Linklaters

Silke is the Global Head of Linklaters’ Investment Funds practice and specialises in alternative investment funds and is the key contact for some of the largest global fund sponsors in private markets. Her practice covers the full range of investment funds including retail and professional funds, with special expertise in alternative investment funds such as private equity, real estate, private credit and other alternative asset funds and investment management arrangements. Silke has been the counsel for several ground-breaking deals for some of the largest asset managers. Her practice includes the structuring, establishment and regulation of funds and asset management businesses, including the setting-up of co-investment structures, tailored managed accounts e.g. for sovereign investors and regulatory work (e.g. licensing and passporting procedures) in the asset management sphere. Silke covers all types of diversified, regulated, unregulated and tailored investment structures including beyond a typical fund set-up. In addition, Silke has developed extensive experience in the field of sustainable finance and advises our clients on sustainable finance disclosures and taxonomy. Silke is also advising clients on the structuring of impact and sustainable funds and on how to capture new opportunities arising in the new era of ESG friendly investments. Besides her alternatives business Silke further has deep knowledge of retail investor funds (UCITS and UCIs) and is the legal counsel to a number of flagship funds distributed by some of the biggest asset managers around the world. Silke is Linklaters’ Luxembourg Innovation Partner and leads communication and engagement for our global Generative AI Steering Group. In this role, she brings together technology experts, lawyers, and senior leaders to ensure everyone is aligned on the responsible and transparent use of artificial intelligence across the firm.

Maxime Bertomeu-Savalle

Maxime is a counsel in the Luxembourg corporate group. He joined the firm in 2010, was seconded to the litigation group of our Luxembourg office in 2012 and to the financial sponsors practice of our London office in 2014. He advises clients on a wide range of corporate matters, with a particular expertise in private M&A, joint ventures and group restructuring. He has experience on working on the sale or acquisition of regulated businesses in Luxembourg. Maxime gained specific expertise in advising financial sponsors on all Luxembourg corporate aspects, including initial investment, structuring, exit and portfolio assistance. He regularly advises clients on complex cross-border restructuring and insolvency matters. Maxime also recently advised on the set-up of SPACs, their listing on a regulated market and business combinations with targets of different industries (de-SPAC transactions).

Hermann Beythan

Hermann is an Of Counsel in the Investment Funds practice. He has headed the practice for several years. His investment funds practice focuses on complex fund structuring. Hermann regularly acts as counsel to prime investment fund houses. Hermann is regularly involved in the structuring of complex investment fund structures, notably debt and real estate funds. Brexit related work is the third pillar at Hermann’s practice. Hermann is also acknowledged by the market as a regulatory expert in investment management matters. A particular focus of his regulatory practice, apart from cross-border financial service provisions and cross-border private placements, is outsourcing and the conduct of change of control procedure with the Luxembourg and EU regulators.

Rémy joined Linklaters’ Corporate/M&A practice group in 2007 and was appointed as partner in May 2018. He heads Linklaters’ Mainstream Corporate practice in Luxembourg. Rémy has worked in both our Brussels and London offices, gaining invaluable experience for his Corporate M&A practice. Since his arrival over 15 years ago, Rémy has built up strong relationships with key clients and has become the trusted advisor of major private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds. A member of the Bar in New York and Luxembourg, Rémy has extensive experience in group restructurings, joint ventures and private equity transactions. With particular expertise in international IPOs, SPACs, share offerings and takeover bids he is recognised as a leading expert in Luxembourg for Equity Capital Markets deals. Rémy is a member of the Executive Board of the China-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and a member of the editorial board of the Luxembourg Business Law Review (Revue pratique de droit des affaires).

Danièle Buchler

As a partner in the Luxembourg tax practice, Danièle assists investment managers in the set-up and tax structuring of joint venture companies and fund vehicles including on the downstream structuring across all asset classes. She also advises on the Luxembourg tax aspects of cross-border reorganisations and has significant expertise in the tax structuring of private equity transactions. Aside from her focus on funds and financial investors, Danièle advises on the various tax angles of local real estate transactions both by way of share deals and asset deals.

Joakim-Antoine Charvet

Joakim-Antoine joined Linklaters in 2011. He has been promoted to full -Equity Partner in 2021. He is the Head of the Tax practice in Luxembourg. He is a member of the Luxembourg bar. Prior to joining Linklaters Luxembourg, Joakim-Antoine worked as an associate at another tax dedicated law firm in Luxembourg for nearly four years. He specialises in tax consulting and international tax planning. His main area of activity is private equity, where he mainly deals with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and joint ventures. He is also very active in transfer pricing issues and in the structuring of complex financial products. In addition to his fluency in English, his Spanish speaking skills and understanding of the Italian language make him a privileged person to go to for deals involving Southern Europe. Alongside his client work, Joakim regularly participates to industry meetings on subjects like ATAD in particular within the Luxembourg Capital Market Association (LuxCMA). He has also been analysing and summarising case law for Kluwer for more than 10 years, on a monthly basis.

Anton is a real estate lawyer who has advised on transactions in Belgium and Luxembourg since 2001. He has headed Luxembourg’s downstream real estate practice since the beginning of 2015 and was promoted to Counsel in 2017. Anton advises on the full range of issues within real estate, including incorporation and sale and purchase of real estate companies or real estate assets, real estate financing, environmental and town planning matters, litigation and structuring of projects. Anton’s practice also incorporates general commercial and contract law, construction law, agency and distribution law and projects. Anton regularly speaks at local and international industry events, including the Meetincs annual Real Estate conference where he looked at “Commercial leases” and the IFE session on Real Estate in Luxembourg. Anton moderated Linklaters Luxembourg’s first Real Estate conference, gathering over 100 guests.

Guido works as a VAT partner for both the Linklaters Brussels and Luxembourg office. Having worked for over 30 years on VAT matters, Guido has gained a wealth of experience and expertise in this area. He is recognised as one of the foremost VAT lawyers in Belgium and has, moreover, extensive experience in all indirect tax aspects relating to real estate transactions. In 1998 he was appointed at the faculty of the law school of the ULB (Free University of Brussels) and has been teaching on VAT related issues at the same university ever since. He is a frequent lecturer on VAT issues and regularly publishes articles on VAT related matters. The article “Le lieu de taxation : un sujet en plein mouvement” in Collection Collégiales du droit : “TVA – Taxer, déduire, exonérer et punir. Etat des savoirs, enjeux et perspectives” which has been published by Legitech is a recent example. Guido also heads the European VAT Centre, composed of VAT specialists of Linklaters in Europe and is a member of the VAT Working Group of the Association of the Luxembourg Funds Industry (ALFI) and the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA). Guido has been working in the Luxembourg office since 2013. It is further to the increasing demand in this field that it was decided to integrate Guido into our department to serve our clients even better. In 2016, Guido provided, as an expert appointed by the IMF, technical assistance on the introduction of a VAT system in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region. His mission included a 9 day stay in the Gulf region. He went on another mission in May 2017, this time round to assist the government of Suriname in the designing and drafting of a VAT law.

Eliane Dejardin Botelho

Eliane joined Linklaters Luxembourg’s capital markets and banking group in 2004 and was elected partner by the firm in May 2022. She has special expertise in regulatory matters and has been involved in a number of bank and insurance set-ups and reorganisations in Luxembourg and abroad. She regularly advises international groups active in the banking (including retail and private banking fields) and insurance businesses and is a key contributor to the development of the Linklaters Luxembourg insurance practice. Eliane has also specialist expertise in derivatives and securities financing structures for major Luxembourg banks, central securities depositories and central clearing houses. She regularly advises these entities on their product offering to clients. Among which, a number of Clearstream Banking products, such as the Clearstream Terms and Conditions for Repurchase Transactions (“CRC”), the Clearstream Terms and Conditions for Pledge Agreements (“CPC”) and the custody and margin security documents prepared in association with a major international derivatives trade association in the context of the uncleared derivatives margin implementation. She also has extensive expertise in banking matters, including credit and security taking, real estate finance as well as restructuring and enforcement of Luxembourg security interests. Eliane is also at the origin of the Linklaters Learning Hub – a training and networking hub associating young lawyers at the firm with young professionals at clients.

Florence Forster

Florence joined Linklaters Luxembourg in 2011 and worked in both our Paris and Frankfurt offices. Over the last 13 years she has gained invaluable experience in the corporate and M&A practices, has built up strong relationships with key clients of the firm and has become their trusted advisor. As a Partner in the Luxembourg Linklaters corporate and M&A practice, she advises clients on a wide range of corporate matters with a particular emphasis on private equity transactions as well as corporate restructurings, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. Florence has a specific focus on the German market, working closely with the German Linklaters offices. She also takes part in the PE4W committee of the Luxembourg Private Equity Association (LPEA) and is an active member in the shaping of this committee for women in private equity.

Patrick Geortay

Patrick is a partner of the Luxembourg capital markets and banking group. Patrick is a recognised expert by the industry in banking, restructuring and insolvency, structured finance (including tax-based and fund-linked products), real estate and asset finance, debt capital markets products and securitisation. He advises international financial groups and investors on the setting up and acquisition of Luxembourg banking and insurance businesses. This includes advising on regulatory requirements, product review, security structuring, taking and enforcement, and monetary policy matters. Within leveraged finance, he has worked on the Luxembourg structuring of private equity deals for both lenders and sponsors. His asset finance practice includes the acquisition and the financing of asset registered in Luxembourg, such as aircraft and vessels, for lenders, investors and operators alike. Patrick served as National Managing Partner between 2007 and 2010 and between 2016 and 2022.

Raoul joined Linklaters Luxembourg in 2012 and specialises in the structuring, setting up and distribution of a wide range of investment funds, with a particular focus on alternative investment funds investing in all major asset classes including real estate, debt, private equity, and infrastructure. He has also gained deep knowledge of retail investment funds (notably UCITS) by advising major global asset managers on their multibillion Luxembourg flagship funds. In parallel, Raoul advises global financial institutions on a variety of regulatory matters, notably licencing requirements, major financial services regulations (e.g. MiFID, AIFMD, PSD, AML), and Luxembourg regulatory aspects of acquisitions and group restructurings. Raoul regularly advises on digital assets topics, including on fund tokenisation, crypto assets, and custody of digital assets.

Nicki is the national managing partner of the firm’s Luxembourg office. He is also a partner of the Luxembourg capital markets and banking group since April 2006. Nicki practises in capital markets as well as in banking and finance matters. His banking practice covers credit and security taking, bilateral and syndicated lending, margin loans, fund financing, acquisition finance as well as restructuring and insolvency matters. Nicki contributes regularly in legal periodicals and other publications on capital markets and banking subjects. Most recently he contributed the Luxembourg chapter in Finanzderivate (financial derivates), edited by J.C Zerey. Nicki’s capital markets practice focuses on debt instruments. Nicki has specialist expertise in derivatives products, securitisations, repackagings, fiduciary structures and generally all types of debt securities issues. He also advises regularly on prospectus, market abuse and transparency obligation laws, EMIR and other regulatory matters in the capital markets space.

Catherine Kremer

Catherine has been elected Partner in May 2024 in our Luxembourg corporate practice. She has in-depth knowledge of corporate law and advises international investors, private equity houses and other financial sponsor clients in a wide range of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, co-investments, joint ventures, corporate restructurings along with management incentive schemes and governance matters. Since joining Linklaters in July 2012, Catherine spent several months in our capital markets and banking department as well as in the investment funds group, where she enriched the team with her experience in the areas of infrastructure and private equity funds. In 2023 she was seconded for 6 months to our London private equity and financial sponsors group. Catherine has built her career at Linklaters and alongside her many professional achievements she was a participant in the firm’s woman's leadership programme. She is committed to helping support and promote women throughout the firm.

Guy Loesch has been a litigation partner since 1998. He heads the Litigation, Arbitration and Investigations practice of Linklaters in Luxembourg and has significant experience of litigation and arbitration. He has a general commercial litigation practice and has advised widely on banking liability, shareholders’ claims and private international law cases. Guy specialises in all forms of urgent injunction relief, freezing orders and other forms of conservatory measures. He advises in complex insolvency and restructuring cases. He has advised large financial institutions in all sort of investigations.

Victor has been promoted Counsel in May 2024 in our Investment Funds department. He has extensive experience in the structuring of UCITS funds as well as alternative investment funds (including RAIFs, real estate funds, infrastructure funds, and private equity funds and ongoing assistance to the fund managers and promoters.) Victor also specialises in the structuring of impact and ESG funds, including debt funds and blended finance funds. Victor also worked in the London office of Linklaters. He is part of the Luxembourg fund industry association (“ALFI”) working group on Responsible Investing Committee. Victor was recently recognised as a Green Ambassador by Legal 500, one of only two lawyers in Luxembourg to receive this honour.

Martin is a partner in the Luxembourg Investment Funds Group. He has specialised experience with regard to the structuring, establishment and ongoing advice of alternative investment funds (sponsor practice) as well as advising institutional investors with regard to investments in international fund structures (investor practice). Martin advises in a wide range of asset classes including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, green energy, debt, venture capital and impact. His work includes all types of investment fund structures including segregated managed accounts and investment-type securitisation structures. Finally, he advises on all fund-related ESG matters. His advice covers the legal, regulatory and tax aspects both from a Luxembourg and German perspective.

Manfred Müller

Manfred joined Linklaters’ corporate/M&A practice group in Luxembourg in 2002 and was elected partner in 2015. Manfred has significant experience in company law, mergers and acquisitions, upstream and downstream private equity and real estate structuring (one key area of Manfred’s activity consists in developing the private equity and the real estate offering of the corporate practice), joint ventures, equity capital markets, group restructurings, as well as in share and asset sale negotiations. Manfred notably advises PE funds such as Triton and HgCapital. Manfred also has experience in ship finance, in insurance law and in the corporate aspects of setting up regulated investment funds (both FCP and SICAV) and SICARs. He was seconded to Linklaters’ Munich office (corporate and tax practice groups) in 2007 and to Linklaters’ Hong Kong office (corporate practice group) from May to December 2012 and is actively involved in a number of cross-border business development initiatives. As one of the most senior practitioners in the team and thanks to his German speaking skills, Manfred is taking a leading role on major transactions involving German banks and corporates present in Luxembourg.

Melinda joined Linklaters Luxembourg in 2003, was promoted to Partner in 2017 and since May 2022, has been appointed as head of the Capital Markets and Banking practice of Linklaters Luxembourg. Melinda specialises in capital markets (debt instruments and securitisation notably), finance and restructuring matters. Melinda’s banking practice includes advising on fund financing, syndicated lending, investment grade, margin loan and leveraged acquisition finance, asset finance, real estate finance and distressed debt acquisitions. She has special expertise in restructuring and insolvency and has played a major role in complex cross border restructurings, special situations and insolvency matters, offering technical expertise, commercial judgment and strategic advice to help clients achieve practical outcomes. She has experience of advising on multi-disciplinary and cross-border real estate finance transactions in the most demanding circumstances.

Udo is a Consultant in our Luxembourg Capital Markets & Banking (including financial regulation) group. He has more than 20 years of relevant experience in top-tier law firms on advising on a large scale of banking, financial services and insurance regulatory matters, both in an advisory role and on transactions. He has further been involved in numerous projects for setting up of banking, financial services and insurance operations for international groups as well as in complex cross-border and domestic financial institution acquisition and reorganization projects. Udo has also specialist expertise in derivatives and securities financing (including netting and collateral opinions), corporate and private banking, financial institution insolvency and resolution, market infrastructure, Fintech and related legal matters. Udo is a member of the Luxembourg bar, of the Association Luxembourgeoise des Juristes de Droit Bancaire (ALJB) (the Luxembourg Association of Banking Lawyers) and the Luxembourg Chapter of the AIDA (the International Insurance Law Association) and regularly contributes to professional forums and working groups focusing on regulatory developments in the banking, financial services and insurance space. Main in Germany and studied law, philosophy and French in Bonn (Germany) and Caen (France). Udo has become a fully qualified lawyer in Germany (Rechtsanwalt) (currently not practicing) and in Luxembourg (Avocat à la Cour).

Claire Prospert

Claire is a partner in the Luxembourg Investment Funds group. Claire has a broad and deep expertise in all types of investment fund matters. She advises some of the largest international asset managers on the structuring of Luxembourg alternative investment funds in all private market classes, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, debt and hedge funds, as well as the setting-up of co-investment structures or tailored managed accounts. Claire further covers fund regulatory matters and provides day-to-day assistance to asset managers, both in the regulated and unregulated investments funds sphere. Besides her expertise in the alternative business, Claire further has deep knowledge of retail investor funds (UCITS and UCIs) and is the legal counsel to a number of flagship funds managed by some of the largest asset managers in the world.

Following 15 years’ experience in the Luxembourg employment market, Marie joined Linklaters in October 2023 as Luxembourg’s Head of Employment. She brings specialist expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions along with extensive professional experience in both contentious and non-contentious employment matters. Marie advises on all aspects of employment law from drafting and terminating contracts to cross-border issues, collective bargaining, social audits and remuneration and incentive plans. Marie possesses extensive expertise in pay transparency, bolstered by her deep market understanding through active involvement in trade associations. As a member of Luxembourg’s Bankers’ Association (ABBL) and its Social Affairs Committee, as well as her role in the ABBL working group on the Pay Transparency Directive, she provides valuable insights and strategic guidance in her advisory role. Other areas of expertise include collective and individual dismissals, implementation of codes of conduct and internal policies. Marie also represents employers in a wide range of employment law disputes. Marie is a member of the Association des banques et banquiers, Luxembourg (ABBL) where she serves on the Pay Transparency Task Force and the Social Affairs Committee. She also represents Linklaters in the Legal Group of the British Chamber of Commerce for Luxembourg.

Adrien Timmermans

Adrien is a Counsel in the Luxembourg Investment Funds practice which he joined in 2014. Adrien specialises in venture capital, private equity, real estate, infrastructure, credit fundraising as well as providing ongoing assistance to fund managers and promoters. In addition, he acts for investors in respect of their investments (including secondaries) into a variety of asset classes. He also advises on investment fund compliance and regulatory issues (including AIFMD). He is registered to the Luxembourg bar.