Controlled Foreign Corporations: The Deemed Dividend Dilemma

Gabriel Yomi Dabiri is the Team Leader of Polsinelli’s Private Debt and Private Equity Finance practices.

Gabriel prides himself on the commercial approach that he and his team take on matters, and gets the best deal for his clients by building a good working relationship with those working across the table. Gabriel leverages his market expertise in both “buy-and-hold” private debt strategies and syndicated finance transactions to guide clients on a variety of deals, from the routine to cutting edge. Gabriel’s practice is most concentrated in the growing private debt market, where he regularly advises clients on senior, mezzanine and subordinated loans, unitranche facilities, first lien/second lien facilities, and cash flow, ABL, subscription line and real estate finance transactions. Gabriel also negotiates complex intercreditor and subordination arrangements on behalf of his clients, and has advised clients on various debt restructurings and bankruptcies, including negotiating debtor-in-possession facilities and advising clients in connection with the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis.

Gabriel is dual-qualified, admitted to practice law as an attorney in New York and as a solicitor in England and Wales, and much of his work is cross-border in nature. Both Gabriel’s clients and the deals on which he advises routinely touch jurisdictions in North America, Europe and Asia. Prior to joining Polsinelli, Gabriel worked for a Magic Circle law firm in London, Singapore and New York, advising clients on domestic and cross-border capital markets and banking and finance transactions, and for leading global law firms in Manhattan, advising premier international financial institutions and corporate borrowers on large and middle market leveraged finance deals.  

When Gabriel is not devoting his time and expertise on behalf of clients, Gabriel prioritizes being an active member of his community. Gabriel is a member of the American Heart Association’s Executive Leadership Team and served for six years on the Executive Board for the AHA’s Young Professionals. He is also a member of the Board for the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, and is on the Finance Committee of the Women First International Fund, an international fund that provides micro-financing to women-led grassroots projects that advance the rights of women and girls.

Gabriel has been recognized as an Empire State Counsel® Honoree by the New York State Bar Association, as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine in each year from 2015 to 2019 for client work in Banking, Securities and Corporate Finance, and by The National Black Lawyers – Top 100 for “exemplifying superior qualifications of leadership, reputation, influence and performance in his areas of legal practice.” Gabriel is also a faculty member of The Black BigLaw Pipeline, a non-profit comprised of senior Black attorneys established to promote positive outcomes for Black attorneys working in large law firms.