Michael Calandra

Michael Calandra is a Partner and a member of Dentons' Capital Markets practice group. His primary practice area is Banking and Finance Law.

He represents buyers and lenders in repurchase, warehousing and other secured lending facilities related to residential and commercial mortgage loans, securities and other financial assets. He also counsels issuers and underwriters of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and buyers and sellers of residential and commercial mortgage loans, servicing rights and other financial assets.

Prior to joining Dentons, he was most recently an executive director at Morgan Stanley, where he advised senior management, business units, credit, legal, compliance and operations departments regarding legal, regulatory and reputational risks in connection with a wide array of structured finance transactions and workouts of troubled credits. He also oversaw all aspects of structuring and transaction execution across the residential mortgage complex (i.e., warehouse, trading and securitisation). He was instrumental in building and reviving Morgan Stanley's RMBS issuance platform, MSRM, which became a consistent issuer in the prime jumbo, agency investor, non-performing and reperforming, and non-qualified mortgage asset classes.

He was previously a partner at an AmLaw 100 law firm and began his career as an associate at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP.

He holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University (2005) and a BA in Economics from Fordham University (2002).