GRAHAM PENN’s practice focuses on all aspects of structured finance, particularly securitization, in which he is recognized as a preeminent authority. He has advised clients on many landmark transactions since joining the firm as a partner over 25 years ago.
Graham acts for a wide range of clients, including arrangers, trustees, lenders, originators, servicers/special servicers, investors, and rating agencies. More recently he has increasingly acted for alternate credit and capital providers in relation to acquisition and restructuring financings (often involving commercial real estate assets). He has handled a broad range of structured debt and capital markets transactions with a particular focus on commercial real estate. He has particular experience with multitiered debt, intercreditor arrangements, opco/propco transactions, commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) financings and restructurings, and loan portfolio transactions. His practice includes both domestic and cross-border transactions in a variety of different asset classes including commercial and residential real estate, hotel and leisure sector assets, portfolios of public houses, bank loans, insurance-related assets, and trade receivables. Graham’s real estate practice includes all aspects of real estate finance including real estate lending, real estate acquisition and finance, and CMBS.
Graham has also served in numerous leadership roles since joining the firm, including almost 25 years as leader and co-leader respectively of the firm’s London-based and Global Finance practice and almost 21 years as a member of the Executive Committee until April 2020.
Graham was included as one of the top 10 “European Legal Innovators of the Year” by the Financial Times at its 2014 FT Innovative Lawyers Awards. The Financial Times report credits Graham as “a pioneer in structured finance and securitisation” noting that he “has been involved in some of the most ground-breaking transactions of the past two decades.” Most recently, he has been listed in Best Lawyers 2022 for Real Estate Finance and Securitisation Law. He was also included in the inaugural Chambers 100, a new ranking of the 100 best business lawyers in the UK. Graham was listed as one of the top five capital markets lawyers in the UK and praised for his “superior legal knowledge and his ability to understand and document complex financing structures.” He is consistently acknowledged as a top-tier lawyer by Chambers UK for Capital Markets: Securitisation and Real Estate Finance. In the 2020 edition, he is commended for his ability to “bring ideas to the table that we hadn’t thought of and can deal with complicated situations in a commercial manner.” Graham is listed in Euromoney's Expert Guide for Banking, Finance and Transaction 2021 as a world leading practitioner in Capital Markets and Structured Finance and Securitisation.