This is a major focus of our business and we regularly advise companies, controlling shareholders (often family controllers), white knight financiers and creditors in complex restructuring and turnaround situations in various emerging markets. The legal and business strategies that are available in this sphere of our business are evolving and dynamic. That means that a high level of creativity and nimble thinking is essential when tackling problems and finding solutions for our clients. The international nature of our clients' businesses and the complexities of cross-border restructuring laws call for an in-depth understanding of, and experience in, the restructuring and turnaround options or strategies that are available in any given emerging markets situation. We aim to bring our experience and knowledge to bear in these situations for the benefit of our clients.

This is a growing segment of our business and is founded upon our team's experience in dealing with default, distressed and restructuring transactions in various emerging markets economies. Put bluntly, the knowledge and experience that our team has gained in "sifting through the rubble" of major defaults and distressed transactions in emerging markets provide us with a solid basis for structuring and implementing effective special situations financings in those markets. In this area, tiny details matter, local laws and practices matter and the ability to understand how previous financing transactions have unravelled are essential in creating robust financing structures in emerging markets jurisdictions.

While the emphasis of our business is restructuring and turnaround, it is important for us to know and understand applicable insolvency laws and how they might impact our clients in any particular emerging markets situation. For our debtor and shareholder clients, this knowledge and experience is often important in developing defensive strategies in order to stabilise a business and facilitate a turnaround. For our creditor clients, a detailed understanding of the practical impact of local and international insolvency laws may be critical to developing an effective creditor recovery strategy. The exercise of creditor remedies needs to take place in the context of an overall recovery plan and the impact of emerging markets insolvency laws is a critical component in the development of an effective creditor strategy.

Many restructuring situations present M&A opportunities, whether through the sale by a distressed company of non-core assets, a white-knight sponsored plan of reorganisation or asset purchase through an M&A transaction or otherwise. Since these M&A transactions occur in a complex restructuring, insolvency or other distressed environment, our emerging markets experience in handling these types of transactions and our ability to work with experienced financial professionals help us to serve our clients interests.

This area of our business demands hands-on knowledge and experience in how different legal jurisdictions dovetail (or not) and a practical understanding of the demands and risks of litigating in emerging markets jurisdictions. The raw experience and knowledge that our team has developed over decades is an important aspect of this business. But it is also an ever-evolving area and demands up-to-date experience in relevant emerging markets jurisdictions.

The growing globalisation of our clients' businesses and the challenges of understanding how different local laws may affect them means that there is a strong demand for our risk and liability management skills. This can be as basic as helping clients select an appropriate jurisdiction in which to carry on expansion business or as complex as organising and managing multi-jurisdictional litigation involving our clients. In emerging markets, these tasks are not just matters of black letter law and we aim to bring our clients the benefit of many years of experience in similar situations.