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McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP

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The ‘technically strong and commercial’ team at McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP provides ’insightful yet very practical advice’ to funds, in lender and borrower roles, primarily within the mid-market leveraged finance sphere. Team head Aymen Mahmoud has ‘exceptional knowledge of the acquisition finance space’, and since his arrival, along with the ’hugely intelligent and commercially savvy lawyer’ Mark Fine in May 2020, has provided huge impetus to the finance offering and gained considerable market share.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'The team is adept at providing insightful yet very practical advice.'
  • 'The team has excellent capacity to understand both mid-market and upper market documents and advise clients accordingly.'
  • 'It is a very technically strong and commercial team.'
  • 'A lean and efficient team that manages to punch well above its weight.'
  •  'Aymen Mahmoud is our trusted adviser on all matters related to our loan facility. Hands-on, knowledgeable, deep industry insights and very responsive.'
  • 'Aymen Mahmoud has exceptional knowledge of the acquisition finance space. On transactions he is hands on, resourceful and very commercial.'
  • 'Mark Fine is a hugely intelligent and commercially savvy lawyer. He is technically excellent and understands the bigger picture.'

Key clients

  • Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
  • Aksiom Services Group
  • Alcentra Limited
  • Alter Domus
  • Aquiline Capital Partners
  • Ares Management Limited
  • bd-capital
  • Blue Owl (formerly Owl Rock)
  • Blue Water Private Equity LLP
  • Cairn Capital
  • Caura Ltd
  • ClearCourse
  • CoachHub GmbH
  • CVC Credit
  • Excellence Logging Limited
  • Five Arrows Growth Capital
  • FQX
  • GLAS Specialist Services Limited
  • Goldman Sachs Asset Management
  • Golub Capital LLC
  • Guggenheim Partners Limited
  • HPS Investment Partners
  • Intriva Capital
  • Laboratoire X.O.
  • Mercuria Energy Trading Pte Ltd
  • MessageBird B.V.
  • Odyssey Europe Holdco S.à r.l. (holding company of Olympic Entertainment Group)
  • OpenGate Capital Management Europe Sarl (and its portfolio companies Kongsberg Precision Cutting Systems and EverZinc)
  • Orbus Group
  • Palamon Capital Partners (and portfolio company FairConnect)
  • Parent Cloud Limited
  • Partners Group
  • Pemberton Capital Advisors LLP
  • Perwyn Advisors UK Limited
  • PX Group
  • QMetric Group Limited
  • Royal Bank of Canada
  • Sanne
  • SilverTree Equity Partners LLP
  • Sirius Petroleum PLC
  • Sona Asset Management
  • Synova Capital (and portfolio insurance brokerage business JMG Group)
  • Treo Asset Management LLC (previously known as BRG Asset Management)
  • Weight Capital Partners

Work highlights

  • Advised Golub Capital, as lender, on the acquisition of Outpost24, a cybersecurity risk management group, by Vitruvian Partners as sponsor.
  • Advised Aquiline Capital Partners and ClearCourse on financing provided by BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
  • Advised Five Arrows Growth Capital (FAGC), as sponsors, on the funding for their acquisition of the Padoa group.

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.

Christopher Kandel

Christopher Kandel

Hall of fameMcDermott Will & Emery LLP

Christopher Kandel focuses his practice on leveraged, special situations and acquisition finance and restructuring matters under English and US law. He is considered one of the leading acquisition finance lawyers in London, with decades of experience in the London market. Chris has advised on a variety of landmark and notably innovative matters, including numerous European acquisition financings, a large number of take privates and bridge loans, the first super-senior revolver in Europe, the first pari passu secured bank/bond issue in Europe, the largest ever margin loan on unlisted shares, what was the largest (now second largest) LBO financing in Asia and the first Western-sponsor-style leveraged buyout financing in Russia. He was also singled out in the Financial Times 2016 European Innovative Lawyers report for his innovative work on the Pirelli take-private financing. Chris is often turned to because of his detailed knowledge of the differences between the mid market and large cap debt products and terms, as well as the changes required when European borrowers/transactions turn to the US leveraged finance market for liquidity. Read full biography: https://www.mwe.com/people/christopher-kandel/

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Aymen Mahmoud

Other key lawyers

Mark Fine, Giulia Venanzoni