David Shearer > Norton Rose Fulbright > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Norton Rose Fulbright ‘has a decent amount of experience and expertise in the area of securitisation and is diligent in its work in order to achieve deadlines and timelines‘. The firm continues grow its capacity to handle RMBS, CMBS, covered bonds, trade receivables deals and much more on behalf of issuers, cash managers and trustees. Head of debt capital markets Peter Young and ‘approachable, trustworthy’ securitisation partner David Shearer oversee the practice, of which counsel Rae Parsons is a prominent member. The hire of Christian Lambie, formerly of Allen & Overy LLP and Morgan Stanley, is a boon to the practice as he brings 25 years’ experience in in advising advising sponsors, arrangers, investors, rating agencies and service providers on high-value transactions. Shearer recently acted as drafting counsel in a warehouse facility for New Wave Capital Limited. which involved the private issue of senior ranking notes to a US investment bank and of mezzanine notes to private investors based in the UK. Shearer and Parsons advised Eurobank on its €5bn covered bond programme, which provides external funding for its underlying Greek mortgage loan book.

Norton Rose Fulbright ‘has built a strong derivatives and structured finance practice, drawing top talent away from the Magic Circle‘. The firm undertakes both transactional and advisory work across a wide variety of asset classes, though it is best known for its work on repackaging transactions. Nigel Dickinson and up-and-coming partner Yusuf Battiwala are the standout practitioners. Dickinson ‘occupies a league of his own in the market for complex asset repackaging, with unparalleled product and market knowledge‘.  He assisted JP Morgan with hedging transactions related to a static RMBS transaction backed by buy-to-let mortgage loans secured on UK properties. Battiwala recently acted for Goldman Sachs in multiple market access total return swap transactions that transactions provide counterparties with the ability to synthetically access local currency bonds in emerging market jurisdictions. Global head of financial services and regulation Jonathan Herbst, market infrastructure, derivatives and fintech specialist Hannah Mean, covered bond and structured finance partner David Shearer, and Peter Noble, who frequently acts for Canadian issuers in establishing structured securities programmes, are also central to the practice.