LawFuel.com – Schulte Roth & Zabel (“SRZ”), a leading provider of legal services to the global financial services industry, is pleased to announce its new London location. Since opening its doors in London in September 2002, the firm has gained an impressive share of the European legal market in investment management and has recently expanded its business reorganisation practice.
“Our new, expanded office is the direct result of our team’s many successes in the London legal market, particularly in serving the world’s finest investment management firms”
The new offices, at the Crown Estate’s One Eagle Place, occupy the 4th floor of the architecturally significant building in the fashionable West End. The building also is known for being the current home of investment firm Haymarket Financial and the future headquarters of financial services company Virgin Money.
“Our new, expanded office is the direct result of our team’s many successes in the London legal market, particularly in serving the world’s finest investment management firms,” said Christopher Hilditch, head of the London practice, which added 50 new funds clients just in the past year. SRZ represents nearly half of the 100 largest hedge funds and more than 3,000 investment funds globally.
Last week, SRZ announced the addition of Steven Whittaker as a partner in the investment management group, resident in the London office. He is part of a team of senior lawyers that is one of London’s largest and most experienced groups of hedge fund advisers.
SRZ’s investment management group consists of more than 80 lawyers focused exclusively on representing investment funds and their managers. The group provides advice on both UK and US law to a wide variety of funds and managers located in the UK, US, Continental Europe, the Middle East, Southern Africa, Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan) and Australia.
The expansion comes as the firm nears the one-year anniversary of leading business reorganisation partners, Peter J.M. Declercq and Sonya Van de Graaff, joining SRZ. They are prominent practitioners who have built an international practice focused on cross-border insolvencies, restructurings, distressed mergers and acquisitions, distressed investing and debt trading.
These most recent additions have added to the strong foundation of SRZ’s London practice which also includes partners Daniel S. Shapiro, a founding partner of the firm; Josh Dambacher, who transferred to the London office from New York as the UK practice expanded; James McNally, who joined SRZ in 2012; and Kerrie A. Walsh and Nicholas Fagge, who both joined the London office when it opened in 2002.
Paul N. Roth, a founding partner of SRZ and chair of the firm’s investment management group, commented, “We are very proud of our London team of lawyers, who represent the best in their respective practice areas.” Alan S. Waldenberg, chair of the firm’s executive committee and chair of the tax group, added, “From our new London office, we expect to further strengthen our European capabilities for our clients.”
SRZ’s London office is one of only three law firms ranked in Band 1 for Investment Funds: Hedge Funds by Chambers UK 2014 and one of only two law firms ranked in Band 1 for Investment Funds by The Legal 500 UK 2013. The office also was honoured as “The Leading Law Firm for New Fund Launches” at the 2013 Hedge Fund Journal Awards, which recognize the leading service providers to the European hedge fund industry.
About Schulte Roth & Zabel
Schulte Roth & Zabel (www.srz.com) is a full-service law firm with offices in London, New York and Washington, DC. As one of the leading law firms serving the financial services industry, the firm regularly advises clients on investment management, corporate and transactional matters, and provides counsel on securities regulatory compliance, enforcement and investigative issues. The firm’s practices include investment management; regulatory & compliance; securities & capital markets; bank regulatory; business reorganisation; distressed investing; distressed debt & claims trading; mergers & acquisitions; employment & employee benefits; environmental; finance; individual client services; intellectual property, sourcing & technology; litigation; real estate; structured products & derivatives; and tax.
