Cleary Gottlieb Earns High Recognition in 2017 Legal 500 UK

Cleary Gottlieb continues to achieve recognition as a premier law firm in the 2017 edition of The Legal 500 UK.

This year, the firm earned 13 practice rankings, and eight Cleary lawyers were named “Leading Lawyers” in their respective practice areas: partners Sam Bagot, Maurits Dolmans, David Gottlieb, Simon Jay, Jonathan Kelly, Michael McDonald, Bob Penn and Sebastian Sperber.

The Legal 500 UK  also recognized two Cleary lawyers – partner Polina Lyadnova and counsel Paul Gilbert – in its inaugural list of “Next Generation Lawyers,” a guide to up-and-coming lawyers throughout the United Kingdom.

Cleary received commendations as a recommended firm in the following practice areas:

• Corporate and commercial: EU and competition: A “‘highly expert’, ‘responsive’, and ‘rigorous’ practice…”
• Corporate and commercial: Equity capital markets: “With a sprawling global network and instructions from investment banks and issuer clients, [Cleary] is particularly active in the Nordic region and also has experience of emerging markets equity transactions.”
• Corporate and commercial: M&A: upper mid-market and premium deals, £250m+: “[Cleary’s] ‘extremely diligent, commercial and highly skilled’ department is praised for its strength in depth and ‘incredible mix of talent and expertise.’”
• Corporate and commercial: Private equity: transactions – large-cap deal capability: “[Cleary’s] team has a wealth of experience in complex, cross-border private equity transactions, including those involving leveraged buyouts (LBOs), secondary buyouts, public bids, private acquisitions and exits.”
• Dispute resolution: Banking litigation: investment and retail: “[Cleary] is ‘a top-class firm, which marries a well-staffed London office with top quality lawyers in New York, Washington, D.C. and Belgium.’”
• Dispute resolution: Commercial litigation: “Financial and banking regulatory investigations and enforcement continue to feature heavily in [Cleary’s] London practice, which ‘has excellent lawyers who work extremely hard and are devoted to their clients.’”
• Dispute resolution: Competition litigation: “[Cleary] regularly acts for defendants in follow-on claims and regulatory appeals, and has found itself involved in many of the most prominent competition cases, both in the UK and the EU market.”
• Dispute resolution: International arbitration: “[Cleary] acts for sovereigns and global corporations in international arbitrations in key arbitral arenas, such as London, Paris, New York, and The Hague.”
• Finance: Acquisition finance: “[Cleary’s] five-partner banking and finance practice provides a ‘top-notch level of service’.... Known for its generalist approach to finance, the ‘very nimble’ team are regularly called on to advise on matters which require sophisticated and highly strategic cross-border expertise.”
• Finance: Bank lending: investment grade debt and syndicated loans: The “‘eclectic’ five-partner banking practice at [Cleary] is regularly engaged in high-profile cross-border mandates for a predominantly borrower-side client base ...”
• Finance: Debt Capital Markets: “[Cleary] is ‘a prominent player in emerging markets debt’, with clients singling out its ‘broad spread in terms of products and geographies and good reputation for high-end and complex transactions.’”
• Finance: Emerging markets: “[Cleary] is praised for its ‘focus on high-end and complex transactions’, and for its longstanding commitment to emerging markets work, which has helped it to carve out a prominent role in English law transactions in markets such as Russia, the CEE, the Middle East, Africa and India.”
• Finance: High yield: “[Cleary’s] capital markets team regularly handle debt, equity and high yield transactions for issuers.”

View Cleary’s complete results on Legal 500’s website.