Project finance lawyers finally felt the squeeze of the global economic crisis in 2009 as a run of six straight record years for project deal value came to an end. Global deal value dropped 9 percent last year, to $292.5 billion, according to London’s Dealogic. But last year’s total was still the second-highest on record, and with 712 deals signed in 2009–nine more than Dealogic reported in 2008–many firms didn’t feel much of a slowdown.
Latham & Watkins climbed to the top of the project finance league table for total deal value, a spot held by Clifford Chance in 2008. Latham handled $15.8 billion worth of projects over 37 deals. “We knew in January 2009 it was going to take a herculean effort” to make it through the year’s assignments, says London-based Latham partner William Voge, who led the firm’s work on two of the year’s ten largest deals.
