McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Aymen Mahmoud is the European Head of Finance and Co-Head of both the London Transactions Group, and the London Finance, Restructuring and Special Situations Group. He is also Managing Partner of the Firm’s London office. He focuses his practice on complex debt financing transactions for private equity funds and their portfolio companies, hedge funds, corporate borrowers and issuers and other financial institutions including banks, direct lenders, family offices and other alternative sophisticated capital. His experience includes acting in respect of direct lending, leveraged buyouts, domestic and cross-border syndicated senior, second lien and mezzanine lending, distressed debt trading, portfolio acquisitions and restructurings, emerging markets and other debt securities, including high-yield debt offerings. Aymen also has significant experience in connection with pre-EBITDA and recurring revenue financings.

Aymen has been described as a “uniquely commercial and creative transaction leader” as well as “savvy, knowledgeable, always available and always on the ball” by Legal 500 and Chambers note him to be “extremely commercial and pragmatic.” He played a key role in first establishing the Loan Market Association forms of leveraged and high yield documentation and has been recognized in numerous significant awards, including Global Restructuring Review’s global “40 under 40” rankings in 2022, Mergerlinks‘ Top 30 Financing Lawyers in EMEA in 2023 and Financial News “Most Influential Lawyer” list in 2026.

Fatema is an award-winning private equity partner whose practice focuses on providing strategic counsel to European and US private equity sponsors. She has pan-European cross sector experience on the full range of corporate matters, including leveraged buyouts, strategic mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, structured and minority equity investments, equity and debt restructurings, and management equity plans, as well as related advisory work.

Fatema has received acknowledgement from numerous industry ranking guides:

• Chambers UK 2024 – Ranked for Private Equity: Buyouts: £500 million and above. Sources note, “Fatema is deeply knowledgeable and infinitely approachable.” “Fatema has very high capability and the ability to be creative and think outside of the box.” “Fatema’s ability is wide-ranging and she prioritises client relationships.”
• The Legal 500 UK 2024 – Fatema has been ranked as a “Leading Individual” for Private Equity: Transactions – Mid-Market Deals. Sources note, “Fatema is an outstanding PE lawyer. We particularly value Fatema’s ability to find creative solutions in complex situations, working with clients to find viable paths forward where one is not obvious —– this really sets her apart from others in the industry. We also appreciate how dedicated she is to her clients. Fatema is always on top of both the details and the bigger picture, even at short notice. Fatema is our go-to PE lawyer.”

Fatema is distinguished by her work in promoting diversity in the legal profession. She has been included in the Class of 2021 at Law.com’s Women, Influence & Power in Law UK Awards as “Mentor of the Year” for which Fatema was the top “Outstanding Winner”.

Fatema has also been actively involved in initiatives across the City, including her roles as co-founder of “Women in Law, London” (WILL) a network with over 2,000 members across London aiming to promote and engage the next generation of women leaders in law, an Events Committee member of the “City Women’s Network” (CWN), and advisory panel member of “Oxford Women in Law” (OWL).

Alexander (Alex) Wood focuses his practice on all aspects of business restructuring and insolvency across all sectors including sovereign debt. He has worked on complex cross-border matters and financial services (including insurance) restructuring and insolvency with on the ground experience of providing capital solutions and special situations advice. He is skilled at designing and implementing complex restructuring plans, schemes of arrangement, managing cross-border workouts and restructurings, and overseeing formal insolvency procedures.

With 27 years of experience, Alex has established himself as a leader in the field. He works both debtor and creditor side, advising stakeholders across the entire capital spectrum. These include corporates, their directors, private equity, hedge and private credit funds, and financial institutions, who he advises on some of their largest matters. He also advises insolvency office-holders.

Alex has been involved in some of the leading restructuring and sovereign debt mandates of the last three decades, including acting for Lehman Brothers Inc, Westinghouse, the bondholders in Ukraine’s and Argentina’s sovereign debt restructures, and using the first Irish creditor scheme of arrangement to resolve a monoline exposure.

Alex has been recognised across the leading legal directories including Chambers UK 2023 and Chambers Europe 2023 where he was ranked for Restructuring/Insolvency, and Legal 500 UK 2023 where he was ranked as a ‘Leading Individual’. Clients describe Alex as having “outstanding technical awareness and a collaborative and inclusive approach” and as “a go-to sounding board for complicated restructuring and implementation issues, who readily translates academic issues into practical solutions.” Clients go on to say that Alex “excels at taking complex scenarios and finding workable solutions on complex multi-party, multi-jurisdictional transactions”. Alex has also been ranked as ‘Highly Regarded’ in IFLR1000 UK and has been listed in Best Lawyers 2023 and Expert Guides 2023. Recently in GRR100, Alex was noted to provide “clear, concise and seamless” advice.

Prior to joining the firm, Alex spent time guest lecturing post-graduates on University College London (UCL)’s LLM on corporate insolvency, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience with the next generation of legal professionals. He continues to teach postgraduates at UCL. Alex has also been appointed by the Ministry of Justice as a solicitor member of the Insolvency Rules Committee, established under the Insolvency Act 1986 to review proposed secondary legislation.