FT Names London Partner One of Europe's Top 10 Most Innovative Legal Practitioners
Latham & Watkins has been recognised in several categories in the 2021 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Report, an annual ranking that highlights digitally advanced and innovative law firms, legal service providers, and lawyers.
The report honoured London restructuring & special situations partner Yen Sum among Europe’s Top 10 Most Innovative Legal Practitioners. Previously a commodities trader and investment banker, the FT highlighted Sum’s novel perspective on the practice of law and credited her with leading “by example on challenges facing the legal industry, such as diversity and wellbeing”. The firm also earned recognition in two practice category shortlists, including:
Innovation in Rescue, Restructuring and Recovery
- Advising UK fashion retailer New Look on its second financial and operational restructuring in 2020, which reaffirmed the flexibility of CVAs for restructuring unsecured liabilities
Innovation in Sustainability & ESG
- Collaborating with global sustainability consultancy Anthesis to develop Risk Horizon, a novel due diligence tool to screen potential deals for ESG risks that is now used by other law firms; assisting data provider S&P Global Ratings in launching a climate index to assess equity securities against the goals of the Paris climate agreement; and advising Microsoft on how to invest its US$1 billion Climate Innovation Fund