Watson Farley & Williams - Playbook (2028 TC)

Want to get a TC at Watson Farley & Williams? Our Playbook gives you all the insights you need to impress!

This Playbook covers:

🧠 Practice Area Strategy
🌍 Office and Growth
📊 WFW vs Competitors
💼 Top Clients and Deals
🔎 How to Stand Out

Deadline: 24 May

3 Key Sectors driving WFW's growth

In short: WFW differentiates itself through a sector-first model rather than a service-line-led approach. The firm organises all its work around three core sectors, each with dedicated global leadership.

⚡ Energy - the growth engine

This is WFW's crown jewel, its fastest-growing practice and the area getting the most investment. Global Head Henry Stewart leads a team spanning oil and gas, power and renewables, mining, and commodities.

The numbers back up the hype: WFW ranked first among legal advisers by deal count in Europe in inspiratia's 2025 rankings and second globally, locking in 20 first-place positions in Inframation league tables (up from 17 the year before). In Spain, they've been the top firm in project finance three years running, with 34 deals completed in 2025 alone.

📈 They're investing heavily here. The standout move was a quadruple partner hire in Hong Kong in May 2025, WFW's biggest Asia-Pacific energy expansion since April 2024. Three energy partners came over from DLA Piper: Carolyn Dong (formerly Head of Energy Sector China), Russell Wilkinson (formerly Head of Energy Asia), and Neil Macdonald. Then in December 2025, David Miles joined from Linklaters, bringing project finance and Islamic finance expertise that plugs straight into Middle East mega-projects.

🤝 The deals speak for themselves. The NeXtWind €1.4 billion syndicated loan (the largest of its kind in the German wind sector, with €1.3bn in accordion facilities) won PFI European Power Deal of the Year 2025. WFW advised on over €930 million in OX2 Finnish onshore wind financings. The Cleve Hill solar and battery storage project in Kent is the largest co-located scheme under construction in the UK and the first to be designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Then there's Simandou: the approximately US$24 billion iron ore development in Guinea, the world's largest mining project.

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