Joseph Wren

Joseph is a partner in the Derivatives and Structured Products group. He is ranked by The Legal 500 for his advice to funds, investment and asset managers, banks, corporates and pension schemes. Joe became the firm's CSR Partner in July 2023.

His practice includes advising on interest rate, FX, credit, equity, inflation, and commodity transactions, as well as on custody, clearing and collateral management arrangements (CSA/CSD including for VM and IM). He advises on the ISDA, GMRA and GMSLA as well as fully bespoke documentation and on the impact of related regulation including EMIR and SFTR.

Joseph is recognised for his expertise advising alternative investment managers and trustees of pension schemes. For managers, this includes fund structuring, deal contingent transactions, and regulatory optimisation. For pension schemes, this includes risk transfer/buy-in/buy-out, investment management and covenant, including asset-backed contribution (ABC/PFP) structures, guarantees and escrow arrangements.

Joseph has written for LexisNexis, International Financial Law Review, Private Equity News, the Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law, and Global Legal Insights. Joseph is a member of a number of ISDA, FIA and Invest Europe working groups.

Advising Allianz Global Investors, BC Partners, Bridgepoint, Generation Investment Management, Guggenheim Partners, ICG and others on their derivatives, repo and stocklending arrangements and associated regulatory matters (including EMIR and SFTR).
Advising on the asset and investment aspects of, among others, the £3.8 billion buy-out of the ASDA Pension Scheme, the £2.4 billion buy-out of the Nortel Networks UK Pension Plan, and the £2.5 billion buy-out of the TRW Pension Scheme.

Advising a number of banks and asset managers on products new to those institutions, such as using derivatives to lever funds, synthetic secondary transactions and managing contingent risk connected with M&A transactions.
Advising on investment and covenant matters for some of the UK's largest pension schemes, including Associated British Foods, AXA, BAE Systems, British Steel Pension Scheme, C. & J. Clark, TRW, Unilever, Vodafone and Willis Towers Watson.

I always enjoy working with Joseph Wren and the team - they are highly professional, responsive, and I always feel like I'm in "safe hands" - the team is very commercial and able to give good advice on whether to push points or accept, based on terms our peer firms have and what we can reasonably expect.

We very much enjoyed working together with Joseph Wren. His professionalism, great organisational and negotiations skills, as well as a deep knowledge of financial products are truly remarkable.

Joseph Wren has great poise, presence and provides commercial, focused advice whilst being able to think creatively about solutions to new challenges and lines of business.