The Legal 500

Sidley Austin LLP

WOOLGATE EXCHANGE, 25 BASINGHALL STREET, LONDON, EC2V 5HA, ENGLAND
Tel:
Work 020 7360 3600
Fax:
Fax 020 7626 7937
DX:
580 LONDON CITY
Web:
www.sidley.com
Email:

Sidley Austin is one of the world’s largest law firms, with a practice highly attuned to the ever-changing international landscape. The firm has built a reputation for being a powerful adviser for global business, with approximately 1700 lawyers in 17 offices worldwide. Sidley maintains a commitment to providing quality legal services wherever they are needed, offering advice in transactional, regulatory and litigation matters spanning virtually every area of law. The firm’s lawyers leverage their diversity of knowledge and wide-reaching legal backgrounds with a dedication to teamwork, collaboration and superior client service.

The firm: The London office comprises approximately 110 English and US-qualified lawyers.

Types of work undertaken: Competition/antitrust: the team assists clients with all types of competition matters, including global merger clearances, antitrust investigations by UK and EU authorities, EU state aid cases and litigation before the European and English courts, as well as counselling, compliance, and policy projects.

Corporate: the team advises on all corporate and commercial matters, including public and private M&A, joint ventures, IPOs, principal finance, private equity and structured investments. The firm acts for both institutions and corporates and often across multiple jurisdictions.

Corporate reorganisation and bankruptcy: the firm has a prominent practice in insolvency and corporate reorganisation. It extends to court-supervised proceedings in England and Wales and in the US, and out-of-court work-outs and restructurings, worldwide.

Corporate securities: the team represents principal participants in the European capital markets. These include sovereign, agency and private sector issuers and guarantors as well as financial intermediaries such as investment banks, sponsors, financial advisers and trustees.

Debt restructuring, debt finance and structured finance: the firm has the resources to handle the largest and most complex transactions, providing advice on debt finance and structured finance to lenders, borrowers, arrangers, underwriters, servicers and special servicers, credit enhancers, liquidity banks and credit rating agencies. The firm also counsels on restructuring, assisting lenders and other creditors, borrowers and their directors, sponsors, trustees and other service providers.

Dispute resolution: the team acts on high-value multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes for clients across many sectors. It handles litigation and international and domestic arbitration and provides advice relating to complex financial transactions, restructuring, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements, licensing agreements and enforcement of IP rights, regulatory investigations and product liability issues.

Financial services regulation: the firm advises banks, investment firms, insurance companies, payment service providers and their intermediaries on UK and EU financial services regulation, including on establishing and operating regulated financial services businesses in the UK and the EU.

Insurance: the team deals with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and reorganisation of international groups to address Solvency II, solvent schemes of arrangement, business transfers, distribution and other commercial agreements, insolvencies and restructuring of insurers, run-offs, alternative risk transfers (ART), Part VII and also cross-border business transfers and capital raising.

Investment funds: the firm advises on all aspects of the structure and operation of hedge funds, private equity and real estate funds and other ‘alternative’ investment products. This includes their structuring and formation, marketing and distribution, trading and transactional documentation and the creation of structures or repackaging arrangements to access specific markets or investors.

Tax: the team advises on the UK tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and insolvency, capital markets, banking and structured finance, international investment funds and resolution of tax controversies, including tax litigation.

Sidley Austin LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership which operates at the firm’s offices other than Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney, is affiliated with other partnerships, including Sidley Austin LLP, an Illinois limited liability partnership (Chicago); Sidley Austin LLP, a separate Delaware limited liability partnership (London); Sidley Austin LLP, a separate Delaware limited liability partnership (Singapore); Sidley Austin, a New York general partnership (Hong Kong); Sidley Austin, a Delaware general partnership of registered foreign lawyers restricted to practicing foreign law (Sydney); and Sidley Austin Nishikawa Foreign Law Joint Enterprise (Tokyo). The affiliated partnerships are referred to herein collectively as Sidley Austin, Sidley, or the firm.

Number of UK partners 40
Number of other UK fee-earners 90

Above material supplied by Sidley Austin LLP.

Legal Developments in the UK

Legal Developments and updates from the leading lawyers in each jurisdiction. To contribute, send an email request to
  • HOUSING

    In Nzinga Maswaku v Westminster City Council [2012] EWCA Civ 669 the Court of Appeal clarified that in offering a homeless person with alternative temporary accommodation the local authority is obliged to point that if the offer is refused it has discharged its Part VII duties under the Housing Act 1996.
    - 11KBW
  • COUNCIL TAX

    In Harrow LBC v Ayiku [2012] EWHC 1200 (Admin) Sales J held that the word “or” in the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992, art 3 Class N, had a disjunctive meaning, therefore it was sufficient for the non-British spouse of a foreign student to satisfy one or other of the two conditions, namely being prevented from taking paid employment or being prevented from claiming benefits, in order to qualify as a “relevant person” who was exempted from liability to pay council tax.
    - 11KBW
  • QUEEN’S SPEECH

    Bills already introduced pursuant to the Queen’s Speech on 9 May 2012 include Local Government Finance Bill and Electoral Registration and Administration Bill, both accompanied by Explanatory Notes, which in each case address ECHR compatibility.
    - 11KBW
  • Standards

    In R (Calver) v Adjudication Panel for Wales [2012] EWHC 1172 (Admin) Mr Calver was a member of Manorbier Community Council who successfully challenged the decision of the Panel to dismiss his appeal against a decision by Prembrokeshire County Council Standards Committee censuring him for a number of comments or blogs posted by him on a website he owned and controlled.
    - 11KBW
  • A justified retrospective

    Clive Sheldon - QC debates the pros & cons of retrospective tax legislation
    - 11KBW
  • Public Sector Equality Duty (“PSED”)

    In R (Greenwich Community Law Centre) v Greenwich LBC [2012] EWCA Civ 496 the Court of Appeal held that the Council had had “due regard to the PSED when making changes to its funding of community legal advice services”. At para 30 Elias LJ said:
    - 11KBW
  • Public Sector Equality Duty

    Surrey County Council conducted a review of its Library Service. This culminated in a Report to the Council’s Cabinet. The Recommendations in the Report included that there should be consultation about a community-partnership approach at selected Libraries.
    - 11KBW
  • Judicial Review

    The Judgment of Lindblom J in The Manydown Co Ltd v Basingstoke and Deane BC [2012] EWHC 977 (Admin) repays attention. The Claimant sought to challenge by judicial review 2 decisions of the Council: (1) the Council’s refusal to reconsider its position on the development of a site that it owns (and is the subject matter of a Joint Development Partnership Agreement with the Claimant); and (2) a decision of the Council’s Cabinet approving a selection of sites for development which did not include this site.
    - 11KBW
  • The Health and Social Care Act 2012: impact on adult social services

    After its torrid passage through Parliament, the Health and Social Care Bill received Royal Assent on 27 March 2012. The Act deals principally with healthcare reform, but it also contains some amendments to the legislative framework for social care. It will come into force on a day yet to be appointed by the Secretary of State.
    - 11KBW
  • Immigration update May 2012

    In this issue: