Leveraged Finance Associate (Class of 2025)

The Opportunity

• High Quality Broad Training: The firm actively rejects rigid practice-area silos and you will gain exposure to premium private equity work covering public and private M&A aspects, P2Ps and sponsor represented buyouts.
• Unrivalled Deal Exposure: You will work directly with market-leading partners on multi-billion dollar, front-page transactions.
• Lean Team Structure: High partner-to-associate contact guarantees accelerated professional development, direct mentorship, and early client-facing responsibility.
• Top-of-Market Compensation: Competing at the absolute peak of the London market, offering a top-tier US salary scale alongside an exceptional benefits package.

• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating principal transaction documents (such as SPAs, SHAs, and investment agreements).
• Managing multi-jurisdictional due diligence processes and coordinating specialist teams (Tax, Finance, IP/Tech, etc.).
• Taking a lead role in transaction management, closing processes, and post-closing integration.
• Interfacing directly with sophisticated private equity sponsors, management teams, and investment banks.

• Experience: Corporate / M&A / Private Equity Associate from the Class of 2025. You will have completed your training and gained foundational transactional experience within a top-tier Magic Circle, Silver Circle, or major US law firm in London.
• Academics: Impeccable academic record (minimum 2:1 or equivalent from a top-tier university).
• Skills: Strong foundational knowledge of corporate law, excellent commercial acumen, and a rigorous attention to detail.
• Attributes: A high degree of resilience, intellectual curiosity, and the confidence to operate autonomously within small, fast-paced deal teams.

Location: London (City)

• Strategic M&A Support: Regulatory structuring for multi-billion dollar cross-border deals.
• Complex Transactions: Derivatives, structured finance, payments, and financial market infrastructure.
• Innovation & Growth Sectors: Cutting-edge advice on Fintech, cryptocurrency, and digital assets.
• Advisory & Risk: Corporate governance, AML, sanctions, and high-profile investigations/enforcement.

• 1-3 years PQE gained within a Magic Circle, Silver Circle, or leading US firm's financial services regulatory practice.
• Strong foundational knowledge of UK and EU financial regulations.
• A generalist ethos: adaptable, entrepreneurial, and comfortable taking on high levels of responsibility.
• Excellent academic credentials.

• Excellent Compensation: Competitive remuneration at the absolute top of the New York scale in London - no hours target.
• Direct Partner Access: Work directly alongside a universally recognised market leader and a high-profile team of Counsel.
• Strategic Growth: Be a core part of an office transforming into a standalone European powerhouse, giving you early, accelerated progression opportunities.

We are instructed by an elite global law firm seeking to strategically expand its Private Capital and M&A capability in London.

Long recognised as one of the world's most prestigious and selective law firms, our client is currently executing a focused, ambitious growth plan for its London corporate practice. The team has recently been strengthened by the arrival of several of the City's most respected and top-tier market leaders in the private equity space.

This creates a highly unique environment for an incoming associate: you will benefit from the massive institutional backing, resources, and unmatched global brand of an elite firm, combined with the energetic, high-growth momentum of a team entering a new phase of market dominance. The practice handles premium, cross-border, and exceptionally complex financial sponsor mandates, offering exposure to sophisticated large-cap transactions.

The firm pays full cravath scale salaries and bonuses with no hours target.

• Deal Execution: Lead on workstreams for large-cap, premium cross-border private equity transactions, including leveraged buyouts, carve-outs, consortium investments, and complex divestitures.
• Drafting & Negotiation: Draft, review, and negotiate principal transaction documents, shareholder agreements, management incentive schemes, and related corporate documentation.
• Sponsor Management: Act as a direct point of contact for premier global financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, and their portfolio companies.
• Team Leadership: Supervise, mentor, and delegate to junior associates and trainees within the transactional corporate team.
• Collaboration: Work seamlessly as part of a high-performance, integrated multidisciplinary team alongside market-leading specialists in leveraged finance, transactional tax, and restructuring.

Experience Level: You will ideally be a UK or Common Law qualified solicitor who qualified in 2021 or 2022 (approx. 4-5 years post-qualification experience).

• Background: Currently practicing within a top-tier US firm, Magic Circle, or leading international practice in London known for premium Private Equity or high-end M&A.
• Technical Skillset: Demonstrable experience executing complex corporate transactions for sophisticated financial sponsors. Exceptional drafting ability and deep commercial acumen are required.
• Culture Fit: Ambitious, highly collaborative, and comfortable operating in a high-calibre environment. A proactive professional who enjoys a leanly staffed deal structure that offers massive runway for growth and direct, regular partner contact.

• Unrivalled Prestige: Put one of the world's most elite corporate legal names on your CV.
• Market-Leading Pay: Full New York/Cravath-scale compensation package, placing you at the absolute top of the London market.
• Lean Deal Teams: Unlike overstaffed mega-teams, this firm utilises a lean execution model, ensuring you get meaningful, front-line experience, heavy client visibility, and close mentoring from elite partners.
• Momentum: Join a team in active growth mode, backed by significant institutional investment and the market-leading reputations of its newly arrived leadership panel.