Restructuring Opportunities Lawyer

We are recruiting for a newly created Opportunities Lawyer within our restructuring & insolvency team.

Department purpose

Our unrivalled restructuring and insolvency team, with more than 200 lawyers specialising in restructuring across 33 offices globally, is truly world class. With such an extensive and dedicated team, we advise on the largest and most complex restructurings, and pride ourselves on providing pioneering solutions as well as delivering real commercial results. We specialise in cross-border restructurings and insolvencies and special situation, utilising the full range of international options including U.S. Chapter 11 reorganisations, UK schemes of arrangement, pre-packaged sales and debt for equity swaps.

Our expertise covers advice on contingency planning, debt restructuring, special situation credit solutions (including drop down financing transactions), reschedulings, distressed acquisitions/sales, credit bidding, formal insolvency proceedings, out-of-court refinancings, liability management exercises and distressed debt trading. We advise creditors and investors at all levels of the capital structure as well as corporates/directors, central banks, insolvency officeholders/trustees and government institutions.

We work closely with specialists in related practice areas including finance, corporate, real estate, employment, pensions, tax, environment, regulatory, capital markets and litigation to provide our clients with a seamless and integrated service.

Role Summary

The Market Opportunities Lawyer is a newly created non-fee earner role within the A&O Shearman restructuring & insolvency team. The role has a primary focus on assisting in business generation for the team by identifying companies that are likely to become subject to a financial restructuring and producing legal and commercial analysis on such companies to assist fee earners in successfully winning roles (debtor and creditor) on any subsequent restructuring or special situations opportunity. This role will require a client-focused skillset, as well as strong legal expertise to analyse the relevant capital structure and legal documentation in order to successfully identify restructuring opportunities.

Role and responsibilities

• Assist Partners and Senior Associates in the identification and winning of (creditor and debtor) restructuring and special situation mandates for the A&O Shearman restructuring group, including through:
• the creation and management of a 'market watchlist' of financially distressed companies
• researching, preparing and pitching client information 'deep dive' analysis in relation to identified target opportunities
• analysing financial instruments (including high-yield bonds & leveraged loans) to produce covenant analysis, including identifying scope for LME transactions
• attending client meetings, calls and marketing events to discuss market opportunities
• assisting in the preparation for client pitches
• working closely with existing knowledge lawyers to produce client facing materials on restructuring 'market themes' and similar material of interest to clients
• identifying other market events that may give rise to restructuring and/or special situation opportunities or present opportunities for our clients
• legal research

Key requirements

• Qualified lawyer 4 years and above PQE
• Will have worked successfully as a transactional lawyer in a leading law firm with experience in restructuring and/or leverage finance/direct lending, or as an in-house lawyer at a distressed investment fund
• Self-starter with an entrepreneurial business development outlook and approach and excellent client relationship skills
• Strong technical knowledge of the legal framework surrounding restructuring and distressed transactions, including experience with key restructuring procedures, such as schemes of arrangement & restructuring plans
• Familiarity with leverage finance structures, including having the ability analyse HYB and TLB covenants and ideally have experience in liability management exercises
• A person of sound judgment, able to establish a high level of credibility in the organisation and act as a trusted advisor to fee-earners
• Enjoys both the operational and strategic sides of this role and shows great flexibility
• Intellectual curiosity and versatility
• Detail-focused and self-motivated approach
• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple deadlines
• Strong commercial/business acumen with the ability to deliver creative and pragmatic solutions and advice
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to interface at all levels and particularly to win the respect of the partner and fee-earner community, building strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborative team player with the ability to develop and work in a fast paced, intellectually rigorous environment

Should you require additional support at any stage of the recruitment process due to a disability or a health condition, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our recruitment team who will work with you to provide any adjustments as required.

We are an equal opportunities recruiter and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or any other protected characteristic.

We recognise that our people are our most valuable asset, which is reflected in the wide range of benefits that are available to our employees. Some of these benefits include: our occupational pension scheme, group income protection cover, private medical insurance, mental health resources and free apps, health and wellbeing services encompassing an onsite gym, wellbeing centre and GP service, emergency back-up care support, parental and special leave, holiday entitlement increasing with length of service, holiday trading, season ticket loans and online discounts and lifestyle management services.

Our approach to hybrid working seeks to combine and maximise the benefits of effective remote working with the benefits of being in the office. Our current hybrid working arrangements require office based working for a minimum of 60% of your time (i.e. three days per week for a full time role) in accordance with our hybrid working policy.