Rupert Wall > Sidley Austin LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Sidley Austin LLP joins the ranking on the strength of its deep bench of structured finance experts, who are ‘very knowledgeable in the securitisation area and show tremendous subject matter expertise across structural and regulatory aspects‘. The firm is best known for its manager-side work on CLOs, though it is also highly skilled in the securitisation of auto loans, NPLs, CMBS and consumer assets. Head of global finance Rupert Wall is an acknowledged expert in securitisation, particularly CLOs. He acted for Permira Credit in several public CLO transactions, among them the €410m Providus V European CLO, which was the first CLO in which Jefferies acted as arranger and which involved a number of innovative features such as a senior facility utilising a repo and two SPVs. He also advised blockchain company Ivno on an innovative asset-backed blockchain structure involving the issuance of tokens on a closed blockchain. Clients remark that he is ‘able to deploy his extensive experience and deep technical skills to the most challenging transactions‘. Senior counsel Nick Brittain has extensive experience across all asset classes, and Emilie Stewart, who joined from Vinson & Elkins RLLP, brings experience in real estate private equity and NPL transactions.

Sidley Austin LLP has ‘very extensive fund financing capabilities and is a pioneer in this emerging area‘. The firm ‘takes time to understand the brief, confront significant technical challenges head on in a confident manner and stay resilient throughout until the deal completes‘. The firm rejoins the ranking due to the strength of its work on rapackagings, synthetic and regulatory transactions, structure notes, structured fund investments, derivatives transactions and repos. Lead partner Rupert Wall is ‘an excellent negotiator‘ and clients praise his ability to ‘deploy his extensive experience and deep technical skills to the most challenging transactions‘. Senior counsel Nick Brittain also plays a key role in the practice.