With a finance practice widely lauded for the ‘consistently high level of service and quality delivered throughout the team’, DLA Piper is routinely called upon by a roll-call of banks and financial institutions for a wide variety of transactions, including asset-based lending, venture debt funding, refinancing and restructuring mandates. Large multinationals in the food and drink, real estate, and hospitality sectors are also prevalent in the firm’s diverse client roster. Allan Leal heads up the team and delivers advice to a range of lenders and borrowers and has been particularly active for key client Virgin Money’s Venture Debt team. Also highlighted for his venture debt work, William Reid is well versed in acquisition, leveraged, and real estate finance work. Craig Hunter is recommended for his broad array of capabilities.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘We have worked with the DLA team for many years and they always deliver a consistently high quality of care and legal service to us. It is a real pleasure to work with them and they have never let us down. Our deals are a bit different and so we need a legal team that are both legally proficient but also commercial and able to support us.’
‘The DLA team we work with are all consistently excellent and always go above and beyond what is required. A key aspect of DLA is the consistently high level of service and quality delivered throughout the team. The deal team is always very well resourced and always delivers quality within the fast moving time scales required to document and complete our deals.’
‘The team at DLA have been working with us for several years now, which in itself is a testament to the standard of work that they carry out for us.'
- 'We find that they have excellent attention to detail, balance the needs between the legality and commerciality, and have provided valuable advice during our relationship with them.'
‘William Reid at DLA is very much a trusted adviser of ours and leads on the legal work for the vast majority of our venture debt deals. He has a great knowledge of not only his field, but also of our offering, and I know he has an excellent relationship with other teams throughout our company.'
‘DLA have been our trusted legal partner for many years and are considered as an extension of our team in many respects. Over that time, they have become very familiar with our parameters and position on points of law, which helps to ensure a very smooth legal process on with customers.’
‘William Reid has served us through his career and developed into an excellent main contact who can always be trusted to deliver.’
Key clients
- Sleeperz Hotels
- Hambro Perks
- Harrison Street
- HSBC
- Lloyds Banking Group
- Resident Hotel Holdings Limited
- Beaufort Senior Debt S.a r.l.
- Santander UK plc
- Virgin Money
- NatWest
Work highlights
- Advising on the refinancing of five hotels for UK-based hotel owner-operator, Axcel Hotel Group.
- Advising on the venture debt loan to Essentia Analytics.
- Advising on the funding of London-based market-leading digital mental health community provider, Health Parity Holdings Limited T/A Togetherall.
Lawyers
Leading associates
Leading associates with regular involvement in their team's key work, and recognition from peers or clients as being ones to watch.
Practice head
Allan Leal
Other key lawyers
William Reid; Craig Hunter