Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has promoted six lawyers to the firm’s partnership for 2020, bringing the total number of Partners to 173. They are:
Michele Autuori – Maritime, Assets & Structured Finance, Rome
Michele specialises in loan agreements, security packages, restructuring and insolvency, leasing transactions of yachts and sale and purchase of vessels. His experience also includes handling disputes and claims relating to all types of charterparties and bills of lading as well as insurance policy disputes, arrests of vessels and enforcement of securities. (Click on the IT link for more information)
Patrick Moore – Aviation, Assets & Structured Finance, London
Patrick specialises in finance transactions and restructurings across the transport sectors, with a particular focus on aviation and shipping. He regularly advises banks, funds, borrowers and operators on cross-border syndicated and private placement loans, restructurings involving more than one class of debt, leasing transactions, export-credit backed financings, preferred equity investments and structured products.
Dhruv Paul – Aviation, Assets & Structured Finance, Dubai
Dhruv specialises in both aviation-related and corporate transactions. He regularly represents banks, lessors, airlines and operators on aircraft finance transactions. He also advises on a range of cross-border corporate transactions, and in this aspect of his work he is particularly active in the India-Middle East-Africa corridor.
Dominic Pearson – Aviation, Assets & Structured Finance, London
Dominic has extensive experience in both the London and New York markets advising banks, ECAs, underwriters, issuers, borrowers, lessors and airlines on a broad range of aviation finance transactions including aviation-related asset-backed securitisations (ABS), other complex warehouse and portfolio financings, and large portfolio sales. He is one of the principal advisors to the Aviation Working Group in relation to the Global Aircraft Trading System (GATS) and is their lead lawyer on the drafting of the GATS documents. Dominic was named in 2015 as one of Airfinance Journal’s rising stars.
Kate Silverstein – Maritime, Assets & Structured Finance, London
Kate specialises in shipping finance and advises banks, private equity funds and ship owners on ECA-backed products, financings and restructurings involving offshore and FSRU assets as well as container and cruise ships. She also advises on chartering arrangements, sale and leasebacks and has experience in large scale loan portfolio sales and purchases.
Richard Smith – Maritime, Assets & Structured Finance, London
Richard’s expertise is in asset finance transactions with a focus on the shipping and offshore sectors. He is especially well versed in advising banks, financial institutions and shipowners in relation to ship finance, restructurings and leasing matters. Richard has recently gained recognition for his work in relation to the purchase of a large portfolio of shipping loans.
Lothar Wegener, Managing Partner, commented: “While these are unusual times, we are pleased to announce some fantastic new additions to our partnership. Their expertise will be invaluable to the firm’s continued success going forward”.
Chris Lowe, Managing Partner, added: “Our new partners are all extremely talented lawyers who enhance the reputation of the firm. We are delighted to welcome them all to the WFW partnership”.
