Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP is known for being ‘very responsive, professional, collaborative, and good at helping clients navigate tricky topics’. It has one of the leading CLO practices, as well as being a prominent adviser on a broad range of ABS transactions and securitisations, particularly those involving niche and novel asset classes. The firm has a deep bench of nine securitisation and structured finance partners, who are ‘approachable as well as knowledgeable, and sensitive to clients’ commercial pressures’. Among them are CLO guru David Quirolo; Suzanne Bell, who advised the originator on the issuance of £450m in notes under a master trust  programme; Robert Cannon, who handles mortgage securitisation and commercial paper conduits;  RMBS innovator Matthew Duncan; Nick Shiren, who handles residential and commercial mortgage transactions; and CLO specialists Daniel Tobias, Alexander Collins and Claire Puddicombe. Sabah Nawaz, who advises private equity funds, banks and corporate borrowers on securitisation and debt issuance, is also recommended. Stephen Day left the firm in late 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Very responsive, very professional, good at helping clients navigate tricky clauses and topics, and very collaborative.’

  • ‘Approachable as well as knowledgeable. Sensitive to our commercial pressures and tight turnaround times.’

  • ‘Easy to reach, personally non-hierarchical, experienced and with an informal feel.'

Key clients

  • Premium Credit Limited
  • Santander Consumer Oy Finance
  • Belmont Green Finance Limited (trading as Vida Homeloans)
  • Tikehau Capital Europe Limited
  • Versicherungskammer Bayern
  • Covea
  • NN Group
  • Allianz Global Investors

Work highlights

  • Advised Tikehau Capital Europe Ltd as collateral manager of the €350m Tikehau CLO XI transaction.
  • Advised VKB, the largest public sector insurer in Germany, on its first €175m catastrophe bond transaction, King Max Re.
  • Acted as English law transaction counsel in respect of the €450m securitisation of Finnish hire purchase receivables originated by Santander Consumer Finance Oy via a novel double SPV structure.

Lawyers

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Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Suzanne Bell, Robert Cannon, Alexander Collins, Matthew Duncan, Sabah Nawaz, Claire Puddicombe, David Quirolo, Nick Shiren, Daniel Tobias

Other key lawyers

Elena Bernal, Assia Damianova