Texas), Best Lawyers in America for Antitrust Law and Commercial Litigation, www.WhosWhoLegal.com (2000 to date), Texas Monthly Super Lawyer, Commercial Litigation, National Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition, Madison’s Who’s Who Among Executives & Professionals, Who’s Who Legal – Texas, Mondaq Professional Survey of the World’s Leading Lawyers in Antitrust, Nightingale Healthcare Magazine 2005 Award for Outstanding Healthcare Antitrust Lawyer in America.