Mr Barry Russell > Akin > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Akin is ‘proactive in approach, giving clear concise advice but with an eye on commercialism‘, particularly in the niche area of US private placements. Tom O’Connor leads the London finance group and is ‘one of the top lawyers in this sector‘, frequently advising institutional investors on the acquisition of privately placed debt and equity securities. He recently assisted institutional debt investors MetLife and PGIM with the purchase of €200m of senior unsecured notes in the debut private placement by Tritax Eurobox plc. Robert Aulsebrook leads the issuer practice and focuses predominantly on emerging markets debt. Barry Russell  focuses on financial restructuring and Mark Mansell frequently represents insurance companies and other financial institutions in cross-border private placements. Michael Gustafson handles debt finance work for non-bank lender clients, which included acting for PGIM Private Capital on the £350m debut private placement issuance by Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission plc.

Leveraging the expertise of ‘a very deep bench of outstanding lawyers’, the ‘highly commercial team’ at Akin has vast experience in the market and is ‘genuinely first-class in terms of highly complex restructuring situations‘. The team is recognised as ‘one of the leading creditor-side firms’, a reputation that it has been cemented over the years as a result of a key involvement for bondholder clients (both primary and secondary buy credit investors) in many of the largest global restructuring/insolvency situations. In this context, as well as having tremendous transactional restructuring knowledge and expertise of key insolvency tools, the firm’s industry knowledge in the energy and aviation sectors has also been key particularly in light of a rash of workouts in those industries in recent years. Barry Russell, who is now sole head of the practice following James Roome’s recent retirement, has ‘an impressive ability to broker compromises even in the most heated situations’, and consequently excels in acting for large noteholder groups attempting to extract value in major multi-jurisdictional matters. Combining ‘top level strategic nous with excellent legal advice’, James Terry  is an ‘effective operator for fund clients’, particularly as it relates to matters with a Scandinavian nexus, as well as restructurings in the offshore, oil and gas and shipping sectors. The ‘very hard working and super organised’ Liz Osborne is also a key member of the team and has been particularly active of late advising on situations involving Russia sanctions issues. Other key members of the team include Emma Simmonds, who ‘has great technical skills’; Tom Bannister, whose client base includes a broad range of institutional and distressed investors; and Sam Brodie, who returned to the firm in September 2022 following a brief period at Shearman & Sterling LLP.