Hannah Meakin > Norton Rose Fulbright > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The ‘knowledgeable and experienced team’ at Norton Rose Fulbright stands out for its expertise in the wholesale markets sector, advising on matters concerning retail and wealth management, with a strong capability in handling cross-border mandates. ‘Top-notch’ Hannah Meakin focuses on market infrastructure, commodities derivatives, fintech and crypto regulation work; clients ‘would be lost without her’. Meakin leads the practice alongside Jonathan Herbst, who has ‘enormous experience’ in bank structuring and advisory matters, and Katie Stephen. Albert Weatherill leads the firm’s global payments practice and Matthew Gregory counts domestic and overseas banks, investment firms and wealth managers among his key roster of clients.

Norton Rose Fulbright has ‘excellent in-depth knowledge of structured products and derivatives‘ and is praised as ‘highly commercial and pragmatic‘. The firm is known for its advice on structured total return swap and repo financing, emerging markets transactions, Islamic derivatives practice, and securitisation hedging. Its structured products work also encompasses large repack programmes for global banks, as well as the issuance of structured notes. Nigel Dickinson, ‘one of the best practitioners in the field’, and Yusuf Battiwala co-lead the practice, which benefits from the extensive knowledge of global head of financial services and regulation Jonathan Herbst. Also playing pivotal roles in the practice are market infrastructure, derivatives, and fintech specialist Hannah Meakin, covered bond and structured finance expert David Shearer, and key adviser to Canadian issuers Peter Noble.

Major clearing banks, industry and trade bodies, and major crypto projects are among the clients who turn to the team at Norton Rose Fulbright for regulatory advice across a range of issues, including payment systems, distributed ledger technology, the metaverse and NFTs, and consumer credit. Hannah Meakin – who heads up the practice – has amassed considerable experience advising on the use of blockchain in relation to market infrastructure. Jonathan Herbst is versed in the intricacies of BNPL regulation. Nicholas Berry is increasingly active on products using emerging technology in the insurance crypto space. Albert Weatherill is focused on the development of  innovative financial services and products, such as digital assets issuance and trading. Matthew Gregory and Haris Karacosta are further key contacts at the firm.

With European information governance, privacy and cyber security head Marcus Evans at the helm, the Norton Rose Fulbright practice is well regarded for advising on the protection of AI-related IP, developing template agreements and licensing deals, alongside managing regulatory compliance issues. Evans is knowledgeable on all aspects of data privacy compliance, strategy, and regulatory response, Lara White primarily focuses on privacy and cybersecurity matters, while Hannah Meakin is a fintech regulation expert.