WINNERS

• 1st - Norton Rose
Norton Rose had always been a pioneer in the Islamic finance world but as more and more firms began getting in on the act and fighting for scarce Islamic finance talent, Norton Rose arguably began to lose its pre-eminence and some big names. However, the firm still retains a large roster of experienced Islamic finance lawyers and heavyweights such as such Neil Miller. The firm has also begun rebuilding its expertise and reputation with the star hire of Farmida Bi from Denton Wilde Sapte. In a boom year in the area, Norton Rose has laid down a series of cutting-edge deals, notably assisting Citigroup in creating the $20bn Oasis securities issuance programme of Irish listed Shariah compliant certificates, structuring double Wa’ads (unilateral undertakings) to allow de-facto swaps within the ambits of Shariah law. The deal was led by Dean Naumowicz. Very few other teams can handle the amount and depth of Islamic finance work that Norton Rose deals with on a day-by-day basis.

• 2nd - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Apart from advising on a solid spread of national and international capital markets and structured finance work in the past year, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer also found the time and the rare opportunity to apply its structured finance expertise on a pro bono basis for Deutsche Bank. Freshfields partner Stuart Axford, together with Andreas Bartsch and Bernhard Kaiser in Germany, acted on one of the first externally rated securitisations of €60m of microfinance credits, which supply 120,000 very small loans to small businesses in 15 developing and emerging market countries.

• 3rd - Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy’s debt capital markets/structured finance team acted on an astounding number of transactions in the last year for the major banks as well as for household names such as Marks & Spencer and Nokia. The team also did great work in the booming Gulf region, such as setting up a public Sharia-compliant residential mortgage-backed security and advising on a groundbreaking true sale Shariah-compliant securitisation backed by Shariah-compliant lease-to-buy home financing products. The latter deal was led from London by securitisation partner Salim Nathoo, with several jurisdictions pitching in and Dubai-based Bimal Desai and Simon Roderick co-ordinating the United Arab Emirate local advice.

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Judges will be looking for evidence of:

• Full details of the standout deal including market context and innovative structuring
• A list of all major parties involved in the deal, including advisers
• Supporting evidence of the group’s performance over the year

Submissions should focus on a single standout deal, but multiple entries from firms are acceptable

Entries welcome from:
Private practice teams	√
Nominations by in-house teams	√

Previous Winners:
2007	Linklaters
2006	Allen & Overy
2005	Trowers & Hamlins