Structured Finance – The New Battleground for Talent Amongst the Elite Firms in London

Over the past 18 months, London’s structured finance market has become one of the most active battlegrounds for lateral recruitment amongst the elite international firms. Once seen as a niche corner of capital markets, securitisation has rapidly evolved into a strategic priority for firms seeking to deepen relationships with the private credit funds now driving global deal flow.

From CLO Specialists to Multi-Asset Powerhouses

Historically, the leading US firms’ structured finance teams in London were dominated by CLO (Collateralised Loan Obligation) specialists — a reliable but specialist field. The recent moves of John Goldfinch to Proskauer, Franz Ranero to Latham & Watkins, Alex Martin to Milbank, David Quirolo to Orrick, and Blake Jones to Clifford Chance underline just how active and competitive the CLO market has remained over the past 18 months.

Traditionally, only Latham & Watkins and Paul Hastings maintained true multi-asset securitisation coverage, spanning CLOs, ABS, and fund-related structures, while most other elite firms concentrated heavily on CLOs. That is now changing. These latest hires show continued demand for top-tier CLO expertise, but they also mark a turning point: CLOs are no longer the only part of securitisation attracting serious investment. The US elite are now targeting broader asset classes to align with their private credit client base, a number of which are building out London structured teams for the first time, see Suril Patel’s hire at Kirkland and Rick Hanson at Simpson Thatcher.  Even Paul Weiss now has a London structured finance practice. 

The Expanding Toolkit of Private Credit

The catalyst for this shift lies in the changing needs of the large credit funds that now define the private capital landscape. Many of these funds, from global alternative asset managers to specialist lenders, have moved beyond traditional direct lending into a more sophisticated use of structured credit technology, including:

• CFOs (Collateralised Fund Obligations): vehicles that allow managers to securitise pools of fund interests, effectively leveraging their LP stakes and creating liquidity.
• ABS / ABL (Asset-Backed and Asset-Based Lending): financing backed by granular asset pools such as consumer receivables, auto loans, or SME loans, an area increasingly popular with non-bank lenders.
• Rated Note Feeders: feeder fund structures that issue rated notes to institutional investors, giving them exposure to private credit portfolios in a regulated format.

Each of these asset classes draws on the core legal technology of securitisation, tranching risk, creating cash-flow waterfalls, and obtaining ratings, but applies it in ways tailored to private capital investors. Law firms that want to compete for work from these clients, must evolve their offering accordingly. 

The Convergence of Fund Finance and Securitisation

One of the most striking developments has been the convergence between fund finance and securitisation. Structures that were once entirely separate, subscription lines and NAV facilities on one hand, rated note issuances and warehouse lines on the other, are increasingly blending. This is pulling firms that were previously focused solely on fund-level financing into the structured finance orbit.  It is not credible to say you can support clients on fund financing if you don’t have top tier securitisation in place.

Strategic Expansion: From Private Credit to Full-Service Coverage

Proskauer provides a recent textbook example. Already a market leader in private credit in both the US and UK, the firm’s hire of Philip Bowden was about deepening its relationships with credit fund clients and expanding support into every area those funds might need — including securitisation. Rather than building from scratch, Proskauer’s strategy has been to extend an already dominant platform into adjacent financing and capital markets products, creating one of the most integrated “credit fund ecosystems” in London.

Looking Ahead: The Next Phase of Competition

The structured finance market is now strategically intertwined with private capital. As US private credit managers continue to innovate in Europe, the technologies of securitisation will underpin more of their strategies. The firms that understand this evolution, and invest early in talent, will be best placed to capture the next wave of fund-driven deal flow.

What began as a battle for CLO expertise has evolved into a race to own the legal architecture of private credit itself. For the elite firms in London, structured finance is no longer a niche — it’s the new frontier.