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| Simon Haddock |
ALLEN & OVERY
Allen & Overy again pocketed this award after fans cited work for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and its profile as an authority on the Asian derivatives market, where it has been involved in a number of landmark transactions including working on the first China single-name loan credit default swap with a bank in the People's Republic of China. In the ISDA box this year, the firm made significant documentation issues, such as contingent CDS, auction protocols for settling CDS on Delphi, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S., European CDS on loans, CDS on asset-backed securities, the European equity variance swap master confirmation agreement and protocols to facilitate the implementation of various equity derivative master confirmation agreements globally. About 25% of its work is billed to ISDA.
In North America, A&O represented seven dealers with respect to CAD350 billion of CDS contracts on the U.S. side of the Canadian structured investment vehicle workout. It has also been at the forefront of derivative developments in emerging markets, notably in India with respect to changes to its offshore derivative instrument regulations, and across Asia in the PRC, Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Partners at A&O were closely involved with Standard Chartered Bank's Asiamea CLOs, which were structured to allow for collateral to be interchanged between cash collateral and repo collateral structures, and managed to close despite being launched right into the mouth of the credit crisis. The firm also advised Deutsche Asset Management Asia in Singapore on a managed CDO that required structuring under the new Singapore tax regime for those structures.
The firm has more than 250 lawyers but special mention goes out to partner Paul Cluley, newly repatriated to London, alongside fellow partners Simon Haddock, Ed Murray and Thomas Jones.
Other Nominees:
* Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft * Linklaters * Mallesons Stephen Jaques * Mayer Brown
