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Paula Laird
Partner
Paula Laird leads the banking team in Europe and the Middle East. She is a well-known and highly respected practitioner in the asset-based lending (ABL) and asset finance fields, having been recognised by several leading legal publications.
Paula has expertise in the most complex structured ABL and asset finance transactions, both domestic and cross border. She typically acts for major financial institutions and corporates on asset finance transactions including operating leasing, receivables finance, ABL, sale of leasing/asset finance portfolios and securitisation.
Paula regularly participates as a speaker in industry forums in Europe and the US, and was named as one of the 50 most senior women globally in Commercial Finance by US publication The Secured Lender.
- Advising a major US bank on a wide range of issues, both domestic and cross border.
- Advising a major UK bank on a US$150 million term and revolving facilities to fund an acquisition ranked in the Top 3 by Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table in 2017.
- Advising on the complex cross-border financing of a multinational office company retailer across 12 jurisdictions in Europe and the UK. The transaction was based on an innovative structure transferring all receivables of the operating company to a centralised cash management company based in Belgium using securitisation techniques to enhance the working capital available to the wider group.
- Advising a US lender on the £150 million ABL cross-border financing (US, UK and Australia) of a major wine distributor and supplier.
- Advising a major banking group on the £300 million refinancing of a car hire operator.
- Advising several lenders on asset-based finance facilities for both working capital and acquisition finance including public-to-private transactions.
- Advising a commercial lender on a £300 million facility to an international conglomerate.
- Advising on a £150 million leasing facility to finance plants in a number of European jurisdictions.
Education
- University of Reading, LL.B., Honors, 1988
Admissions
- England and Wales, 1991
- Recommended in The Legal 500 UK 2017 for Asset-based lending; Securitisation.