Located in the heart of the financial district in the City of London, the London office has approximately 85 lawyers. The majority are either U.S. or English qualified. The office was established in 1971 and began practicing English law in 1997. The primary areas of practice are international finance and corporate. Complementing these areas, the office also has specializations in tax (both U.S. and UK), antitrust, financial regulation, litigation and arbitration, and intellectual property.
The international finance practice includes the giving of securities law advice to issuers, investment and commercial banks and other participants in the global markets on a wide range of financial transactions. A significant proportion of the practice is focused on structuring complex global offerings, including both innovative structures and undocumented offerings, and in developing new financial products such as bank capital instruments. The practice also has extensive experience in high yield debt, acquisition finance and in financings by Russian companies.
The corporate practice includes mergers and acquisitions (both public and private). It also has significant experience in private equity transactions (both public and private), joint venture and outsourcing work, corporate reorganizations and restructurings. Our lawyers work on both U.S. and English law transactions and frequently work with colleagues in our U.S. and European offices on large cross-border deals. Our clients include major corporations, private equity houses and financial institutions.
The tax practice group in London is made up of UK lawyers and U.S. tax lawyers, who work closely with other colleagues in the international finance and corporate practices. They are also part of the firm’s international tax group and have their own self-standing practice consisting primarily of financial products, tax planning for multi-national corporations and tax controversy work.
The litigation and arbitration practice in London is an integral part of the firm's leading European and international practice, handling local matters as well as multijurisdictional disputes. Cleary Gottlieb lawyers have represented clients before UK courts including the High Court, Privy Council and Court of Appeal, as well as in arbitrations in London and elsewhere under a variety of arbitral rules, including the ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, AAA, and Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, and public international law cases under the ICSID rules.
The antitrust practice works closely with the firm’s pre-eminent antitrust practice in Brussels. The financial regulation and intellectual property practices are recent additions to the London office practice.
In keeping with the firm’s culture, the office is not departmentalized by practice area. Most of our lawyers handle a variety of work within the main practice areas. For more information about the firm’s practice areas, click here.
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