Dechert (Winter Vacation Scheme) - Playbook 2025

Want to stand out in your Dechert Winter Vacation Scheme application? Here’s a new Playbook to help you impress them.

This Playbook (2,181 words) covers:

🧠 What is Dechert’s strategy for growth?
👥 What do Dechert’s recent hires tell us?
📊 Must-Know data from its financial results
💼 Key clients and deals Dechert led on
🔍 How to turn this insight into an edge

⏱️ Deadline: 17 October

🧠 Practice Area Strategy

In short: Dechert is putting its chips on asset management and finance-heavy practices – think private equity, private credit, and structured finance – while keeping a strong hand in disputes and regulatory work. The firm is doubling down on alternative asset managers, cross-border deals, and complex financial products across sectors like financial services, real estate, life sciences, and tech.

Details:

• Private Equity & Private Capital: Dechert has made no secret of its plan: private equity is the growth engine. The firm has advised hundreds of PE sponsors and portfolio companies and is actively scaling its global practice. Big lateral hires in London back this up – the firm wants to be the go-to shop for sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and asset managers. Why? Because private equity and private credit markets roared back in late 2024, and Dechert wants more of the pie.
• Asset Manager Clients & Funds: Dechert’s sweet spot is being “asset manager-facing.” It has stitched together expertise in funds, fund finance, and structured finance so clients can get everything under one roof. The London office in particular has boosted its fund finance capability to help PE and credit funds with capital call facilities, NAV financings and other creative lending solutions. With sponsors moving into private credit, Dechert has positioned itself to advise on both sides of the balance sheet.
• Structured Finance & CLO Dominance: This is where Dechert quietly runs the market. In 2024, it worked on nearly 100 CLO transactions worth close to $40bn – more than any other firm. It also advised on the first-ever European mid-market private credit CLO and the largest CLO issuance ever, a $2.5bn behemoth. By being the lawyer of choice for these innovative financings, Dechert locks in repeat work from banks, funds and alternative lenders.
• Core Sectors – Restructuring, Finance, Real Estate, Life Sciences: Beyond PE and finance, Dechert is thriving in restructuring and insolvency (a natural hotspot during economic turbulence), real estate finance, and life sciences transactions and litigation. While its disputes bench (white collar, arbitration) remains respected, the firm is clearly steering growth towards transactional, finance-driven practices. Even after trimming its office network, Dechert underlined its commitment to high-stakes litigation and regulatory work – so expect contentious exposure, but with deal work leading the charge.

💡 Interview Tip: Don’t just list the areas – explain why. For example: “I noticed Dechert is investing heavily in private equity and structured finance – such as building out its CLO practice and hiring senior PE partners. To me, that reflects the rebound in private capital activity and growing client demand for creative financing structures. It shows Dechert aligning its strategy to market realities, which I’d be keen to contribute to as a trainee.”

🚨 Key Hires and Team Moves