Dechert Corporate Team Honored at 2017 British Legal Awards

A transatlantic corporate team from leading global law firm Dechert LLP was highly commended by Legal Week in the British Legal Awards 2017, which celebrate achievement, excellence and innovation in the UK’s legal profession. 

The Dechert team, led by New York-based corporate partner Jonathan Schur and London’s Graham Defries, won second place in the “Commercial Team of the Year” category. The team received a “Highly Commended” ranking for guiding British biotech Bicycle Therapeutics through two back-to-back collaboration deals featuring the company’s bicyclic peptide technology. In a single fortnight in December 2016, Bicycle Therapeutics signed an agreement with AstraZeneca, worth up to US$1 billion, covering possible treatments for a range of respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, shortly after signing a second agreement with Cancer Research UK concerning possible treatments for cancer. 

Dechert also won a finalist spot in three other categories: 

• M&A Team of the Year (Large Deal) – a team led by corporate partner Jonathan Angell was named a finalist for advising oil and gas independent Chrysaor on its acquisition of Shell’s interests in 15 oilfields and several pipelines in the North Sea, helping Chrysaor to become the UK’s leading independent exploration and production company focused on the North Sea; 

• Private Equity Team of the Year – Dechert selected as finalist for advising buyout investor Mid Europa Partners on its acquisition of Romanian supermarket business Profi Rom Food, the largest deal ever completed by a private equity fund in Romania. Dechert pursued a two-pronged approach to the representation: partner John Markland, co-head of Dechert’s European finance team, focused on the debt financing that Mid Europa would need, while private equity partner Ross Allardice led Mid Europa through preparations for the acquisition itself. 

• Banking and Finance Team of the Year – Dechert was also listed as a finalist for guiding the Arab Republic of Egypt through a number of significant bond issuances. The firm’s international capital markets group, led by Camille Abousleiman, advised Egypt on the issuance of US$11 billion of bonds in just six months, including the largest Egyptian public bond issuance and the largest bond issuance from the African continent. 

Winners were announced at a ceremony at London’s Finsbury Square on November 30. 

About Dechert 

Dechert is a global specialist law firm focused on sectors with the greatest complexities and highest regulatory demands. We deliver practical commercial insight and judgment to our clients' most important matters. Nothing stands in the way of giving clients the best of the firm's entrepreneurial energy and seamless collaboration in a way that is distinctively Dechert.