Sidley Austin LLP
Client SatisfactionSidley Austin LLP climbs the ranking this year and is best known for its expertise in structured products, notably repackagings, synthetic securitisations, and regulatory capital trades, as well as related contentious matters. It is also highly active in structured products involving direct lending loans, and commercial real estate assets. This work accompanies the work of its strong regulatory advisory practice, and a growing volume of work on derivatives for corporates and private equity clients. Structured products partner Rupert Wall is the standout practitioner, with recognised derivatives specialist and senior associate Netanya Clixby emerging as a real talent in the practice. Clixby’s work spans advice on ISDA master agreements, prime brokerage documentation, securities lending, and repurchase agreements for both buy-side and sell-side clients. Nick Brittain retired from the firm.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Sidley has been assisting us with derivative documentation for many years now and has been very helpful to our organisation. They are well-versed in market standards in this niche area of the law; an area in which many law firms do not specialise. When the Sidley team feels strongly about making changes versus precedent documentation, they clearly and concisely explain the logic/law so that we can then communicate to our trading counterparties. This is helpful in reducing the timeline to onboard and put ISDAs in place. They are reliable in delivering in the timeframe requested with a full analysis and areas for potential changes, which is a value-add for us.'
Key clients
- Bank of America
- Deutsche Bank
- Apollo
- Macquarie Asset Management
- ICG
- Morgan Stanley IM
- HIG Capital
- Polar AM
- BNPP
- Zenith
Work highlights
- Advised Bank of America Merrill Lynch International on an SMA structured financing involving Ares and the Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
- Advised Deutsche Bank as sole transaction and structuring counsel on a series of repack transactions over involving the issuance of structured notes repackaging long-dated inflation linked CRE leases (so called triple-net leases).
- Advised Apollo and its European funds on the structuring and negotiation of a bespoke total return swap, which morphed into a securities purchase transaction involving a repackaging of payment flows from underlying securitised notes.
Lawyers
Leading associates
Leading associates with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Rupert Wall