Sinead O’Shea, Simpson Thacher
Showcasing a striking client list that includes the likes of KKR, Viridian, JPMorgan, First Reserve, Silver Lake, BlackRock and Blackstone, Simpson Thacher’s Sinead O’Shea is at the top of her game. Having qualified in Ireland, O’Shea has worked in the firm’s New York and Hong Kong offices. ‘Moving to Hong Kong was a huge challenge as I went there right after becoming a partner and having my second child,’ she admits. ‘I knew nothing whatsoever about the Asian market and the cultural setup there.’
O’Shea offers Blackstone’s $57bn takeover of Atlantia in 2022 as a standout instruction: ‘It was absolutely enormous! There were so many parties involved and it was a huge race to get to the announcement, so the timetable was quite condensed.’
O’Shea confesses that networking is not a skill that comes naturally to her. ‘I had to work at it for a long time. Really, it comes down to confidence – it took me a long time to build that separately, which has now resulted in additional professional successes,’ she says, voicing the sentiment of many women interviewed for this piece.
‘Leading female deal lawyer, rock star female partner,’ endorses one elite dealmaker. You don’t get much better than that.
Kirsteen Nicol, Kirkland & Ellis
While ambitious women still struggle to gain membership to the bros’ club of leveraged finance, Kirkland’s Kirsteen Nicol shines as a notable exception. Having been much-touted internally for several years, it seems her reputation around the wider market now matches the hype.
One City peer sings Nicol’s praises: ‘She has built a phenomenal name for herself. She has terrific clients who are welded to her and she really cares about her team.’
Ross Anderson, finance partner and co-chair of Paul Hastings in London, puts his perception of Nicol succinctly: ‘She’s a big dealmaker.’
Nicol says the most valuable piece of advice she has been given is ‘to focus on teamwork and building strong relationships with colleagues across the wider firm. Law firms are people businesses, so collaboration always optimises outcomes for clients, accelerates personal development and is also just more interesting!’
Nicol’s standout deals include advising SK Capital on the acquisition by its portfolio company, Archroma, of the textiles business of Huntsman, acting for Partners Group on the bond refinancing of residential real estate services company Emeria, the add-on of residential property manager FirstPort, and software investor Thoma Bravo’s first European fund on the acquisition of Logex, a healthcare analytics provider.
Jessica Littlewood, Clifford Chance
The European CLO practice head is rated by Kirkland’s Stephen Lucas for ‘not only being a star lawyer in her field for many years but now also playing a key role on the executive board of Clifford Chance in shaping its strategy and business’. Indeed, Littlewood is at the helm of the firm’s client relationship and business-building strategies in her role as global operations and business transformation partner.
Recent work includes advising Credit Suisse on a debt conversion for marine conservation to protect the Galápagos, exchanging $1.6bn of Ecuador’s international bonds for a $656m loan.
Emma Folds, Clifford Chance
‘The traditional issues of work life-balance and cracking the glass ceiling still seem to dominate,’ Folds reflects. ‘The path to partnership should be a meritocracy in which all candidates have equal opportunity to progress. The professional services sector needs to identify and tackle the barriers that prevent this from happening so that firms can deliver the equitable career experiences that everyone deserves.’
Ones to watch
‘The future generation is Vanessa,’ asserts Paul Hastings’ Ross Anderson of Allen & Overy’s banking and finance practitioner, Vanessa Xu, who was an associate in the Shanghai and Hong Kong offices before moving to London in 2010. Her deal list includes Cinven’s acquisition of Säkra from Adelis Equity Partners in 2022. Kirkland & Ellis’s borrower-side fund finance specialist Susannah Amini also stands out for her contribution to the innovation of recourse-lite financing structures for private equity funds in Europe. Clifford Chance’s Julia House is ranked as a Rising Star in The Legal 500 and comes recommended for leading on the financings of numerous infrastructure deals, including most recently advising GRIDSERVE on £500m in certified green financing for the expansion of its UK-wide EV charging network.