Mayer Brown has a longstanding interest in and commitment to promoting microfinance and financial access for the global poor. We aim to leverage our unique strengths in finance, private investment funds, regulatory and corporate law, together with our global resources, to assist in complex transactional work for banks, funds, government and donor groups and other microfinance organizations that are creating opportunity for the economically disadvantaged as funders, employers, or product/service providers.
Mayer Brown’s Social Finance group includes 35 attorneys across offices in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia, and includes many leading practitioners across our corporate, capital markets, banking, and tax practices. Our lawyers have been active teaching microfinance classes, speaking at microfinance panels and seminars, writing handbooks for the microfinance industry and counseling the senior management of leading microfinance organizations.
We also have deep emerging markets experience with a global presence and lawyers fluent in Cantonese, French, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Examples of our work in the social finance space.
Key Areas of Practice
Our key areas of focus within the social finance space include:
Investment Funds: As investors increasingly look for investments that blend private return and social impact, and fund sponsors seek to accommodate these aspirations, we believe that our leading global private funds practice can offer creative, market-tested solutions.
We have more than 100 lawyers advising fund sponsors in connection with the structuring, marketing, regulation and operation of public and private investment funds in a range of emerging markets, including Latin America, China, India, Central Asia and Africa. Our lawyers’ broad market experience enables fund sponsor, adviser and investor clients to structure funds and investments creatively and efficiently to maximize fund-raising flexibility and opportunities.
Private Equity and Venture Capital: Social Finance funding is increasingly moving towards commercial venture capital and private equity sources while retaining respect for the “multiple bottom line.” We have advised on some of the most successful private equity investments in microfinance, and we are a leading advisor to private equity funds, management teams, and portfolio companies. Our depth of experience with private equity transactions in the Americas, Asia and Europe sets the firm apart, as we draw from an array of practice areas to structure, negotiate and close complex private equity transactions.
Structured Finance: We recognize that securitization and structured vehicle financing offers the social finance industry a very promising source of sophisticated market funding. We are widely acknowledged to have one of the premier securitization and structured finance practices in the world and, with over 100 lawyers, we are also one of the largest. We have been at the leading edge of securitization from its early days, having been involved in the securitization of virtually every conceivable asset type. Our experience ranges across asset classes, vehicles and markets to deliver creative, practical, business-oriented solutions.
Leveraged Finance and Debt Capital Markets: Another route for social finance institutions to pursue debt capital is through multi-jurisdiction syndicated and structured commercial bank or debt capital market solutions. To support these debt solutions, we are one of the most active global law firms representing lenders, sponsors and borrowers in a wide range of leveraged finance transactions across all parts of the capital structure. Utilizing our international offices and network, we have handled numerous complex cross-border transactions both in established and emerging markets.
Financial Services Regulatory: Microfinance organizations are facing more complicated regulatory environments as the scale and complexity of the industry grows, and this demands more sophisticated financial regulatory advice. Our global financial services regulatory and enforcement practice provides thoughtful solutions to complex challenges relating to establishment of new regulated entities, M&A, stock/asset acquisitions or dispositions, capital or corporate structures, and cross-border regulatory compliance.
Insurance: Micro-insurance products covering life, health, property, and other interests are increasingly needed by customers at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid. Our insurance practice can assist in developing micro-insurance products, structuring reinsurance and other risk-sharing approaches, pursuing innovative financing solutions, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, and managing outsourcing of administration functions.
Corporate: As social finance organizations advance into more commercial and complex enterprises, experienced corporate counsel is needed to navigate governance and organizational issues while retaining a healthy understanding of and respect for the organization’s mission. We provide a full range of corporate legal services to clients, including corporate structuring, tax, employment, intellectual property, compliance, environmental and more.
