Mr Dominic Griffiths > Mayer Brown International LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Appreciated for its ‘willingness to innovate bespoke solutions for complex structuring problems’, Mayer Brown International LLP remains best-suited to advising lenders on complex debt financing solutions where the ABL product is utilised, either on its own, or alongside other financing techniques to facilitate often highly sophisticated solutions. A good deal of this work has a cross-border complexion, either in the context of US-originated deals or European deals for US-owned lenders; in this regard the team remains at the vanguard of the migration of US techniques/terms to the European market. Simon Fisher  is key to many of these multi-jurisdictional transactions, and working alongside practitioners in the firm’s Chicago headquarters has recently handled several large-scale cross-border receivable financings within the IT/tech sector. Ravi Amin, who was recently promoted to partner, also continues to impress as a result of his willingness to provide ‘commercial and business-sensitive’ advice, as opposed to purely what is “market”, with one client commenting: ‘he is so good that we consider him an extension of our team’. Alex Dell , who co-heads the team alongside the vastly experienced Dominic Griffiths , also remains vital to the firm’s success both on behalf of traditional banking clients, as well as a growing number of alternative credit providers which are increasingly visible in the market. Victoria Thompson was a recent notable addition to the team, joining from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius UK LLP.

At Mayer Brown International LLP, ‘the team is renowned for its ability to engineer novel solutions for its clients n securitisation transactions involving different asset classes‘. London managing partner Dominic Griffiths is ‘well known for his skilled technical knowledge‘. He handles cross-border securitisations, asset-based lending, senior secured lending, loan-on-loan deals and other innovative structured financings. He recently acted for BNP Paribas, Citibank and Citigroup as arrangers in a $3bn cross-border securitisation of trade receivables originated by subsidiaries of Chinese technology company Lenovo Group. ‘A first-rate lawyer with encyclopaedic knowledge‘, David O’Connor is highly regarded for his work on RMBS and CMBS deals, and is a key adviser to global investment banks such as Citigroup. CLO specialist Dasha Sobornova moved to Akin but Ronan Mellon joined from DLA Piper to bolster the firm’s capability in that area as part of his broad structured finance practice. Key banking and finance partner Charles Malpass is ‘thoughtful, detail oriented and commercial‘, and senior securitisation consultant Neil Hamilton also plays a key role in the practice. Both acted for Ellington Management Group, LLC as issuer, seller and retention holder of a €495m public RMBS deal, which is backed by a portfolio of Spanish re-performing residential mortgage loans.