Will Sykes Partner

Partner

DD +44 (0)20 7849 2294 T +44 (0)20 7831 9222 Email Will Download vCard

Will is head of our derivatives and trading practice, and advises investment and hedge funds, banks, pension funds and insurers, high-net-worth individuals and corporates on a wide spectrum of trading, hedging and financing transactions. This covers the full range of derivatives, as well as prime brokerage, repo, commodities and clearing.

Will has a broad experience of trading, custody, brokerage and clearing agreements for derivative products, repos / stock lending and physical commodities. He advises sell- and buy-side clients across a wide range of asset classes, and on the associated regulations and issues of market-practice. He has a particular focus on buy-side trading arrangements for investment managers and has clients in the US, the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia. He advises on global trading issues, and has extensive knowledge of local requirements in markets such as India and China.

Like most of the derivatives and trading practice at Macfarlanes, Will has spent time in-house in leading financial institutions, spending six months at The Royal Bank of Scotland and ten months in the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs International.

He acts for many of the largest pension funds, hedge funds and asset managers in the world, and advises a leading global prime broker on its client documentation.

Expertise

Recent work

Challenger bank

Advising a challenger bank on the structuring of property index swaps for a new house price investment product.

FTSE100 insurer

Advising a FTSE100 insurer on bespoke collateral mechanisms in connection with long-dated swaps.

Private pension funds

Advising two of the largest private pension funds in Europe on their swap, repo, futures and clearing documentation, and on Dodd-Frank and EMIR issues.

US managed account platform

Advising a US managed account platform on its day-to-day derivative requirements, across more than 50 separately managed funds.

Institutional asset managers

Advising several of the largest UK institutional asset managers on umbrella trading arrangements.

Emerging market specialist funds

Advising several emerging market specialist funds on investing in synthetic products to access the Indian and Chinese markets.

Family office

Advising the family office of a domestic high-net-worth individual on its OTC and exchange-traded derivatives requirements.

Alternative asset managers

Advising various alternative asset managers on the trading issues involved in launching US mutual fund structures.

Private equity house

Advising a leading private equity house in relation to deal contingent FX trades to mitigate currency risk on cross-border sales and purchases.

See all

What people are saying

"William Sykes – an exceptional lawyer. I have been working with Will for over 10 years and highly value his advice. Will’s strengths are in-dept knowledge of law and regulation combined with a commercial approach, promptness and helpfulness. I find Will’s ability to synthesise and drill through the multitude of rules, subsequently applying them to the commercial objective quite unique – his advice certainly makes the work of an in-house counsel easier. He is very well respected by the buy-side (asset management) community and that is the other valuable element of his counsel – he has helpful insight as to how the industry participants are approaching a certain matter."

The UK Legal 500 2022

In depth