Herbert Smith Freehills LLP

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP combines 'excellent domain knowledge with commercial sensitivity and pragmatism' to good effect for a borrower-side client base, on deals running the gamut from relatively commoditised working capital facilities and refinancing requirements through to more bespoke structured mandates involving often complex inter-creditor arrangements. Many of these clients are investment grade and listed on the FTSE 100/250, and appreciate the firm's 'detailed understanding of the latest market trends', some of which is gleaned through the annual research report it conducts alongside the Association of Corporate Treasurers. Kristen Roberts is at the forefront of this research and remains at the vanguard of corporate debt trends, including as these relate to sustainability-linked loans. Gabrielle Wong is 'incisive, practical and direct in her advice' for corporates on US-law-governed debt products to facilitate M&A transactions, corporate lending and refinancings. Leveraging the firm's broader energy and infrastructure sector prowess, the team is also very adept at handling work from emerging markets (particularly Africa) which often involves multi-sourced financings. In this context, Martin Kavanagh has strong connections with a number of leading development finance institutions, as does William Breeze, who is also noted for his work in the energy sector, including in the structured commodity trade finance space. Thomas Bethel is additionally key to the firm's energy financing work and excels at advising lenders on reserve-based lending for upstream oil and gas transactions.