Dechert

Philadelphia-based Dechert has been a staple of the London legal landscape since 1972 with a strong reputation in funds, litigation, white-collar investigations, and capital markets. After a strong 2021 with 25% year-on-year growth, Dechert’s global revenue has flattened in the last two years, with a modest 0.4% growth in 2023. The flat growth was attributed to declines in rate-sensitive finance and transactional practices, which account for approximately 60% of Dechert's overall revenue. In line with the firm’s global performance, revenue from the London’s office also stood at about £122.5 million in 2023, a 0.1% decline from the year prior. Dechert is active in the funds and investment management space, particularly in hedge funds and private credit funds, which earned a Band 2 and a Spotlight ranking, respectively, in Chambers UK 2025. Dechert’s prominence in this space is supported by its geographical presence in all five major European fund jurisdictions, namely the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, France, and Germany, a unique mix among major international law firms. Nearly 50% of UK hedge fund managers with over US$1 billion in assets under management listed in With Intelligence’s 2023 are Dechert’s clients, alongside investment boutiques like All Africa Partners (which specialises in listed equity investments in Africa), Sparta Capital (which specialises in mid-sized emerging markets companies), and Kryger Capital (which pursues a global event-driven strategy). In private credit, for over 30 years, Dechert has provided market-leading expertise in fund formation, financing, regulation, M&A, and tax, with over 80% of Private Debt Investor’s top 100 firms being its clients. Pemberton Asset Management is a long-time client whom Dechert recently supported in the launch of their second strategic value credit fund, the third and fourth mid-market lending funds, and multiple managed accounts. Trainees in the Financial Services Group (under which the private credit team sits) are regularly sent to Pemberton on their client secondment. To complement its support to hedge fund clients, Dechert’s London office also maintains tier-3 practices specialising in the different financial products that hedge funds typically trade: general capital markets, derivatives, structured products, and collateralised loan obligations. For example, acting for Cheyne Capital Management, Dechert regularly reviews and negotiates trading documentation, while routinely advising the manager on regulatory compliance relating to their trading activities across US, UK, and European frameworks. Dechert’s white-collar crime group represents both individuals and corporations in complex, multijurisdictional investigations and regulatory enforcement actions. The firm is best known for its role in advising Airbus on a £3 billion settlement with authorities in the UK, France, and the US over allegations of fraud, bribery, and corruption. This landmark case demonstrated Dechert’s expertise in coordinating negotiations with multiple enforcement agencies, as it was the first settlement jointly involving the three authorities and the largest fines ever imposed in France and the UK. Dechert’s work included managing the collection and review of 156 million documents, conducting over 300 interviews, responding to dawn raids, and addressing mutual legal assistance requests to trace financial flows. Beyond corporate representation, Dechert has acted for prominent individuals, including board members, executives, and senior directors, in cases involving sanctions violations, market manipulation, and insider trading. The London team, led by former US Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor Roger Burlingame, represented Chinese billionaire real estate developer Zhang Li against bribery charges brought by the DOJ in the Northern District of California, UK-based futures trader Navinder Sarao in market manipulation charges brought by the DOJ alleging his role in the 2010 “Flash Crash,” and a co-founder and former Alameda Research executive in the DOJ investigation into FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried.