DLA: Dear Paul, what is the business model of the recently merged law firm A&O Shearman?
Paul Péporté: The combined firm A&O Shearman is composed of 4,000 lawyers, and ~800 partners, working across 47 offices in 29 countries. It has the depth of experience and diversity of talent to stay at the forefront of business across every sector, key market, and jurisdiction. A&O Shearman is the only firm fluent in U.S. law, English law, and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets in equal measure. Its strength comes from its global capabilities, supported by deep local roots, relationships, experience and knowledge.
A&O Shearman advises more than a third of New York Stock Exchange-listed businesses and a fifth of the NASDAQ, as well as many more of the world’s leading organizations listed on the LSE, Euronext, Euronext Paris, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Dubai Financial Market and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
A&O Shearman combines two of the world’s most prestigious law firms with complementary strengths and shared values. It will continue both firms’ tradition of superior client service and will adopt a forward-looking approach to delivering excellence and innovation. In particular, it will provide clients with the world-class integrated solutions and unparalleled local knowledge that they are looking for in today’s continually evolving commercial and regulatory environment.
A&O Shearman was built to achieve exceptional outcomes for its clients.
DLA: What are your strategic priorities in view of the European Capital Markets Union?
Paul Péporté: A&O Shearman is at the heart of the world’s banking and financial markets. Operating from all of the world’s key financial centres, our global Capital Markets practice is a true global leader. We advise underwriters, arrangers and issuers on all aspects of international capital markets transactions. Among our clients are major international financial institutions and corporations, based in Europe and worldwide. As a leading international law firm that has recently advised on the first landmark transactions in the European digital bonds space and which regularly advises on green bonds issuances, A&O Shearman is closely following the developments of the European Capital Markets Union (CMU) and its implications for our clients and our practice.
Our strategic priorities in view of the CMU are:
to leverage our expertise and experience in the digital bonds space to advise our clients on the opportunities and challenges of the proposed EU framework for crypto-assets and digital operational resilience, which are part of the CMU action plan. We will also monitor the potential impact of the proposed pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), which could enable the issuance and trading of digital bonds on DLT platforms; to continue to support our clients in the green bonds space and to align our advice with the EU taxonomy and the EU Green Bond Standard and their potential benefits, which could increase the demand and visibility of green bonds among retail investors; and to explore new avenues and niches for our practice in the context of the CMU, such as the securitisation of non-performing loans (NPLs), the harmonisation of insolvency and debt recovery frameworks, the simplification of withholding tax procedures, and the promotion of long-term and equity investments.
DLA: Why was it important for you to become a member of our association?
Paul Péporté: We believe that the DLA is a valuable and influential organisation that promotes the interests and development of the lending industry in Europe and beyond. We share the DLA’s vision of creating a fair, transparent, and efficient digital lending market that benefits both borrowers and lenders, and contributes to the economic growth and financial inclusion. We also appreciate the DLA’s efforts in fostering dialogue and collaboration among the various stakeholders in the ecosystem, such as digital lenders, investors, regulators and service providers.
We are proud to join the DLA as a member to contribute to its mission and activities, and to benefit from its network and resources. We think that we can bring to the DLA our legal and market insights, our experience and reputation, and our commitment and expertise for the digital lending industry. We also look forward to learning from and collaborating with the other members of the DLA, and to participating in the initiatives organised by the DLA.
DLA: Thank you very much for the interview, Paul. We are really happy A&O Shearman is part of our trade body now.
Foto credits: A&O Shearman