Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Alastair Goldrein

Alastair’s practice focuses on advising creditors, sponsors, insolvent companies, and insolvency practitioners on all aspects of cross-border and domestic restructurings, insolvency, and corporate rescues. He advises: - creditors concerning their distressed debt and special situations investments; - multinational debtor groups in complex international restructurings; - private equity investors on distressed M&A transactions or the protection of existing investments; and - insolvency practitioners, with a particular focus on emerging markets as well as restructurings in the energy sector.

Calum McQuater’s practice focuses on advising fund managers and sponsors in the establishment and management of alternative investment funds and institutional investors investing in such funds, in both domestic and offshore contexts.

Chris Gollop’s practice focuses on a broad range of transactional mandates for sophisticated international private equity and corporate clients.

Chrishan Raja’s practice focuses on international capital markets transactions, both equity and debt, with a UK or U.S. nexus. His recent equity experience includes several transactions which were the first of their kind, such as ACG Acquisition Company (London listing and 2024 de-SPAC, the first SPAC to complete an acquisition under the FCA’s new regime), Burning Rock Biotech (the first direct listing of its kind on the London Stock Exchange), and Hepsiburada (the first listing of a Turkish company on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange). His recent experience on the debt side includes English law governed debt issuances, Reg S/Rule 144A offerings of New York law governed notes, and many U.S.-registered offerings of debt securities by financial institutions.as well as public and private mergers and acquisitions. He has extensive experience in the firm’s capital markets and M&A practices in Russia.

Christopher Moore

Christopher Moore’s practice focuses on international arbitration and litigation. He is the co-head of the firm’s global international arbitration group. Chris has represented multinational corporations in complex international commercial arbitrations across a range of industries seated in the world’s most frequently selected arbitral seats and before tribunals formed under the rules of the leading institutional and ad hoc arbitration regimes, including the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), and UNCITRAL, and in litigation matters before state and federal courts throughout the United States. Chris also has extensive experience acting as counsel in matters involving foreign states both in investor-state disputes under the rules of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and in international litigation proceedings, including litigation involving the immunity of foreign states and their agencies under the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and public international law.

Christy O’Connell

Christy O’Connell’s practice focuses on advising private equity sponsors, financial investors, and other corporate clients on their investments. Christy has extensive experience in advising clients on complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions, co-investments, joint ventures, exits, and other commercial transactions.

David I. Gottlieb’s practice focuses on international capital markets and cross-border M&A transactions, including IPOs, investment-grade, sovereign and high-yield debt offerings, privatizations, SPAC transactions, and liability management. David is one of a small handful of U.S. securities law experts based in Europe for more than a decade, and regularly advises U.S. and foreign private issuer clients and global investment banks on disclosure, corporate governance, regulatory, and ESG matters. He is a current leader of the firm’s Financial Institutions Industry Group and has extensive expertise in the European banking, oil and gas, metals and mining, and tech sectors. He has worked on transactions in numerous jurisdictions across Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, MENA, and Israel.

Ed Aldred’s practice focuses on complex cross-border public and private leveraged acquisition and infrastructure financings, leading combined loan and high-yield bond financings, and senior and junior capital structures. Ed is a highly regarded leveraged finance lawyer, with more than 19 years’ experience advising on complex leveraged finance deals and developing innovative solutions and strategies for clients on their most strategically significant transactions. He advises private equity and infrastructure funds, corporates, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds on acquisition, infrastructure, and other event-driven finance transactions, as well as minority stake, holdco, and other structured finance transactions. In addition to working on buy-side financings, Ed also supports his clients across all aspects of sell-side finance work (including staple finance, vendor loans, certain funds, change of control, and other sell-side analysis) and with on-going portfolio and liability management work (including taps, A&Es, repricings, refinancings, and recapitalizations). Ed has led on many “firsts” in the loan market during his career and has acted on some of the largest and most innovative transactions. His knowledge and experience covers the full spectrum of loan products, from syndicated institutional cov-lite incurrence-based TLB facilities through to unitranche and covenanted maintenance loans, including super senior, senior secured, and junior debt instruments. In addition to his familiarity with the European loan market, Ed also has extensive international experience raising U.S. dollar debt in the syndicated U.S. TLB loan market under English law and acting for many international first-time issuers in the syndicated loan market. He has worked closely with the Loan Market Association to develop and deliver their training, including their financial covenant training in particular, and spoken at several Loan Market Association hosted conferences.

Ferdisha’s practice focuses on financial services law and regulation. Ferdisha has a wide range of non-contentious experience advising banks, investment banks, asset managers, and market infrastructures. She regularly advises on a variety of financial services and regulatory issues including financial markets regulation, financial collateral and financial market infrastructure regulation, and banking regulation.

Frédéric G. Martin

Frederic G. Martin’s practice focuses on international capital markets and cross-border merger and acquisition transactions. Frederic’s practice involves initial public offerings and other equity offerings, de-SPAC transactions, investment-grade and high-yield debt offerings, bank regulatory capital securities offerings, and liability management transactions. He also regularly advises on disclosure and corporate governance matters.

Gareth Kristensen

Gareth Kristensen is a Partner based in Cleary Gottlieb’s London office with a focus on UK, European and cross-border technology, AI, data and intellectual property matters. Gareth advises leading global corporations, high-growth companies and private equity/venture capital firms on the development, use and regulation of AI technologies, including copyright, data rights and training issues, AI and data regulatory compliance (such as EU AI Act, Data Act and GDPR matters), licensing, partnerships, collaborations and outsourcing deals, and AI business strategy, AI legislative reform and internal AI governance matters. He has extensive experience advising on technology transactions, global M&A and investments, and commercial contracts with a substantial IP, technology and data component. His practice covers the full range of IP rights including patents, trademarks, copyright, design rights, database rights, and trade secrets. Gareth is a member of the UK Financial Markets Law Committee’s Artificial Intelligence Working Group, and holds the CIPP/E accreditation (Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe) from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Ian’s practice focuses on private equity transactions and complex cross-border mergers and acquisitions. With over two decades of experience in private equity, Ian is a longstanding and trusted advisor to pan-European and international corporations, institutional investors, alternative asset managers, senior management teams, founders, and investee companies for both transactional and advisory matters. Ian has in-depth experience advising on a full range of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, consortium deals, bolt-on acquisitions, carve-outs, co-investments, minority deals, recapitalizations, divestments, distressed M&A, public-to-privates, joint ventures, reorganizations, and restructurings. Ian also advises global asset management clients on GP-stake transactions, GP succession planning (including restructuring ownership and governance arrangements), and structured secondary market liquidity solutions (including GP-led and LP-led secondary transactions).

Jackie Holland’s practice focuses on EU and UK antitrust enforcement, merger control, State aid/subsidies, competition litigation, market investigations, and sectoral regulation. She represents clients before the Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission, and sectoral regulators, as well as in litigation in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and the European Court of Justice.

James Norris-Jones

James has more than 20 years’ experience of English and international commercial dispute resolution, including litigation, arbitration, investigations, and enforcement. He regularly advises clients involved in class actions, including collective proceedings in the Competition Tribunal. He has particular experiences in the financial services and tech sectors, and in cases involving fraud and insolvency. Many of his cases have involved cross-border issues and/or proceedings in foreign jurisdictions.

James Brady-Banzet

James Brady-Banzet’s practice focuses on dispute resolution, investigations, and enforcement. James has substantial experience representing some of the world’s leading organisations on a wide range of commercial disputes, group and collective litigation, banking disputes, and international arbitrations. He has considerable trial experience, and his work frequently involves complex multijurisdictional matters and high-stakes disputes. James also has significant experience representing clients in investigations by regulatory and law enforcement authorities. He is cited as “clever, hard-working and very dedicated,” “sharp and thoughtful,” “personable and highly intelligent,” with the ability to “manage both the legal team and clients to achieve the best results” and “an exceptional partner on a major long-running dispute.” James also writes and speaks on topics including class actions, ESG litigation, parent company liability, M&A disputes, and crisis management.

Sui-Jim Ho’s practice focuses on finance, capital markets, and restructuring. He advises on a broad range of financial products including loans (ranging from investment grade to acquisition and leveraged finance), bonds, and derivatives. His clients include companies, financial institutions, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies, and sovereigns.

Jonathan Kelly is consistently recognized as one of the UK’s leading practitioners in the field of disputes and enforcement, and as a “litigation veteran” with 30 years in practice. He is cited by UK and European legal directories and the media as one of “the UK’s leading banking litigators,” an “outstanding lawyer,” “esteemed litigator,” and “a formidable opponent.” He is described as a “class act…a real market leader” who is “top rated…keen and insightful, clear, concise” and “great to work with because you know he’s seen it all before.” He has advised on a wide range of significant disputes, involving antitrust and competition, banking and financial services, corporate and private equity, regulatory enforcement and investigations, and sovereign immunity. His cases invariably involve complex multijurisdictional elements.

Kimberly Lee’s practice focuses on structuring and formation of private investment funds and advising institutional investors investing in private investment funds. She also advises on secondary transactions, including continuation fund transactions, and co-investments.

Maurits Dolmans

Maurits Dolmans focuses on EU, UK and international competition law, as well as EU regulatory and IP law, arbitration, and sustainability. He has extensive experience in information technology, internet, telecom, media and entertainment, as well as in energy and financial services. Maurits lectures and is widely published on various aspects of sustainability, competition, and innovation.

Michael has a broad corporate practice focusing on a range of international corporate and private equity transactions, including private fund formation, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, co-investments, and consortium transactions.

Michael Preston

Michael J. Preston advises a broad range of financial sponsors and strategic investors on buy-outs, minority investments, joint ventures, restructurings and other transactions. He has experience across a range of business sectors, with particular experience in healthcare, technology, infrastructure, real estate and energy.

Nallini Puri’s practice focuses on cross border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and franchising transactions. She has advised multinational corporates, private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds on their investments in UK, Europe and India. Nallini’s recent work includes advising Veolia on its €2.4 billion divestment of the Suez UK waste business, Alstom in its €5.8 to €6.2 billion acquisition of Bombardier Transportation, Schibsted, the majority shareholder of Adevinta, in Adevinta’s $9.2 billion acquisition of eBay Classifieds and McDonald’s Corporation in the $2.08 billion formation of a joint venture with CITIC Limited and Carlyle to act as the franchisee for McDonald’s in China and Hong Kong.

Naomi Tarawali’s practice focuses on international dispute resolution. She has represented corporates and high net worth individuals in commercial arbitration, investor-state arbitration and international litigation proceedings, as well as in mediation and ADR processes.

EU and U.K. competition law, notifying mergers to the European Commission, U.K. Competition & Markets Authority, and other competition authorities around the world, advising on cartels and abuse of dominance cases before competition authorities and courts.

Nick Rumsby’s practice focuses on public and private mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, restructurings, joint ventures, demergers, and equity financings. He is uniquely placed to advise on UK takeovers having completed a two-year secondment to the UK Takeover Panel as a senior case officer (2008-2010) where he was involved in all major decisions and policies made during that time. Following his secondment, Nick has spent over a decade advising targets and UK and overseas bidders on some of the largest and most high-profile takeovers in the UK market.

Paul Stuart’s practice focuses on competition law and litigation. Consistently recognized as a specialist in competition litigation, Paul’s practice covers collective proceedings before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, standalone and follow-on litigation in the English courts, and appearing as an advocate before the EU General Court and Court of Justice. Paul also advises on all aspects of UK and EU competition law, including merger control, cartels, abuse of dominance, and digital markets regulation. He is also an active member of Cleary Gottlieb’s pro bono practice.

Paul Gilbert’s practice focuses on EU and UK competition law, including merger control, anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominance, and sectoral regulation. He has represented clients before the European Commission, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (and its predecessors, the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission), as well as in litigation before the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal.

Polina Lyadnova

Polina Lyadnova’s practice focuses on a broad range of cross-border debt transactions at various levels of capital structure. Her experience ranges from complex and transformational assignments to innovative middle-market transactions and covers debt restructuring, finance, special situations, sanctions laws and regulations, with a particular focus on the emerging markets. Polina provides a broad range of business advisory, strategic planning, and crisis management skills to achieve bespoke solutions for clients facing unique circumstances. She is a co-editor and contributor to Cleary’s Global Restructuring Insights, the monthly publication featuring select topics that highlight notable themes, trends and developments in bankruptcy and restructuring matters, and a co-author of Cleary’s Trade Watch blog providing regular updates on sanctions developments.

Prudence Buckland

Prudence Buckland is a senior lawyer based in Cleary Gottlieb’s London office with a focus on commercial transactions involving technology, data and intellectual property. Prudence regularly advises on major projects such as outsourcings, collaborations, IP licensing and complex procurements. She also provides extensive advice on emerging technologies and related regulation, including with respect to artificial intelligence, data sharing, and digital services.

Richard Sultman

Richard Sultman specialises in corporate taxation, with emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, capital markets and financial products.

Sarah’s practice focuses primarily on international capital markets transactions, with an emphasis on U.S. securities laws and their application to offerings by non-U.S. companies in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and particularly in the Nordics. Her work includes equity offerings and debt offerings. Her transactional experience covers a wide range of offerings, including IPOs, rights offerings, accelerated bookbuild offerings, block trades and direct share placements, in the case of ECM transactions, and investment-grade debt offerings, as well as convertible and exchangeable bonds, in the case of DCM transactions.

Sebastian Sperber

Sebastian Sperber specialises in US securities law and has extensive experience in international capital markets and M&A transactions. Mr Sperber has devoted a substantial amount of time to working on global equity offerings, including privatisation transactions. His practice also includes derivative products, and he has assisted a number of clients in structuring OTC and listed instruments.

Solomon’s practice focuses on financial restructuring matters, particularly the representation of credit funds and bondholder groups in distressed debt situations around the world. He also has a wealth of experience representing banks and investment managers in a broad range of commercial transactions, including financings and mergers and acquisitions.

Mergers and acquisitions, private equity and restructuring transactions; extensive experience in cross-border international transactions; involved in a number of transactions in the Middle East, India and in emerging markets.