DLA Piper

‘A market leader in the ABL sphere’, DLA Piper provides ’professional and skilful advice’ to creditors and debtors, including traditional banks, independent ABL funds, corporates and sponsors, across a broad swathe of domestic syndicated and bilateral ABL transactions. The team’s geographical diversity, which includes practitioners in key regional centres including Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as London, ensures that the firm is well-plugged in to the domestic ecosystem, while its broad international footprint marks the firm out as a sensible choice for cross-border matters. Another core strength of the team is its ability to provide advice throughout the life cycle of a deal, both at the front end (including on product development), as well as in any subsequent restructurings/insolvencies and litigation. Manchester-based partner Joseph Frew embodies this all-encompassing approach, being equally adept at handling transactional work as he is advising funders on the drafting and development of template documentation for ABL facilities. Based out of Leeds, the ‘excellent’ Sarah Day co-heads the team alongside Frew, and has garnered an excellent track record among UK and US banks as a result of her aptitude at handling relatively commoditised domestic mandates as well as highly structured and cross-border financial transactions. Neil Riley spearheads the ABL-related restructuring work from the London office, while Manchester-based Legal Director Alastair Carruthers is gaining a reputation as a ’high-quality lawyer’, whose work for a variety of funders and companies is praised as being ‘almost partner like in how they approach working with clients’.