Mark Dwyer > DLA Piper > London, England > Lawyer Profile

The capital markets group at DLA Piper in London works closely with the firm’s corporate, restructuring and projects practices to handle DCM transactions across the UK, Europe, APAC and North America. It acts for both issuers and investment banks in debt securities offerings, among which are eurobonds, commercial paper and MTN programmes, social and green investment bonds and Masala bonds. UK head of capital markets and structured investments Tony Lopez and global co-chair of financial services Mark Dwyer are the lead practitioners. Dwyer assisted Neqsol Holding and VF Ukraine with a consent solicitation for $500m in notes. Lopez acted for London-listed aircraft leasing company Avation PLC in negotiations to secure a maturity extension for its $350m in senior notes. Joywin Mathew frequently assists international banks, funds and corporates with complex, multi-jurisdictional finance transactions, including equity-linked debt offerings and private placements. Ronan Mellon is recommended for project bonds.

DLA Piper is known for ‘quality of service, availability and a commercial mindset‘ and its ‘capacity to identify relevant and important areas to focus on, and drive the client’s attention towards it‘. Finance partner Martin Bartlam and global co-chair of financial services Mark Dwyer oversee the firm’s securitisation practice, in which Vincent Keaveny is the standout practitioner. Keaveny acted for Deutsche Bank in a €250m securitisation of receivables arising from a portfolio of Portuguese auto loans. Steven Krivinskas acts for both financial institutions and borrowers, many of which are active in the fintech sector. Working with Bartlam, he assisted BC Invest, Metrics and PAG with a £255m warehouse facility with Credit Suisse to fund UK buy-to-let mortgages to non-resident overseas investors. Legal director Marcus Lovatt frequently advises European investment banks, UK and US private investment firms and major UK and US corporates on structured finance. Ronan Mellon is the key partner for CLOs.

DLA Piper has established a particularly strong borrower finance offering, work which includes advising investment grade/listed corporates, assisting them across their capital structure on all of their financing and corporate treasury needs. Global co-chair of financial services, Mark Dwyer is pivotal to work in this area across a range of industry sectors, including the telecoms sector; he also has niche expertise advising on certain funds facilities pursuant to UK public takeovers of listed companies. He co-leads the team with Toby Barker and Matt Christmas. On the lender front, the firm has handled numerous LIBOR remediation projects for banks across their loan portfolios, as well as considerable volume of ESG-related work. Mei Mei Wong is also recommended.

Although the firm’s lender side capability was impacted on the credit fund front, by the October 2021 departure of Andy Kolacki to Mayer Brown International LLP, DLA Piper maintains a strong borrower side offering for corporates as well as some private equity firms. As well as his work for corporates on their general financing needs, Mark Dwyer is also regularly instructed on their acquisition finance requirements and has considerable experience in financing UK public takeovers of listed companies. Toby Barker heads up the London leveraged finance offering and has a focus on real estate-related mandates in the space.

DLA Piper not only handles a large volume of derivatives work for banks, but is also adept in complex structured finance matters, among them equity collar financings and loan-linked hedging. Global co-chair of financial services Mark Dwyer and finance, projects and restructuring partner Martin Bartlam lead the practice, which provides ‘solid legal advice at reasonable costs‘. Steven Krivinskas and associate Patrick Lightbown ‘provide  consistently high-quality work and are very responsive and commercial‘. Newly promoted partner Marcus Lovatt is a key adviser on interest and currency rate swaps, deliverable and non-deliverable forwards, credit derivatives in the context of credit linked notes, and total return swaps.