McDermott Will & Schulte’s capabilities span consumer asset securitisations, complex structured note transactions and legacy remediation matters. The team is co-led by Stuart Axford, who advises banks, funds, and sophisticated investors on English law securitisation and structured credit transactions. Fellow co-head Martin Sharkey is particularly experienced in helping US-originated asset programmes access UK and European capital, including through advice on sponsorship, risk retention mechanics, and the practical documentation of regulatory requirements.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Accolades
Client satisfaction: Billing & efficiency
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- Martin Sharkey is an excellent lawyer with great technical and market knowledge.
- Partner availability, client-friendly, deeply experienced, practical and commercial.
- Stuart Axford is a very experienced practitioner. He gives clear, considered, but commercial advice. He always makes himself available for calls and meetings, often at short notice.
- Martin Sharkey has good product knowledge and availability.
Key clients
- Barings (U.K.) Limited
- GoldenTree Asset Management LP
Work highlights
Advised Barings (U.K.) Limited as CLO manager on Barings’s Euro 2025-1 CLO, which was arranged by JPMorgan.
Represented GoldenTree Loan Management III, LP as CLO manager on the client’s GLME 9 CLO, which was arranged by Bank of America as initial purchaser and Wells Fargo as a placement agent.
Advised Barings (U.K.) Limited, acting as collateral manager, on the reset of Barings Euro 2024-1, a European CLO arranged by BNP Paribas.
Practice head
Stuart Axford; Martin Sharkey
Other key lawyers
James Zhu