Travers Smith LLP is thrilled to announce that its Fintech, Market Infrastructure & Payments team won the Moving the Market Forward Award at the 2021 Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe. Additionally, the firm has been ranked as the 12th most innovative law firm in Europe in the FT's Innovative Lawyers Europe report.
The annual FT Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe celebrate law firms, clients, in-house legal teams and legal service providers who are passionate about driving innovation in the legal sector. This year's awards received 493 submissions from 111 law firms and 71 in-house legal teams.
This award recognises Travers Smith team's work advising long-standing client Euroclear UK & International Limited (EUI), the UK's central securities depository and operator of the CREST securities settlement system, on the successful launch of a new post-Brexit market solution for euro settlement.
The Travers Smith team advising EUI was led by Partner Natalie Lewis, with support from Partner, Phil Bartram, Associates Matt Humphreys and Felix Bayne, as well as Senior Consultant Mark Evans.
The Travers Smith team devised, developed and negotiated an entirely new and bespoke legal model for the solution, from the ground up, advising on the wide-range of novel and complex trust, contractual, banking/insolvency and finality issues (as well as the regulatory considerations) underpinning it.
Commenting on the win, Financial Services & Markets Partner, Natalie Lewis, said: "I am delighted that our work advising Euroclear on its cutting-edge euro settlement solution has been recognised with this award. This hugely innovative and systemically important project was delivered within an unprecedently tight timeframe and under intense market scrutiny, so this award truly reflects the hard work and commitment from everyone within the team. It was a pleasure working with Euroclear on this project and we look forward to continuing to support them on their future work."
Managing Partner, Edmund Reed, commented: "As a firm we are always looking to improve everything we do so I am thrilled that we have been recognised by the FT in these highly competitive awards as one of the most innovative law firms in Europe. This reflects not only the cutting-edge work being done by our legal teams to support their clients on ground-breaking projects, but also demonstrates our commitment to developing new market-leading products through our Legal Technology team, and introducing new technology and systems across the firm to support our people.
Congratulations as well to the Fintech, Market Infrastructure & Payments team on its well-deserved win. The team has been leading the market for years advising clients on increasingly complex projects that are vitally important to our financial markets and their global standing. This award is a great reflection of what the team has achieved."
