McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP

The firm: McDermott Will & Emery partners with leaders around the world to fuel missions, knock down barriers and shape markets. Our team works seamlessly across practices, industries and more than 20 locations to deliver highly effective—and often unexpected—solutions that propel success. More than 1,400+ lawyers strong, we bring our personal passion and legal prowess to bear in every matter for our clients and the people they serve.

Main areas of practice
Corporate and transactional: Our seasoned lawyers represent the full spectrum of corporate interests around the world, from global corporations to family-owned businesses to privately held companies. Our lawyers thrive on solving the most complex business problems facing their clients today and mapping out strategies to drive clients’ success tomorrow. Broad capabilities include seamless transactional services, such as negotiating cross-border acquisitions or outsourcing deals, representing issuers in public offerings, securing preferred financial credit arrangements for borrowers or navigating a business restructuring. Of particular note is our geographical reach; international clients regularly turn to the London team to advise on transactions across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the team is renowned for the ability to effectively manage transactions on a global scale.

Dispute resolution, international arbitration, white-collar: Our lawyers focus on commercial and finance disputes and international arbitration, offering a wealth of experience across all sectors and industries, including finance, insolvency, energy, insurance (for policy holders), fraud, commodities, shipping, construction, IT and art theft.  Our white-collar lawyers focus on  global, cross-border and internal investigations, financial and regulatory crime, bribery and corruption, money laundering, tax and fraud inquiries, data breaches, dawn raids, asset tracing, international enforcement and corporate compliance issues. The team represents both companies and individuals in criminal and regulatory proceedings and in associated litigation and has conducted a wide range of investigations and corporate defence assignments in different sectors, including construction, defence, financial services, gambling, oil and gas, logistics, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications.

Employment: Our lawyers help clients attract and retain workers at every level, enter and exit markets as business conditions warrant, develop and implement effective employment policies, identify and protect trade secrets and other confidential information, and negotiate and enforce employment contracts. We advise clients on the full range of UK and EU employment issues, including wrongful and unfair dismissal, executive severance, confidentiality and restrictive covenants, employee fraud, discrimination, union recognition, TUPE, pensions and employment, employee benefits and data protection aspects of acquisitions.

Finance:  Our finance practice lawyers offer top-level banking, finance and securities advice including in acquisition finance; corporate and fund finance; high yield; Islamic finance; projects and project finance; real estate finance and business restructuring. The team also covers all aspects of capital markets and securities issuance, with extensive experience in advising on a variety of complex transactional and regulatory matters.

Healthcare and life sciences: Our team provides unparalleled legal acumen rooted in decades of experience and forward growth powered by unconventional thinking. We partner with clients on the full range of healthcare-related issues, helping to navigate the issues that matter when it comes to achieving missions and solidifying positions in the market. Leveraging on the firm’s market leading reputation in healthcare, our lawyers in the UK practice advise on M&A, investments, and corporate finance, and have substantial experience in innovative structures for complex joint-ventures, public-private partnerships and funding arrangements across EMEA. The team also provides comprehensive healthcare regulatory advice, counselling a number of entities in relation to engagements with the NHS, including the provision of operational services, digital health and data privacy, medtech and life sciences matters.

Private equity: Our team delivers strategic advice on private equity transactions at all stages of the investment life cycle, including control, non-control and minority investments, public-to-private transactions, buyouts and recapitalisations, mergers and acquisitions, growth capital investments and buy-and-build strategies, acquisition finance/refinance, and on all manner of exit strategies. We represent clients across a wide range of different industries and jurisdictions, providing market leading international deal structuring advice.

Private client and wealth management: From the global to the personal, the firm brings its full-service network to bear in helping closely held business owners and high-net-worth individuals effectively structure their assets, meet their wealth transfer and planning goals, and make their mark  philanthropically. As clients make the critical decisions that shape their personal, business, tax, civic and charitable concerns around the world, we will be at their side with creative, customized solutions. Our lawyers advise clients across the globe on all aspects of cross-border wealth management, trust and estate planning, and wealth transfer issues, with particular experience in UK, US and South African legal, tax and compliance matters.

Restructuring and insolvency: Our restructuring team offers leading expertise in complex bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring issues, advising on the market’s most high-profile, high-stakes, legally pioneering and financially significant matters. The practice maintains a variety of insolvency-related engagements, which provides the firm with a unique insight into how the other side is thinking, giving it a competitive advantage. The firm is best-known for its collaborative, deal-oriented approach to insolvency transactions and litigation.

Real estate: Our real estate team provides a comprehensive, high quality service for clients’ real estate acquisition, operation, leasing, financing and development needs. The team covers the full range of real estate mandates, from the structuring of large, complex acquisitions through to development and ultimate disposition.  Backed by the world’s leading health care practice, the team also has extensive experience handling real estate matters for companies in the health industry.

Tax: Our lawyers provide multi-disciplinary service on all UK and international tax issues concerning corporate and commercial business matters, including mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, flotations, corporate structuring, asset and structured finance, treasury management, cross-border transactions, transfer pricing and mediation.