Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper join Hunton Andrews Kurth as partners
Leading finance lawyers Alan Cunningham and Richard Skipper have joined Hunton Andrews Kurth as partners in London.
Cunningham (pictured left) and Skipper (pictured right) represent clients throughout Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia, including financial institutions, private credit, private equity, leasing companies, captive and vendor finance entities, airlines and business jet operators. The pair advise on a broad range of financings and transactions involving aviation, shipping, rail, defence, automotive, energy and other asset classes.
“Alan and Richard are highly regarded finance lawyers who are well known and respected throughout the London legal market,” said John Schneider, co-head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s business finance practice group. “Their addition underscores both our strategic focus on financial services and commitment to outstanding client service. We are pleased to welcome them as partners to the firm.”
The pair join Hunton Andrews Kurth from Ernst & Young’s (EY) legal services arm, EY Law. Previously, they were partners at DLA Piper, where they led the firm’s asset finance team. When asked what prompted the move, Cunningham told CJI it was largely down to the ability to offer greater flexibility for clients.
Cunningham and Skipper joined EY as it was embarking on a plan codenamed Project Everest, with the intention of splitting its audit and non-audit divisions. If executed, Project Everest would have enabled the separate businesses to grow more quickly and offer clients greater choice – as providing non-audit services (such as legal services) to audit clients is heavily restricted due to independence restrictions introduced after the collapse of Arthur Andersen following the Enron scandal. Project Everest was abandoned by EY in 2023.
Why Hunton Andrews Kurth? “We needed a firm with a really strong financial services practice and a fantastic footprint in the US, and where non-US offices such as London are fully integrated into the rest of the firm and play an equal role in terms of client origination and strategy,” Cunningham told us. “The reason for that is important, more than 60% of the business aviation market is in North America. By having a strong presence across the US we can service our clients with greater flexibility and act on more deals.”
Additionally, a global footprint gives Cunningham and Skipper the ability to draw on local expertise as per the governing law of a deal. “We can offer a wider array of products to our clients. If the deal is going to be run on Texas law we can do just that with the help of one of our colleague’s in Houston,” he said.
Cunningham’s practice includes high-end transactional mandates and financings involving aviation, shipping, equipment finance, automotive, defence and receivables – including the sale and purchase of asset finance and other lease and loan books, forward flow receivables transactions and related securitisation work.
Skipper focuses his practice on aviation finance and leasing, equipment finance, renewable energy assets, shipping and rail. He represents airlines, banks, funds, lessors, operators, manufacturers and other financial institutions. In 2019, he acted on the first sustainable finance transaction for an international airline to secure funding for a project based on its compatibility with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
Ferdinand Calice, managing partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s London office, said: “Alan and Richard are outstanding lawyers who very nicely complement the experience and depth of our London team. Their arrival aligns with our growth strategy, which we continue successfully to execute so as to secure our position as leaders in the London legal market.”
