Bio

David Miles, Co-Head of Global Leveraged Finance, represents lenders, borrowers, sponsors and corporates on a full range of domestic and cross-border corporate lending and leveraged finance transactions. He has over 25 years' experience assisting leading UK and international clients in connection with large-scale private equity backed buyouts, public bids, corporate M&A, refinancings and recapitalizations. Mr. Miles regularly advises lenders on all capital structure layers, including senior, second lien, unitranche, mezzanine and PIK and is well regarded for his involvement in the development of unitranche as a major funding source in the European leveraged finance market in recent years. Additionally, his experience includes advising corporate borrowers, funds, lenders and sponsors on complex acquisition financings, corporate lending transactions, and refinancings and restructurings of leveraged assets. Mr. Miles also serves on the editorial board of THE CRED, Dechert's resource for private credit industry insights on legal and business trends. Mr. Miles has been consistently ranked as a leading banking and finance lawyer in Chambers UK for 20 years, where he is currently top ranked. Sources quoted in Chambers UK highlight his commercial approach, saying “complexity doesn't faze David; he clearly lays out what potential implications of different scenarios are to help us make informed decisions.” Further sources confirm that “he is good at issue spotting and [he] helps guide us through what is commercially important,” “[he is] commercial and very experienced,” “very clear in communicating the specific issues at hand and very user-friendly,” and “a pragmatic practitioner.” Sources also highlight his technical expertise, saying “David provides clear and credible advice, especially on niche and technical areas” and “[he] has a strong understanding of underlying principles as well as novel and unique points.” Mr. Miles is further described as being “a grandee in the direct lending space.” Mr. Miles is also recommended in The Legal 500 UK as a ‘leading individual’ for acquisition finance, where sources have highlighted his ability to “balance detail and understanding of complexity with commerciality.” Mr. Miles is additionally ranked as ‘highly regarded’ in IFLR1000 for banking. Prior to joining Dechert, Mr. Miles was a partner in the London office of another international law firm where he served as the head of the London debt practice group.