Michael Black > Norton Rose Fulbright > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Benefitting from well-established banking relationships, as well as a growing corporate client base, Norton Rose Fulbright has an excellent perspective of the commercial and legal needs of both lenders and borrowers, particularly in the context of multi-jurisdictional syndicated lending transactions. In this context, the team is particularly well-suited to advising on emerging markets matters (in Africa and Latin America – where it has resources in several key offices) often involving both commercial and export credit-backed debt. Much of this work takes place within the energy sector, an area that Neha Khosla has developed a particular strength, including on behalf of lenders providing financing to oil and gas companies and on reserves based lending facilities in the upstream space. Team head Michael Black is also very adept at advising lenders on cross-border corporate lending, particularly where ABL facilities are also utilised.

The ‘commercial and collaborative’ banking team at Norton Rose Fulbright handles a significant amount of acquisition finance work for commercial/investment banks and corporates. Much of this work is of a multi-jurisdictional nature (including within emerging markets) and also often includes complex and highly bespoke structuring, with core leveraged financing capabilities sitting alongside specialised product experience including asset based lending facilities (ABL). Michael Black  has ‘in-depth knowledge of ABL and cross-border lending’ and is a key member of a team that also includes the ‘pragmatic and considered’ James Dunnett , who has niche expertise advising financial advisers on cash confirmations pursuant to public M&A.

The ‘practical and extremely user-friendly’ team at Norton Rose Fulbright has ‘excellent knowledge of ABL market trends’, a corollary of its impressive deal flow in the domestic and international markets. This work runs the gamut, ranging from relatively commoditised bilateral working capital facilities, through to structured financings where the ABL product sits alongside high yield bonds and conventional lending facilities. Praised for his ‘in-depth knowledge of ABL and cross-border lending’, team head Michael Black takes the lead on many of the most significant mandates, a significant proportion of which are generated from his close relationship with core US funders JP Morgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.