James Duncan is a partner in the Derivatives & Structured Products practice based in London.

He focuses on derivatives and structured products and has extensive experience of derivatives across the full range of asset classes. In addition, he advises on the structured finance aspects of M&A, asset finance and leveraged finance transactions. James has notable expertise in equity financing transactions involving equity derivatives and margin loans for both lenders and borrowers.

• Banks and borrowers on numerous margin loans and equity financing transactions including equity collars, pre-paid forwards, call spreads, total return swaps, repos, stock loans and other transactions and related collateral and security arrangements.
• The lenders in connection with India’s first synthetic rupee denominate margin loan.
• Banks and borrowers with respect to deal-contingent hedging transactions in connection with a range of M&A transactions.
• Liberty Global in connection with hedging arrangements in connection with the Virgin Media/02 merger transaction.
• Liberty Global in connection with hedging arrangements in connection with the Unitymedia/Sunrise Communications merger transaction.
• Liberty Global on its novel cross-currency hedging transaction to hedge exposure to foreign exchange risk in respect of the Jamaican dollar following its acquisition of Cable & Wireless Communications and other hedging transactions.
• Ardagh Group in connection with hedging arrangements.
• STMicroelectronics in connection with its $1.5 billion offering of senior unsecured convertible bonds and the early redemption of its outstanding $750 million zero coupon convertible bonds due 2022.
• Banks, corporates and other counterparties on a wide range of OTC derivative transactions including equity derivatives, credit derivatives, interest rate and FX derivatives, fund-linked derivatives, longevity derivatives, commodity derivatives and inflation derivatives.
• Swap providers, borrowers, lenders, issuers and other parties on the hedging and related intercreditor arrangements in respect of numerous structured and other financing transactions.
• Clients in respect of the negotiation of master agreements for a wide range of products including ISDA documentation, repos, stock loans and related collateral and security arrangements.
• Clients in connection with numerous structured note issues, repackagings and other SPV based transactions relating to an extensive range of asset classes.
• Clients in connection with establishing and updating of numerous structured MTN and other programmes and advising on drawdowns under those programmes.
• Clients in connection with the close-out and valuation of numerous derivative positions as well as the unwind and/or novation of numerous transactions, including structured notes.
• Clients in connection with the restructuring and amendment of numerous derivative transactions including as part of the restructuring of wider, complex structured debt transactions.
• The lenders in connection with negotiating and agreeing the hedging provisions of the senior finance documents related to the debt financing of the Facility D IWPP in Qatar.
• Alpha Bank and Eurobank on the agreement they reached with KKR Credit to establish an NPL restructuring platform managed by Pillarstone.   
• Attica Bank on securitizations of NPLs.
• Piraeus Bank S.A. in connection with its €4,933 million recapitalization.
• Eurobank Ergasias S.A. in connection with its €2.04 billion recapitalization.

Awards & Accolades

• James is ranked as a “Leading Individual” in Derivatives and Structured Products for Legal 500 UK 2023. They note that “James Duncan is a go to partner for derivatives, in particular corporate equity derivatives. He is extremely thorough, and the quality of his work is consistently very high.” and “James Duncan is reliable and knowledgeable. He provides solid, thought-through advice in almost any situation, and is always exceedingly professional.”
• James is ranked as a “Leading Individual” in Derivatives and Structured Products for Legal 500 UK 2022. They note that “James Duncan is a go-to partner for complex strategy equity derivatives transactions. He has consistently delivered outstanding support on our deals, in each phase, from legal structuring to execution.”
• James is listed as “Highly Regarded” by IFLR1000 2022.