Karen Stretch

Karen Stretch focuses her practice on advisory and transactional derivatives, advising clients worldwide on a range of discrete and transactional derivatives and related regulatory matters, trading documents and non-traditional investment and financing techniques, including repos, TRS, dynamic portfolio swaps, stock loans and other structured derivatives.

Ms. Stretch routinely advises on regulatory compliance relating to derivatives, trading and benchmarks, such as EMIR, SFTR, the Short Selling Regulation and the Benchmarks Regulation, with a focus since 2017 on LIBOR and benchmark reform. Ms. Stretch is leading the firm’s coverage on LIBOR and derivatives and is an integral part of the Dechert LIBOR taskforce.

Ms. Stretch also has significant experience advising on matters relating to the establishment of structured capital markets transactions with a credit focus, as well as fund products, during her career having provided full-service support to several funds and investment vehicles including MTN program updates, follow-on offerings, new compartments and sub-funds, subscriptions and restructurings as well as prime brokerage arrangements and is engaged in the firm’s fund finance initiatives too.

Prior to joining Dechert, Ms. Stretch worked at another global American law firm in a similar role and a leading French bank in London as a senior trading, sales and derivatives lawyer.