England - London • Corporate and commercial

3

Financial services: non-contentious/regulatory

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

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Herbert Smith Freehills LLP has demonstrable expertise in the digital assets arena, acting for crypto exchanges and fintech entities on navigating regulatory boundaries and changes, with additional capability advising investment banks and wholescale markets businesses, asset managers and insurers. Practice head Clive Cunningham is noted for his experience in banking, securities and asset management mandates. Marina Reason maintains a broad practice, covering investment banking, retail banking and asset management, in addition to handling Brexit, MiFID II and ESG-related matters, among others. Reason and Kelesi Blundell, who joined the practice from A&O Shearman in November 2022, are both praised for their ‘tremendous expertise’.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The team is absolutely excellent. Marina Reason and Kelesi Blundell have tremendous expertise, but also excel at communicating complex legal topics in a clear and succinct way. They also have a very diverse team and a wider range of expertise.’

  • ‘The team is very commercial, seeking to understand our needs and advising in a supportive manner. They are great at getting on a call without delay and working through the issues.’

  • ‘Marina Reason and Kelesi Blundell are incredible to work with. They have provided incredible expertise on all legal issues related to DLT, FMI's, digital regulation, digital sandboxes, MiCA and digital assets.’

  • ‘Marina Reason and Jed Wilsher have joined calls with other parties on international business and have been extremely supportive and helpful. They are a very convincing team.’

  • ‘The team are very proactive in providing helpful, clear and timely updates on all relevant regulatory updates that are topical. I find their approach very helpful and user-friendly.’

  • ‘Marina Reason always reaches out with calls/emails to provide an update of relevance/ensure that I am aware of regulatory developments.’

Key clients

  • ClearBank Limited
  • Tandem Money Limited / Tandem Bank Limited
  • TSB Bank plc
  • TP ICAP Group Services Limited
  • iSwap Euro BV
  • HSBC private bank
  • The Ardonagh Group
  • Invesco
  • Hotelbeds
  • Baillie Gifford
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Jefferies
  • Marex
  • Columbia Threadneedle Management Limited

Work highlights

  • Advising ClearBank on all regulatory aspects of its recent equity raise, led by Apax Digital, together with associated group restructuring (including regulatory capital compliance and PRA engagement.
  • Advising clients on innovative digital assets and technology-related projects, including how to navigate the regulatory boundaries and anticipate upcoming regulatory changes.
  • Advising numerous banks and other financial institutions on regulatory requirements, such as regulatory capital, ring-fencing and suitability frameworks.

Lawyers

Hall of Fame

The lawyers at the very top of the profession, widely known and respected by peers and clients for their longstanding involvement in market-leading work.

Clive Cunningham

Hall of fameHerbert Smith Freehills LLP

Clive is a leading financial services law and regulation lawyer. With extensive City experience, including time as a banking regulator with the Bank of England and in-house, Clive advises banks, asset managers, insurers and other financial institutions on a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters across the financial services, banking and funds sectors.  Areas of special sector expertise are banking, asset management (including private wealth management) and securities regulation. 

Next Generation Partners

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Clive Cunningham

Other key lawyers

Marina Reason, Kelesi Blundell, Nish Dissanayake, Jed Wilsher

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