James Crooks

Sidley Austin

There were two firsts for leveraged finance partner James Crooks last year, rounding off an impressive 12 months for the Sidley Austin partner. The first saw Crooks take the lead for Standard Chartered Bank on the UK financing aspects of Medco Energi’s $550m takeover of London-listed Ophir Energy, the first time an Indonesian company had acquired a public company on such a major exchange.

The second first sent Crooks to the aid of Compass International and German lens manufacturer Rodenstock as it sought to make a return to the mainstream debt market with a one-of-a-kind €395m covenant-lite term loan B.

Being involved in deals of such an international scale is second nature to Crooks, who joined Sidley from Willkie Farr & Gallagher three years ago. Having also worked at Kirkland & Ellis, Crooks is playing an integral part in expanding Sidley’s private equity credentials in London, one of the world’s most competitive legal markets. Globally, Sidley may be seen more as a structured finance firm, but Crooks is on a mission to make it more au fait with leveraged work as the private equity team expands.