Graham Penn

Teaching summary

Graham has taught post graduate courses in banking and international finance law on UCL's LLM programme since 1989. He held the position of visiting professor from 1989 until 2012 when he was appointed Professor of International Finance Law. Prior to his appointment at UCL he taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in banking and international finance law at a number of leading universities in the UK.

He has written extensively on the law and regulation of banking and international finance, including a number of leading textbooks and is the editor of the Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation. He regularly presents papers at both academic and industry conferences in the UK and abroad.

Biography

Graham’s main research interests lie in the law and regulation of international finance, with particular focus on international capital markets, including securitisations, in which he is recognised as a pre-eminent authority. In addition to his academic position, Graham is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP, one of the worlds’ largest law firms with over 2000 lawyers practicing in 20 offices worldwide. He is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Legal Opinions and Audit Letters Committee; and co-leader of its Global Finance practice. He has worked as an international finance lawyer since the late 1980's for a broad range of clients including large corporates, investment banks, sovereign states, funds, trustees and a broad range of investors. He also advises various governments and state related bodies on the introduction of new laws and regulation to facilitate and expand access to the international (cross border) capital markets. Graham was included as one of the top 10 "European Legal Innovators of the Year" by the Financial Times whose report credited Graham as "a pioneer in structured finance and securitisation" noting that he "has been involved in some of the most ground-breaking transactions of the past two decades". He was also included in the inaugral Chambers 100, a new ranking of the top five capital markets lawyers in the UK and praised for his "superior legal knowledge" and his "ability to understand and document complex financing structures". He is consistently recognised year on year as a leading international finance lawyer by Chambers, The Legal 500, IFLR 1000, Who's Who Legal and, most recently, by Best Lawyers 2019.