Sidley Austin llp

Sidley Austin  is a global law firm, with approximately 1700 lawyers in 17 offices. We serve clients across a broad spectrum of law, from complex transactions to “bet the company” litigation to cutting-edge regulatory issues.

We are one of the world’s largest full-service law firms, providing a broad range of services to meet the needs of large and small businesses across a multitude of industries, financial institutions, governments and individuals. 

The London office is Sidley's largest office in Europe. Our lawyers work on transactions in many European jurisdictions, acting with Sidley teams in Frankfurt, Brussels and Geneva and with local counsel where required. Languages spoken by lawyers in the London office include French, German, Spanish, Russian and Afrikaans.

 

 

The principal practice areas of our London office are: competition/antitrust, corporate and M&A (including employment), corporate reorganisation and bankruptcy, capital markets, debt finance, including structured finance and derivatives, real estate and real estate finance, dispute resolution, financial services regulation, insurance, hedge funds and investment funds and tax.

Competition/antitrust: the team assists clients with all types of competition matters, including global merger clearances, antitrust investigations by UK and EU authorities, EU state aid cases and litigation before the European and English courts, as well as counselling, compliance, and policy projects.

 

Corporate: the team advises on all corporate and commercial matters, including public and private M&A, joint ventures, IPOs, principal finance, private equity and structured investments, acting for both institutions and corporates and often across multiple jurisdictions.

 

Corporate reorganisation and bankruptcy: the firm has a prominent practice in insolvency and corporate reorganisation. The firm’s capabilities extend to both court supervised proceedings in England and Wales and in the US, and also out-of-court workouts and restructurings throughout the world.

 

Capital markets:  the group practises in the debt, equity, equity-linked, statutory covered bonds, regulatory capital and structured product areas, acting for issuers, underwriters, trustees and other market participants on a wide variety of transactions, including restructuring and liability management-related transactions. 

 

Debt restructuring, debt finance & structured finance: the firm’s International Finance Group has the resources to handle the largest and most complex transactions. On the debt finance and structured finance side advice is provided to lenders, borrowers, arrangers, underwriters, servicers and special servicers, credit enhancers, liquidity banks and credit rating agencies, and on the restructuring side to lenders and other creditors, borrowers (and their directors), sponsors, trustees and other service providers.

 

Dispute resolution: the team acts on high value, multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes for clients across many sectors. It handles litigation and international and domestic arbitration and provides advice relating to complex financial transactions, restructuring, manufacturing, supply and distribution agreements, licensing agreements and enforcement of IP rights, regulatory investigations and product liability issues for a variety of industries.

 

Financial services regulation: the firm advises banks, investment firms, insurance companies, payment service providers and their intermediaries on UK and EU financial services regulation, including on establishing and operating regulated financial services businesses in the UK and the EU.

 

Insurance: the team deals with mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and reorganization of international groups to address Solvency II, solvent schemes of arrangement, business transfers, distribution and other commercial agreements, insolvencies and restructuring of insurers, run-offs, alternative risk transfers (ART), Part VII and also cross border business transfers and capital raising.

Investment funds: the team advises on all aspects of the structure and operation of hedge funds, private equity and real estate funds and other ‘alternative’ investment products including their structuring and formation, marketing and distribution, trading and transactional documentation and the creation of structures or repackaging arrangements to access specific markets or investors.

 

Tax: the team advises on the UK tax aspects of mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and insolvency, capital markets, banking and structured finance, international investment funds and resolution of tax controversies (including tax litigation).

 

 

Sidley takes great pride in the culture of collegiality that it has fostered and maintained across its many offices. This culture involves lawyers at all levels treating each other, and staff members, with genuine respect. 

This atmosphere makes it a pleasure to come to work in the morning, and takes the edge off staying late at night when that is required. It also enables the firm to deliver the highest quality legal services. 

Sidley lawyers place a premium on helping each other out, lending assistance and experience on projects that can span multiple offices and practice areas. We believe this culture of respect and cooperation sets us apart from many other firms, and enhances the professional experience and satisfaction of our lawyers.