The multinational law firm Latham & Watkins is among the largest and most profitable in the world. It was established in 1934 in Los Angeles. In Germany, the firm serves clients from the country’s major commercial hubs–Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. 

Focusses / specialisms 

The firm’s financial and corporate coverage is broad, with banking, capital markets, private equity and restructuring being among the firm’s strengths. 

Working in close cooperation with the firm’s capital markets and restructuring teams, the banking practice is especially strong in corporate finance work. The team is among the market’s best and frequently assists both borrowers and lenders on complex and impactful transactions. 

Within capital markets the firm is particularly well recognised in equity capital markets, where it is often seen serving clients on IPOs across the German and other European stock exchanges. The firm is also active in the debt capital markets domain, where it has a strong foothold in the European and German market for high-yield bond offerings. 

An area of strength for the firm in the financial services regulatory domain is advising global financial institutions on complex issues, such as the provision of support in relation to supervisory measures of the ECB. 

In M&A, the firm has a focus on technology and healthcare, where it has completed a plethora of landmark transactions recently, but also advises clients on complex deals in other industries such as financial services, manufacturing and infrastructure. 

The firm has been consistently competitive in the private equity space, where it advises on a share of the market’s landmark transactions, but also regularly completes a high volume of mid-market deals. 

In restructuring, the firm’s offering is also impressive, with the firm often advising on some of the most challenging restructurings, insolvencies and distressed transactions in Germany. 

Key clients 

The firm’s key clients include Adesso, Allgeier, Atai Life Sciences, Atotech,Berenberg,Air Berlin, Barings, Commerzbank, 3i Group, Ardian, Banco Santander, BlackRock, BNP Paribas, Allianz Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking, Brookfield, Temasek, Carlyle Group, Siemens Healthineers, JP Morgan, Citi and Deutsche Bank. 

Client feedback: 32nd edition (2022/2023) 

Restructuring 

“What I appreciate is the very business-oriented, progressive and holistic approach of the Latham restructuring team in Germany. With three partners and about 15 team members, there is no other restructuring team in the German market with such fire power.” 

“Very forward thinking, proactive and full service oriented.”