John Markland is a senior counsel in Dechert’s London office. He is the former co-head of the firm’s global leveraged finance practice and has been consistently recognized as one of Europe’s most “highly experienced finance practitioner[s]” Chambers UK 2017. According to The Legal 500 2018 he is “a true and rare rock star of leveraged finance.” The 2022 edition of Chambers UK notes “John Markland has very good experience and he is a very smart and experienced lawyer” and “he is incredibly commercially aware and understands business.” In the 2021 edition of Chambers UK, Mr. Markland is described by clients as being “an excellent partner who is very knowledgeable. He is a formidable negotiator and provides invaluable advice around complex mechanics in contractual agreements,” as well as being “extremely commercial and pragmatic.” He was also ranked and listed as a "leading individual" for acquisition finance in The Legal 500 UK, 2021 and 2022 and listed in the "Highly Regarded" category by IFLR1000 2020 and 2021 for banking.
Mr. Markland won a special commendation at The Legal Business Corporate Team of the Year Awards 2019 for his role in advising South Korea's SK hynix Inc., the single largest investor in the Bain Capital consortium's US$18 billion takeover of Toshiba's memory chip business unit last year, which is still the largest private equity-backed acquisition globally since 2015 (Thomson Reuters).
Prior to joining Dechert in November 2016, Mr. Markland was a partner at another major international law firm for over 12 years. There, he founded and led the European debt finance practice, which won the Dow Jones Private Equity News “Finance Team of the Year” Award for Excellence in Advisory Services in Europe and was consistently top-ranked in Chambers.
His more than twenty seven years of legal practice in the City of London spans a broad spectrum of finance transactions, but his focus throughout the last decade has been on acquisition finance, debt restructurings, and other event-driven finance matters. In this period he was recognized as one of Europe’s leading finance lawyers in the key legal directories, including Chambers UK, Chambers Europe, Chambers Global, The Legal 500, The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, and IFLR1000. He has been commended in these directories as “a standout practitioner who is up on the market, sensible and commercial in his approach”, who is “clearly highly intelligent”, who is known for his knack at “figuring out solutions", who wins plaudits for his “constructive, sensible, fast and efficient work”, for seeing a transaction from “everyone’s point of view” and for conveying to clients “the impression that he only ever thinks about your organisation”.
He is a fellow of the London Business School and frequently lectures on private equity and acquisition finance (he has been closely involved in LBS’s Private Equity Institute since its inception in 2005).
Publications
Contributor – International Comparative Legal Guide (ICLG) to Private Equity (2020)
Contributor and co-author of Private Capital - Private Equity and Beyond, a comprehensive two-volume private capital textbook. (2019)
-
- The University of Nottingham, LL.B.
- The College of Law, York, B.L
-
- England and Wales
-
- English
- French
- German
- Russian
- Dutch
- Spanish