Karen Stretch

Karen Stretch focuses her practice on advisory and transactional derivatives, regulatory compliance relating to derivatives, trading and benchmarks and certain capital markets and finance transactions. Karen’s experience includes advising on structured capital markets transactions with a credit focus and Karen is an integral part of the firm’s global fund finance team leading growth in the area from London.

Karen’s derivatives work spans clients worldwide on a range of discrete and transactional derivatives and related regulatory matters, trading documents and non-traditional investment and financing techniques, including repos, TRS, dynamic portfolio swaps, stock loans and other structured derivatives.

Ms. Stretch’s regulatory practice includes EMIR, SFTR, the Short Selling Regulation and the Benchmarks Regulation, with a focus since 2017 on LIBOR and benchmark reform. Ms. Stretch is leading the firm’s coverage on LIBOR and derivatives and is an integral part of the Dechert LIBOR taskforce.

Karen’s experience also includes fund products, during her career having provided full-service support to several funds and investment vehicles including MTN program updates, follow-on offerings, new compartments and sub-funds, and restructurings.

Ms. Stretch has been ranked as Up and Coming in Chambers, UK 2023 edition for derivatives. Clients state that she is "one of the top external ISDA counsels that I have worked with." and that “Karen Stretch is strong in all aspects of her field, she is very knowledgeable and approachable, and is very happy to spend time explaining issues.” Clients also note that she “was acutely aware of our requirements and timelines and also went the extra mile to gather market data points which helped us resolve many open items and get the ISDA and related documents in place."

Ms. Stretch is also recognized as a Next Generation Partner by The Legal 500, UK 2023 edition for derivatives and structured products, having also been ranked for derivatives in The Legal 500, UK 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions. Ms. Stretch is also listed by The Legal 500, UK 2023 edition for non-contentious regulatory financial services.

Clients state that she is “dedicated, excellent to work with, very responsive and provides practical advice,” while also adding that “apart from her legal expertise and practical advice, she is very responsive and meets even tight deadlines without compromising on the quality of their work.” In previous editions clients noted: “her clarity of purpose and intellect are only surpassed by her ability to execute projects on budget and on time. Her probative questions always yield better knowledge and execution on our behalf.” She has also been described as” personable, very hardworking and diligent, as well as an excellent technical expert”, with clients adding that “she is the rare attorney who is timely, detail-oriented and a pleasure to work with. “Clients note that “Karen Stretch has an impressive mastery of the topics she covers and presents convincingly.”

Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. Stretch worked at another global American law firm in a similar role and a leading French bank in London as a senior trading, sales and derivatives lawyer.