Global law firm Goodwin announced today that Ed Saunders will re-join the London office as partner in its market-leading Private Equity practice. Saunders was previously a finance associate in Goodwin’s UK Private Equity practice for three years to 2019.
“As our funds presence has grown in London and internationally, our clients require increasingly sophisticated finance support to help them navigate the wide range of sophisticated products in the market,” said Michael Halford, co-chair of Goodwin’s Private Investment Funds practice. “Ed has substantial experience working with both borrower and lender-side clients on fund finance matters, as well as the versatility to partner with our transactions and fund formation teams on other aspects of debt finance to private funds clients and their portfolios. We are delighted he will be re-joining the firm.”
Saunders acts for managers, general partners, funds, banks, non-bank lenders and other market participants on a range of products across the fund finance sector. His extensive experience includes acting on subscription line, umbrella and managed account financings, net asset value and hybrid fund facilities across various asset classes, preferred equity arrangements and management and co-investment liquidity lines, including advising on security packages in respect of complex multi-jurisdictional fund structures. He has also counselled clients including private equity, real estate, debt and infrastructure funds on various financing elements of fundraisings and investor negotiation and has previously completed a secondment to the fund finance team of a leading UK bank.
Goodwin's approximately 200-lawyer Private Investment Funds practice supports over 500 investment managers raising capital to invest in the private equity, real estate, technology, and life sciences sectors. In the past 18 months, the practice closed more than 60 funds totalling over $200 billion in raised capital. The firm was recently named the top law firm for fund formation by Law360, the Legal 500 UK Awards, IJ Global, and SuperReturn Awards. Goodwin was named the number one firm (by deal count) for global, U.K., and U.S. M&A, and global, U.S., and European buyouts by Mergermarket in the H1 2022 league tables.