Shepherd and Wedderburn covers an extensive range of banking and finance-related matters, including debt capital markets, project finance, real estate finance, receivables finance, and refinancing mandates, with ‘appropriate technical and sector expertise, ensuring a robust and commercial approach’. The firm has a balance between financial institution and borrower work, as well as an active referral practice. Helming the team is Fiona Buchanan, who has a broad remit that has recently focused on warehouse fundings and securitisations. Hamish Patrick oversees bespoke debt capital market structures for a wide range of public and private companies, while Andrew Kinnes retains key relationships with a number of clearing banks. Clare Foster focuses on project finance work in the clean energy sector, and Neil Cowan, who was promoted to partner in May 2023, is adept at cross-border structured finance matters.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘S&W managed multiple complex, nuanced lending scenarios and provided clear counsel to ensure appropriate protections while remaining commercial in approach. S&W engaged appropriate technical and sector expertise ensuring a robust and commercial approach.'

  • ‘Patrick Bell has been a commercial and diligent legal professional. Clear client engagement, incremental support to refine approach and ensure strong delivery for bank clients. Patrick has clearly demonstrated an understanding of the bank's approach and appetite and pro-actively offered areas for improvement/risk mitigation.’

  • ‘Sound well considered legal advice, very experienced banking team.'

Key clients

  • HSBC UK Bank plc
  • Barclays Bank UK plc
  • Citibank
  • Santander
  • Yorkshire Building Society
  • Assured Guaranty UK
  • Moray Offshore Windfarm (West) Limited
  • Lloyds Banking Group
  • Vauxhall Finance plc
  • Paratus AMC Limited

Work highlights

  • Acting on behalf of Kensington Mortgage Company in relation to the Scottish aspects of its sale to Barclays Bank plc.
  • Acting as Scots counsel in connection with Haydock's first public securitisation of equipment backed receivables.
  • Acting for the lender on a secured debt facility for the Rad group for the refinancing of a hotel portfolio and acquisition of Seamill Hydro Hotel.

Lawyers

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Leading partners
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Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Fiona Buchanan

Other key lawyers

Hamish Patrick, Andrews Kinnes, Patrick Bell, Clare Foster, Neil Cowan