Paul Hastings Adds Premier London Partner to Market-Leading Structured Credit Practice

LONDON – Paul Hastings LLP announced today that leading structured finance lawyer Thomas Picton has joined the firm as a partner in London, bolstering its premier global finance platform and expanding asset-backed financing and capital markets securitization capabilities.

Picton brings over 15 years of experience advising issuers, originators and arrangers on a broad range of securitization, structured private credit, portfolio acquisitions and related regulatory matters. He joins from Ashurst.

Picton’s practice covers a variety of asset classes and securitization techniques, with particular strength in consumer securitization, specialty finance, fund finance, auto ABS, RMBS and covered bonds. His diverse client base spans banks, specialty lenders, credit funds, asset managers and private equity firms, with previous representation including Apollo, BNP Paribas, Castlelake, Optio Investment Partners, Santander and Selina Finance, among others.  

“Paul Hastings has a top-of-market global finance platform and a structured finance practice that is renowned across the market for high-quality technical and strategic capabilities,” said Picton. “I am excited to join such a prestigious team and look forward to working with colleagues around the world to continue gaining market share.”

Picton consistently ranks as a leading lawyer for securitization in the U.K. by Chambers & Partners and is described by The Legal 500 as “a star in the European securitisation space.”

The Paul Hastings structured credit practice excels in securitization and other asset-backed and specialty finance products, including CLOs, for which it is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA and No. 1 most active Global and U.S. CLO Arranger’s Counsel by Octus for 2025. The firm’s market-leading CLO practice also has been ranked No. 1 Most Active Global and U.S. CLO Arranger Counsel by Creditflux each year since 2017.

Picton’s addition to the London team marks the latest step in the strategic global expansion of the firm’s complex securitization and asset-backed financing offering, as clients seek to raise capital using alternative financing tools. The firm recently added structured finance partner Megan Roberts in Chicago and, in the last 18 months, Shawn Kodes, Matthew Nemeth and John Murphy in New York and Brian Maher in London, where the firm has experienced a period of robust growth and projects revenue to be up 20-25% year-over-year and 70% over the past two years.

About Paul Hastings

With widely recognized elite teams across 17 core practices, Paul Hastings is a premier law firm with a culture of excellence focused on providing intellectual capital and superior execution globally to the world’s leading investment banks, asset managers and corporations.