The Legal 500

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP is a leading international law firm that provides a diverse range of sophisticated legal services to businesses and individuals.

The firm: Debevoise is recognised as a market leader in many of its practice areas, including: private equity fund formation; cross-border M&A, including private equity; insurance and financial institutions work, including transactional and regulatory; securities offerings; finance and restructurings; tax; and international commercial arbitration and dispute resolution.

Types of work undertaken: The London office advises on matters of English and US law. Its core practice areas include:

Private equity: the London office forms part of Debevoise’s market-leading private equity practice worldwide. It advises both private equity firms and their investment funds, portfolio companies and individual partners, providing a ‘one-stop shop’ approach to fund formation, M&A and other transactions for private equity clients.

M&A: Debevoise’s London office has worked on numerous cross-border acquisitions and disposals, frequently with colleagues in continental Europe and New York.

Insurance: Debevoise has one of the largest transatlantic insurance practices, representing insurers and reinsurers, brokers and Lloyd’s entities in the UK and the US, on contentious, transactional and regulatory matters.

Global offerings: the London office has extensive experience in all aspects of multi-jurisdictional securities offerings, including UK listings, US-registered public offerings and other international securities transactions. The office has represented numerous Russian and other emerging market clients in UK listings and other securities matters, working closely with its leading Moscow office.

Banking and finance: the London office regularly represents clients in connection with their financing arrangements, both secured and unsecured, and financial restructurings in a number of European countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Russia.

Restructuring: the London office has worked on some of the most high-profile and complex international restructurings in recent years. The firm has a record of innovative representation in major corporate and financial restructurings across the globe.

Tax: Debevoise’s London office advises international clients on diverse matters, including: transnational investments; acquisitions; joint ventures; restructurings and financings; complex foreign tax credit planning; licensing and distribution arrangements; and tax treaty questions.

Arbitration and litigation: Debevoise has a world-leading international disputes practice, with particular strength in both London and New York, the two centres of international arbitration. The firm advises a global client base on disputes involving a number of sectors, including infrastructure projects, international investments and insurance. The London office also forms part of Debevoise’s international corporate investigations and defence team, a leading practice in the field of regulation, white-collar crime, internal investigations and securities-related litigation.

Other offices: The firm has a substantial and growing practice worldwide, operating in New York, Washington DC, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Moscow, Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Europe, each of the firm’s offices practises local, EU and New York law.

Number of UK partners 18
Number of other UK fee-earners 73