LONDON and NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Mayer Brown today announced that Scott Ashton has joined the firm as a partner and Brian Bates has joined as senior counsel in its Capital Markets practice. Both will be based in the London office.
Scott and Brian focus on cross-border securities offerings, representing issuers and placement agents in connection with a variety of capital markets transactions, including private placements and other offerings of debt and equity. In particular, they specialize in advising non-U.S. entities making cross-border private placements to U.S. and other large financial institutions and pension funds. In fact, they have represented issuers on approximately 30 percent of total cross-border U.S. private placement debt issuance in recent years, making them among the most prolific practitioners in this sector.
In addition to their client work, the two have played central roles in developing the cross-border private placement industry’s standard documentation, including the Loan Market Association private placement documentation and the model forms published by the American College of Investment Counsel for the cross-border private placement market.
Institutional debt private placements continue to gain in significance as a funding solution, particularly to fund infrastructure and energy related projects. “The addition of Scott and Brian further bolsters our leading position in debt capital markets,” said Jon Van Gorp. “We’re pleased to welcome them to the firm and know their experience will benefit our clients.”
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Mayer Brown is one of the leading securities and capital markets law firms in the world, ranked among The Legal 500 Worldwide‘s 25 best law firms for capital markets. We are ranked by Chambers USA in Capital Markets: Investment Grade Debt (Nationwide) and High Yield Products (Nationwide), IFLR1000 in Capital Markets: Debt and High Yield in the US, Europe and Asia, The Legal 500 US in Capital Markets: Debt Offerings, High Yield Offerings and Global Offerings for our advice to issuers and underwriters. We are also ranked by The Legal 500 for debt capital markets categories in their UK, Asia-Pacific and Deutschland guides, and Chambers Global, Europe, UK and China guides. In the 2025 LSEG league tables, the firm ranked #2 as issuer’s counsel in the US Debt, Equity & Equity-related table and #4 as issuer’s counsel in the Global Debt, Equity & Equity-related tables by deal count.
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