James Scoville > Debevoise & Plimpton LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The ‘top-notch‘ emerging markets practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has ‘a great group of partners and associates who are diligent, smart, and highly commercial‘. Among them are Geoffrey Burgess, who has an active international M&A practice and frequently handles transactions in Africa, India and Russia/CIS; capital markets partner James Scoville, who recently advised Baring Vostok Capital Partners on an $85m accelerated bookbuild sale of approximately 1.2 million global depositary receipts; chair of European and Asian litigation Lord Peter Goldsmith KC and co-chair of the Africa practice Patrick Taylor, who together assisted Shell Petroleum as claimant in an ICSID case against the Federal Republic of Nigeria concerning breaches of the Netherlands-Nigeria Bilateral Investment Treaty. ‘Super-smart, gracious, natural dealmaker‘ Alan Kartashkin, who previously led the firm’s Moscow office, is now head of the firm’s London-based Eastern European practice. International counsel Vera Losonci focuses on equity and debt offerings, including cross-border M&A deals and corporate governance matters. ‘This practice is exceptional – agile, flexible, resourceful and very collaborative‘, say clients.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP draws upon the wider firm’s strengths in corporate and commercial transactions, particularly that of the New York office, and combines it with the ‘particularly well connected‘ financial institutions team with links to the ‘wider insurance markets‘ to assist insurance clients in high-profile, complex, and cross-border M&A mandates. Clare Swirski is the co-head of the practice, and being both ‘hugely experienced’ in the  regulatory and transactional aspects of the insurance sector and ‘very commercially aware‘ to provide excellent advice to players in the insurance market. James Scoville is the other co-head, focusing on complex transactions around insurance companies in addition to securities matters and capital markets transactions.