Melissa Butler > White & Case LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

White & Case LLP ‘puts in the work and resources required to find solutions and get the job done‘. Sought after by financial institutions, corporates, governments and supranational organisations for advice on debt matters across developed and emerging markets, the firm is adept in the full spectrum of DCM deals, including standalone and MTN programmes, sovereign bonds, investment grade issuance, bank regulatory capital and corporate hybrids, private placements, project and green bonds, liability management, equity-linked instruments and more. Melissa Butler (who is ‘a people person who pays close attention to her clients‘) and Ian Clark are the standout US-qualified partners in London. Butler recently assisted a leading hydro power operator with its €300m notes offering. On the English law side, Stuart Matty (who is ‘honest and forthright, willing to go the extra mile for his clients‘) and Richard Pogrel are the most prominent practitioners, though the firm has a deep bench of talent that includes partner Neha Saran and counsel James Clarke.

At White & Case LLP ‘the team is solidly collegial, innovative, responsive and overall, a force to be reckoned with‘. The firm has one of the broadest and most active emerging markets teams in London, acting for the world’s largest commercial banks, DFIs, sovereigns, state-owned entities, commodity traders, energy companies, and multinational corporates on deals across the Americas, Africa, CEE, CIS and the Middle East. The practice, which is home to US- and English law-qualified partners, handles sovereign and corporate loans, leveraged finance, export credit matters, structured trade and commodity finance, sustainability-linked loans, project and debt finance, and much more. The firm is ‘unique in its ability to problem-solve and ensure its clients achieve their desired outcomes in challenging jurisdictions‘. The deep bench of talent includes US-qualified debt specialists Melissa Butler and Ian Clark; English law debt experts James Hardy and Stuart Matty; energy partner Philip Stopford; banking partner Christopher Czarnocki; head of the Africa group Mukund Dhar; and international finance lawyer Jason Kerr.