A&O Shearman

With a practice that straddles work on both the buy and sell side, A&O Shearman is 'able to truly stay at the front of market practice', regularly advising on many of the most complex and sophisticated transactions in the market. This has been particularly borne out in the recent time of relative economic turbulence throughout the APAC region, with clients requiring often extremely bespoke structuring, including for a corporate in the region on the issuance of an asset-backed bond secured on future revenue streams but complicated by the corporate itself undergoing substantial recapitalisation. The team, which often works alongside practitioners throughout the firm's global network, has also recently been very active in the emerging area of green asset-backed securities (ABS) and green derivative products. Throughout all these transactions, it is adept at handling work throughout the project life-cycle, from inception to distress, restructuring and close out. Team head Yvonne Siew combines both regulatory and transactional expertise to good effect for clients structuring complex deals (including on structured equity derivatives  trades and total return swap structures) and is noted for her ability to provide 'thoughtful advice' that is tailored to specific risk profiles. James Yao  leverages his Mandarin speaking skills and product knowledge to particularly good effect on behalf of Chinese financial institutions.