Singapore lawyers Satbir Walia, Thomas England make partner at Clifford Chance

TWO Singapore lawyers have been promoted to partners in Clifford Chance's latest promotion round, the law firm announced on Friday.

The duo of Satbir Walia and Thomas England are among 26 lawyers worldwide - including six lawyers from the Asia-Pacific - whose promotion to partners at the London law firm takes effect on May 1.

Ms Walia, a corporate lawyer, joined the firm in 2008 and advises corporate and private equity clients on private mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cross-border transactions and joint ventures, focusing on financial institutions, technology, and consumer goods and retail (CG&R).

She has advised National Australia Bank on the sale of its private banking business to OCBC, Dutch bank ABN Amro's sale of its private banking business to LGT, and Unilever on its acquisition of Carver Korea from Bain Capital.

Mr England joined Clifford Chance as a trainee in 2006, and advises financial institutions and corporate clients on banking work, including acquisition finance, structured lending, syndicated lending and restructuring transactions across South-east Asia, with a focus on energy and resources.

He recently advised the arrangers on acquisition financing for taking logistics provider GLP private, advising KrisEnergy on its 2017 restructuring and advising lenders on the US$8 billion bridge financing for entities owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco in connection with Malaysia's refinery and petrochemical integrated development (Rapid) project.

Matthew Layton, global managing partner at Clifford Chance, said that he was delighted to welcome the group of "talented senior lawyers" to the partnership, which will help drive the firm's progress in a fast-shifting legal landscape.

"Each of them has established their credentials as a go-to adviser for clients by virtue of their well-recognised expertise and excellent client service skills," he said.

Clifford Chance said that the promotions add further partner capability in areas which are increasingly critical for clients such as technology, antitrust, pensions, and restructuring and insolvency; as well as strategically important practices such as M&A, funds, contentious disputes, project and structured finance.