Watson Farley & Williams announced Rob McBride and Siân Withey have joined the firm in London. McBride and Withey have extensive experience in financing and will establish a dedicated debt securities and structured finance practice to enhance the existing offering at WFW, enabling the firm to offer clients an even more diverse range of financing options. Their arrival at WFW is a further example of the firm’s strategy of building out its services offering in its specialist sectors.

Both partners join WFW from the London office of US firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where they were part of the firm’s global capital markets and finance practice, most notably developing a UK Legal 500-ranked structured finance and derivatives practice. At WFW Rob and Siân will establish a debt securities and structured finance practice, advising new and existing clients such as investment banks and other financial institutions, and advising clients across WFW’s specialist energy and infrastructure, maritime, natural resources, transport and real estate sectors.

The use of wider debt capital markets and structured finance products is becoming more prevalent within the energy, maritime and aviation sectors, making the addition of McBride and Withey a key element of the firm’s plans to access new markets and drive further growth.

WFW Managing Partner Chris Lowe said, “This is a key strategic play for the firm because we identified debt capital markets as an area where we needed to add strength. The arrival of two partners of Rob and Siân’s background and experience allows us to offer clients across our key sectors a wider range of financing options. It also allows us to develop a broader, self-supporting debt securities, structured finance and derivatives practice.”

Siân Withey added, “WFW is recognised in the market for its sector and industry expertise. The combination of that sector knowledge with debt securities, structured finance and derivatives expertise makes for a compelling client offering and a great platform for us to further develop our practice and help drive further growth of WFW.”

Rob McBride commented, “This is an exciting time to be joining WFW. The firm’s ambition, willingness to grow and invest in its transactional practice and strategy of adding additional services expertise into its market-leading key sector groups presents a great opportunity.”