‘Excellent coordination throughout with a full suite of capabilities.’

‘K&E, and in particular David Higgins and Aprajita Dhundia, go above and beyond in every way on a deal.’

‘A deep bench of cross border M&A partners and related financing colleagues allows us to execute transactions with market-leading experts.’

‘The Kirkland corporate/PE team is absolutely first rate and quite possibly the best in the City. It has remarkable strength in depth and, having done a number of deals with them over recent years, no obvious weak link. Their lawyers are knowledgeable, expert and authoritative, particularly when dealing with the other side. They help their clients unpack problems and roll up their sleeves to help identify solutions. And they achieve great outcomes.’

‘Stuart Boyd is a standout – he displays real expertise, identifies all the angles on deal points and leads from the front. Dan Clarke is a star in the making. Unflappable, confident without being arrogant and knowledgeable.’

‘Strong private equity team with years of experience. Excellent at complex transactions and always able to find an agreeable solution to ensure the deal moves forward.’

‘Spencer Baylin is incredibly bright with years of experience behind him. Whatever deal you are doing he has seen it before and knows the best way forward. Shimin Lee is a stand out associate and true rising star.’

‘The CC team totally gets client needs: they can look around corners, delivering solutions not problems, thinking as if part of our team. They really do operate as a single European team, but we rely on London to lead from the front. International and pan-European transactions are really where they excel. They advise on the whole PE investment cycle and most material institutional and reputational issues from investment through growth, financing, governance changes and eventual exit.’

‘Jonny and Spencer as client relationship leaders are stars and deliver the team yet are surrounded by rising stars. No matter who they are up against for us or working together with they are market leaders.’

‘The PE practice is incredibly strong – they are able to do deals on short timeframes without compromising on quality.’

‘David Walker is exceptional – I trust his advice implicitly. Katie Peek is a very strong associate.’

‘An excellent team of experts in their field, seeing a broad spectrum of high value, high complexity transactions.  Latham has  a very deep bench of technically excellent lawyers –  an excellent team dynamic.’

‘David Walker has seniority, charm, and a willingness to roll his sleeves up. Huw Thomas is one of their future superstars,  a deep thinker and an important partner for us. Paul Dolman has been a brilliant addition to the team from Travers, high energy and a focus on what matters.’

‘Ben Rodham is one of the best in the business for large cap PE transactions. All over every aspect of transactions while being superbly commercial and pragmatic. Very user friendly.’

‘The Links team is always available and extremely responsive.’

‘Linklaters has a strong corporate practice and their bench across corporate, tax, IP, employment, and financing makes them a full suite provider in larger deals. The team is extremely responsive and proactive in anticipating key deal issues and we value this.’

‘Simon Lyell is a cut above the rest. Clever, rigorous, creative and commercial. I really value his judgement when negotiating a deal.’

‘Very strong bench of heavy-hitting private equity lawyers. But also people who are really nice and care, as well as being effective and tough. Life is too short to work with unpleasant people, and Weil are a great bunch who are fun to work with.’

‘Marco Compagnoni is the lawyer who makes the impossible happen. Not just a very solid technician and a great client lawyer, he has the energy, gravitas, personality and experience to resolve the most intractable of problems and get the toughest of deals done. Marco really is a fantastic operator – worth every penny.’

‘Lewis Blakey is an excellent private equity/M&A lawyer. Very bright, extremely tenacious and hard-working. You want him on your side and he is a valued member of our deal teams. A can-do attitude and great problem solver. Kirstin Fyffe is also very good.’

‘The Weil team and Jonathan Wood have acted for us on many of our large M&A transactions. The team is immensely capable and always willing to work with us on UK and cross border deals. They are the best firm that I have come across and are my “go to” firm.’

‘Jonathan Wood – hugely practical and works with us as an embedded member of our team. Ellie Fialho – huge attention to detail and boundless energy and spirit. A real joy to work with.’

‘Michael Francies, exceptional lawyer with huge experience, calm approach in difficult situations and wins confidence of business people very well. Max Oppenheimer, very strong lawyer with great experience and good industry knowledge.’

‘Ed Freeman – deep knowledge and experience, hands on, responsive, pragmatic.’

‘Skadden has one of the best PE transaction practices in the world and we rely on them heavily for all sorts of corporate work, M&A, and matters associated with our executive comp and equity plans. The team is wonderful to work with and truly has global capabilities and reach. World class in all aspects.’

‘Katja Butler is fantastic and a wonderful relationship lead for us. She is always available, quickly connects us to others within Skadden or other firms, and stays engaged to make sure everything is being handled on our behalf. She is excellent to work with.’

‘Responsive, commercially minded and with good broad experience’

‘We found Richard Lever very easy to deal with, knowledgable, responsive and focused on getting the deal done.’

‘Helen Croke is an incredible lawyer, an outstanding person and I would highly recommend her to anyone (and have). Helen is truly one of the most intelligent, knowledgeable, and experienced lawyers I have ever worked with. In any transaction, we could receive a 400 page dense mark-up, and Helen has an amazing ability to digest it rapidly within a few hours, and call me and explain the 3 primary issues, and potential solutions, in a matter of minutes.’

‘The team’s key strength is their experience negotiating and executing the legal elements of LBO transactions. They have worked on highly complex transactions on accelerated timelines with limited margin to learn on the job and have delivered.’

‘Elizabeth Todd is a tremendous partner. She is highly commercial and is able to manage both the big picture and the details. She is a particularly strong negotiator and is able to win key commercial points without antagonising the other side. Elizabeth’s judgement is very strong.’

‘John Newton is extremely knowledgeable and managed our deal in a very calm way. Shona Ha is an excellent lawyer and highly responsive and practical – my executive management team colleagues really appreciated her style and approach.’

‘Ropes and Gray just get it. They always go the extra mile, have deep and calm insights into the challenges in front of their clients. Excellent commercial and legal skills that drive complex multi stakeholder negotiations.’

‘The Ropes team has delivered exceptional service and value across the many transactions we have worked together on. The team is very proactive, willing to help and has strong technical capabilities in the healthcare space which makes a difference in the diligence process. The team is highly diverse, which usually results in a very balanced view on key topics.’

‘John Newton is calm under pressure, expertly manages his team on large transactions, and makes sure we win the important points in key negotiations.  Vicky McGrath is great to deal with and all over the detail of the transaction documents and the complex funding arrangements. She is a real pleasure to work with and never lets you down.’

‘Elizabeth Todd is the best technical lawyer I know – the person to go to with a complex seemingly unsolvable question. Shona Ha has fantastic manner and judgment – knows when to push and when to play nice – great to work with. Will Rosen is the Guru of PE.’

‘Highly commercial team with a great depth of experience that extends beyond partner level.’

‘Very solid team where the skill actually matches the reputation. They are well staffed with expertise across all areas of the transaction, allowing them to provide an excellent one-stop-shop solution to clients. Not only were they able to support and advise, but in many cases they led the transaction and helped move things forward, which is not something I’ve seen elsewhere.’

‘They provide exceptional execution, are highly proactive, quick and efficient in delivering high quality product and service.’

‘They provide impeccable service and trusted advice on legal as well as deal related matters. Ken Barry is a stand out.’

‘Richard Jones is second to none!’

‘Andrew Rearick is a stand out lawyer in Debevoise’s private equity practice.’

‘Highly client oriented. Pro-active raising deal opportunities and once the deal started a full service offering making legal DD and also legal documentation hassle-free for the investment professionals.’

‘Highly personal and know what is needed internally at every step. Very warm, welcoming and also calm when things get hectic. Highly knowledgeable when it comes to market standards and negotiating legal points’

‘Chris Field is excellent – he is extremely knowledgeable and skilled in navigating the UK Takeover Code. He is also technically brilliant and his friendly demeanor makes him a joy to work with.’

‘The team is very commercial, efficient and helpful. They drive transactions forward in a way that stands out from their competitors. I feel I can leave them to run a process and trust them to elevate important issues.’

‘Mark Evans is a great lawyer with an ability to cut through to the important issues. He has a stand out ability to get very complex deals done in a very efficient and commercial way and great knowledge of many sectors. I would highly recommend him. Jamal Tuhin is a great operator and one to watch.’

‘Our go-to firm for transaction work, where we can rely on their excellent service and value their partner-led approach.’

‘In particular Alex Green is a stand-out partner. A trusted adviser who brings commercial perspective as well as technical expertise, unflappable under pressure, and runs an efficient process.’

‘The team consistently provides excellent service regardless of the circumstances. It has the capacity to work on extremely complex matters under pressure and produce terrific outcomes for us.’

‘The partners we work with all have terrific problem solving capabilities, commercial, very thoughtful, have extremely good drafting skills (often a rarity these days) and give proper advice and don’t just follow instructions.’

‘We use Slaughter and May for all of our UK transactions because of their efficiency and thoroughness. Sally Wokes, the partner we use, drives this behaviour. She has a very good commercial understanding of our needs and what she needs to focus on.’

‘Quality and depth of team. Industry knowledge. Availability.’

‘The team is extremely strong in private equity transactions (shareholder agreements etc). They are unmatched in their ability to strike the perfect balance between commercial outcome and strong legal protection.’

‘Both Phil Coletto and Claire McDaid are exceptional partners. Very focused, and able to grasp the underlying commercial rationale for any legal work extremely quickly. Excellent attention to detail.’

‘Phil Coletto has extremely strong negotiation and matter management skills, able to take on a number of projects and drive them with small nimble teams’

‘The Willkie team has an enviable depth of talent. There are no other firms we work with that has such capable attorneys across all functional areas and at all levels.’

‘Gavin Gordon and Amelia Doughty are top notch attorneys – commercially savvy, expert negotiators and very efficient. They have a tight grasp of a transaction’s needs – they know when to press the gas, when to pump the brakes and when to drill down on an issue.’

‘David Arnold and Andy Gray both deliver high quality legal advice. Their biggest strength is to be commercial when needed and their ability to manage internal general counsel.’

‘Will Buchanan – a rising star who should also be recognised as a detailed individual who is able to commercially understand all aspects of what we would like to achieve on deals/legal projects.’

‘The team is very responsive and generally has a very strong sense of what is going on in the market. The overall team has strong support throughout including in financing, tax, regulatory and as such is a strong one-stop shop.’