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Watson, Farley & Williams, a new entry this year, is led by Raffaele Villa, who joined this year from Di Tanno e Associati. The group specialises in the cross-border structuring of private equity operations and corporate restructuring. The practice ... [more]

Watson, Farley & Williams, a new entry this year, is led by Raffaele Villa, who joined this year from Di Tanno e Associati. The group specialises in the cross-border structuring of private equity operations and corporate restructuring. The practice also has good expertise in the energy sector.

The practice is advising a well-known UK private equity fund on the acquisition of a solar park portfolio in southern Italy. Villa and the rest of the team provided counsel on the acquisition and all of the project financing arrangements.

The group also advised a solar project developer on the sale of a majority stake in a portfolio of solar photovoltaic parks to be developed in the region of Puglia.

Michael L'Estrange heads Watson Farley & Williams' tax practice in London. Their tax work is primarily related to structured finance, corporate support in M&A transactions, capital raising and property transactions as well as general corporate tax advice. ... [more]

Michael L'Estrange heads Watson Farley & Williams' tax practice in London. Their tax work is primarily related to structured finance, corporate support in M&A transactions, capital raising and property transactions as well as general corporate tax advice. The tax department is also capable in tax controversy matters and is presently advising a number of shipping companies challenged by HMRC. The firm generally has a particularly good reputation in both shipping and energy and so it is no surprise that the tax department is well regarded in these sectors. The firm's reputation in these industries is reflected in the clients relying on the team for their tax advice. Shipping companies such as Seaspan and Golar both rely on Watson Farley & Williams for tax matters. In response to client demand, the firm has recently established an Aviation & Aerospace practice which has provided much work for the tax department recently.

L'Estrange and Chris Comyn also suggest one of the department's strengths is in structured finance matters, in particular asset based financing. This means that much of the tax work the firm does is tax driven. While the tax department of the firm is able to provide support on transactional matters, Comyn suggests the real strength of the practice is its ability to conduct complex transactions where favourable tax treatment is the driving purpose of the matter.