Interview
Alison Davidson-Cox, Partner, shares some insight into her role.
I am a partner in the banking & finance team in the Birmingham office. I support lender and borrower clients with financing transactions, by negotiating the principal documentation and project managing the satisfaction of a lender’s pre-conditions to funding. I act on a range of transactions, including financing transactions for company acquisitions and property acquisitions.
I work most frequently with the corporate team, when either they are acting for a private equity house investing in a corporate group and we assist them with reviewing and agreeing on the debt documentation, or when the banking team is acting for a lender funding an acquisition and the corporate team assist us with reviewing the principal acquisition documentation.
My day-to-day work consists of drafting, reviewing and negotiating finance documents, communicating with clients to explain the practical impact of the legal documents, and communicating with lawyers acting for the other parties to a transaction to either negotiate the documentation or work together to ensure all aspects of the transaction are in hand and will be satisfied within our respective clients’ desired timetables (which hopefully are the same!).
Recently I was involved in a pitch for a new client, which involved us meeting the client (virtually) to explain how we could help with their proposed fund-raise and generally sell ourselves. We won the new client, which was a great result.
Over the years I have been involved in some large transactions that involved a number of teams at Gateley working together and culminated in a (usually all-day) completion meeting. There is usually an air of celebration and it is always a highlight when everything comes together after a period of hard work and the client is pleased with the outcome.