Legal solutions

Our team of specialist lawyers have extensive knowledge and experience in complex asset finance matters. We work with a range of financial institutions, investors, arrangers, airlines, lessors and shipping companies to deliver successful asset finance transactions.

Many of our specialist team of asset finance lawyers joined us from leading international firms, and our clients rely on the extensive experience in complex asset finance matters that they bring.

Our ability to draw upon a breadth of experience when advising on asset finance deals is invaluable in today’s fast-moving environment and is an essential component in our clients’ success. Our focus on commercial problem solving and client service mean that we are consistently ranked in the top tier of all major ratings for our asset finance work. Our approach is innovative and practical helping to ensure that deal structures are fully aligned with our clients’ commercial requirements, and we offer the efficient and cost-effective turnaround of transactional documentation.

From the acquisition of all types of equipment through secured loan financing and finance leasing, to the sale and acquisition of individual assets and portfolios and at the other end of the spectrum, restructurings, workouts and enforcements – our dedicated team works with clients across a range of matters. Our global asset finance team is well placed to give advice on both on- and off-balance sheet vehicles, a wide range of asset classes, including aircraft, ships, rolling stock, telecommunications systems and other 'big ticket' items and the establishment of leasing and financing platforms from a legal and tax perspective. The kinds of deals we advise on include:

• Secured and unsecured commercial debt
• ECA and insurance backed financing
• Establishment of shipping and aviation funds and private equity lending platforms
• Loan portfolio acquisitions
• Off-balance sheet structures for leasing or warehouse deals
• Islamic financing
• Joint ventures
• Capital market products
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Sale and purchase of assets or asset owning companies
• Restructurings and workouts
• Enforcement and repossession
• Registration of title and security

We have one of the most experienced transactional banking teams operating today in our jurisdictions.

Clients acting as lenders, borrowers, and in other related capacities all rely on our accomplished banking team to ensure their legal and commercial objectives are achieved. Experienced across the full range of banking activities, our work in this area is well-regarded and consistently ranked in the top tier of all recognised legal industry publications including Chambers, IFLR1000 and Legal500. 

Encompassing the full range of debt, equity, equity-linked, credit-linked and asset-backed securities, insurance linked securities, derivatives and other structured products, our experience includes securitisation, repackagings, collateralised bond and loan offerings, note programmes, commercial paper and depository receipt programmes and convertible debt and warrants issues. The world's leading international financial institutions, managers, arrangers, agents and trustees rely on our teams for their advice.

From trusts to foundations, and from family offices to club investments, our team are a trusted guide to the key investment hubs. We also provide listing services for the listing of securities, issued in the context of the above transactions, on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX), the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange (CSX), The International Stock Exchange (TISE) and the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE). 

A recognised market leader in the provision of best-in-class legal, listing, and tax and professional services to CLO issuers, our experienced local teams offer advice to CLO issuers incorporated in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Bermuda and Jersey.

We advise arranging banks, sponsors and asset managers on all aspects of their US and/or Euro CLO transactions through one integrated legal and professional services business.  

Active in the CLO market since its inception, we advise on all stages of the CLO lifecycle from warehouses and CLO takeouts to substitutions, resets, refis, reissues, restructures and liquidations.

Our CLO team is experienced, responsive and dedicated to providing market leading service levels to our clients. Walkers Professional Services, our SPV administration business, is synonymous with responsiveness, a solution-driven approach and a commitment to excellence in client service.

In 2023, Walkers was ranked as number one for 'Best Offshore Legal Services' and 'Best Offshore Fund Administration' in Creditflux's seventh annual CLO Census for services provided to the global collateralised loan obligation market. This marks the sixth year in a row that our professional services team has taken the Best Offshore Fund Administration award and the fifth win for the legal team. 

From pure hedging to complex / structured derivatives – our advice covers exchange-traded, over the counter or centrally cleared derivatives across the full range of credit, equity, interest rate, currency, FX and commodity asset classes.

Our wealth of experience means we act for most of the world’s leading international financial institutions, banks, pension funds, corporates, arrangers and funds as they ask for our help broadening their portfolio exposure or hedging their risks.

Securitisations, repackagings, collateralised bond and loan offerings, note programmes, commercial paper and depository receipt programmes, convertible debt and warrants issues, stock lending transactions and repos (GMRA) are all part of our extensive expertise. And we are well-respected for our regulatory work, particularly in the impact of EMIR in Europe. 

As one of the first teams in our jurisdictions to work on subscription line credit transactions and hedge fund financing platforms, for both lender and borrower clients, we are recognised for our deep experience across our global network.  

Our dedicated fund financing and formation teams have been at the forefront of the development of the market, working closely with leading financial institutions, investment managers, banks and non-bank lender clients and other law firms.  

Our clients range from agents, banks, alternative lenders to private equity sponsors, hedge funds and other assets managers. All rely on us for our understanding of fund structures and documentation and the perspective and insight this provides.   

Our extensive experience and knowledge span all product lines including subscription line facilities, umbrella facilities, NAV / hybrid facilities, preferred equity, co-invest facilities, general partner / management line support facilities, secondary fund facilities, liquidity and margin facilities and hedge fund facilities.  

Our global fund finance team is experienced, responsive and dedicated to providing market leading service levels to our clients. 

Our teams advise on the establishment of structures involving the issuance of insurance-linked securities on a global basis. The dominant player in our markets, we have advised on all but one of the major European ILS deals in the past decade. Given our locations in the leading insurance jurisdictions, including the World's Risk Capital, we also work closely with US insurers.

From favoured catastrophe bonds to a wide range of other collateralised reinsurance strategies, these alternative risk transactions are a popular way for insurers and reinsurers to spread risk to capital markets investors, and for investors to benefit from potential non correlated returns free from geopolitical issues and market turbulence. Poised at the convergence of capital markets and insurance, ILS are a natural part of our full service for financial services approach. We provide the advice and support needed to deliver high-value complex cross-border transactions securely and efficiently. We also work closely with our listing teams to bring these instruments to market.

Fluent in the principles of Islamic finance, our experienced team provide Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey law advice on a broad range of Shari’ah compliant finance and investment fund products including Murabaha, Mudaraba, Ijara, and Sukuk – as a means of accessing and deploying capital while still adhering to Islamic religious principles.

Acting regularly for both conventional and Shari'ah compliant financial institutions, investment managers and advisors and sovereign wealth funds on the offshore aspects of transactions involving conventional and Islamic finance gives us deep experience and a sound grounding in this specialist area. Clients of all types choose us for our ability to understand and speak the language of Islamic finance.

This understanding allows us to frequently advise on the establishment of an expansive range of Shari'ah-compliant finance and investment structures, often working closely with onshore counsel and Shari'ah advisors to ensure that the offshore finance and investment structures meet local law and regulatory requirements as well as the requirements of Shari'ah. 

We offer advice on all aspects of real estate transactions from acquisition to financing, disposals and leasing. International private equity funds, lending institutions, developers, corporates, multinationals and private clients all rely on us to deliver the high quality, client focused advice they need.

Skilled in both commercial and residential real estate finance, we advise both lenders and borrowers all aspects of secured real estate financings, including acquisition finance, development finance, senior and mezzanine. 

Working closely with other external counsel, major banks and accountancy firms, we have experience representing a broad range of stakeholders, including debtors, directors, creditors (including senior and mezzanine creditors and bondholders), shareholders and investors (such as pension companies, hedge funds and private equity houses).

Our experience takes in some of the largest restructurings in recent years, and spans both our insolvency and finance teams, as well as a dedicated transactional and contentious restructurings expert team. We have extensive experience advising clients on complex, high-profile, cross-border restructurings and reorganisations including debt-to-equity swaps, distressed debt, asset finance and capital market products both in and out of court. The Walkers' restructuring team is consistently ranked in the top tier of all major legal journal ratings for our restructuring work.  

Clients across the globe rely on our tier-1 team for multijurisdictional advice on structured finance products and services. Our longevity in the market gives us a deep understanding of finance products, and the size of our specialist team coupled with our firm’s full-service offering mean that clients can trust us to manage and deliver the outcomes they need.

From Collateralised Loan Obligations (CLO) to syndicated and synthetic products – our team’s long experience and market-leading delivery make us the go-to for structured finance. Global in outlook and multijurisdictional in delivery, we regularly handle all aspects of structured finance deals, allowing our clients to effectively and efficiently outsource to us, safe and secure in the knowledge that we can provide the legal advice and practical support needed. 

The urgent need to address the impact of climate change has seen the rise of new forms of sustainable financing and investment in ESG structured products against a complex and evolving international regulatory backdrop. Investment on an almost unprecedented scale is required to tackle the impact of climate change, inequality and discrimination of the vulnerable and underprivileged – billions have already been committed to ESG projects and more will follow in the years to come.

We work closely with other external counsel, advisers, lenders and borrowers on bespoke lending agreements and green finance solutions focused on impact at an environmental, social and governance level including green bonds, blue bonds, social bonds, sustainable and sustainability-linked bonds and other green loans and transition finance arrangements.

We have helped to shape this emerging and rapidly evolving market, working to find solutions to legal challenges across our jurisdictions to meet the needs of market participants.

As the regulatory backdrop and taxonomy regimes become ever more sophisticated, we continue to advise clients and intermediaries on bespoke solutions and best market practice across our regions. Our team of multi-disciplinary and cross-border finance specialists are incredibly passionate about the positive social impact of the work that we undertake in partnership with our pioneering clients across the growing sustainable finance space.