Farmida Bi > Norton Rose Fulbright > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The debt capital markets practice at Norton Rose Fulbright is ‘up-to-date with market trends and practices‘ with one client remarking that the practice is ‘highly organised, professional and responsive‘. The firm has a broad practice that encompasses investment grade and emerging markets debt, transactions for sovereign and supranational issuers, project bonds, debt restructuring, corporate trust matters, Islamic finance and a niche Canadian debt issuance practice. Practice head Peter Young handles debt offerings under both English and New York law. Farmida Bi is now global chair of the firm, and focuses on sustainability and corporate social responsibility. In the DCM space, her work is predominantly concerned with corporate trustee advice, sovereign debt, project bonds and restructurings. Peter Noble is best known for advising Canadian issuers and their dealers in the international debt markets, though he has a broader European DCM practice. Emerging partner talent Kirstin Russell acts for corporate trustees and agents in the UK, US and Asia on a wide range of debt instruments.

Led from London by the ‘fantastic‘ Farmida Bi, and also able to leverage significant resources from the firm’s Middle East offices, Norton Rose Fulbright has ‘great and broad experience’ across a range of Islamic finance techniques, often utilised to fund Sharia-compliant transactions in core areas of sector strength for the firm, including energy and transport. A ‘true specialist’ who is ‘very well-connected’, Bi is a popular choice among a number of high profile corporates, banks and sovereigns, including Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance – which she continues to advise on all its sukuk issuances. In addition, Bi, who was also recently named the firm’s global chair, has been at the forefront of efforts to utilise Islamic finance as a means of unlocking funding for ESG initiatives designed to promote the UN’s Social Development Goals. Counsel Andrew Coote also continues to gain a strong name for himself in the market and regularly provides key support to Bi on mandates handled by the team. The arrival in March 2022 of Yusuf Battiwala from Dentons further strengthened the team.