Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which climbs the ranking this year, has a deep multi-disciplinary group of partners who bring a diverse range of skills to bear on emerging markets work, which spans project finance, capital markets offerings, sovereign debt restructuring and issuance, M& and joint venture transactions, private equity investment, and international arbitration. Tihir Sarkar, who handles cross-border M&A for multinational corporations and sovereign wealth funds, is highly active in emerging markets deals, as are capital markets specialists David Gottlieb and Sebastian Sperber. Gottlieb assisted Barclays Bank with its £358m exit from the African market through divestment of its stake to South African bank Absa. Gabriele Antonazzo, who returned to London from Hong Kong, and Michael Preston are key advisers on private equity transactions. Preston and M&A partner Nallini Puri advised British International Investment on a $240m investment in a new joint venture to develop four-wheel passenger electric vehicles for Indian consumers. Polina Lyadnova, who frequently handles Russian finance transactions, acted for flagship carrier PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk in a $9.58bn debt restructuring.