"Clients turn "to the firm for "equity derivatives trading, documentation and regulation," obtaining advice which is said to be “always of the highest quality and incredibly insightful.”  
- Chambers USA

Cadwalader’s early roots in the derivatives markets, representing issuers, dealers and end-users, provides our practitioners with an extraordinary understanding of the fundamental building blocks that form the basis of complex derivatives transactions. Our clients include U.S. and international commercial and investment banks, financial products companies, investment advisers, money managers, hedge funds, electronic trading platforms, financial guaranty insurers, government sponsored enterprises, commercial credit companies, issuers, investors, end-users and trustees.

Our derivatives practice is similarly wide-ranging, encompassing all manner of products and services. Our involvement extends to the leading trade organizations such as ISDA, SIFMA, SPA and ABA.

OTC Derivatives: We cover an extraordinarily wide spectrum of equity, hedge fund, credit, fixed income, currency and commodity derivatives. We are involved with all aspects of the otc market from product development to transactional execution, hedging, sales practices and settlement issues. We regularly advise on and execute the full range of hedge fund products (swaps, options, forwards, CFD’s and the like), issuer derivatives, hedging and monetization transactions, municipal derivatives and guaranteed investment contracts.

Structured Products: Our recognized practice in structured products covers the full landscape of issuers from corporate and bank issuers to trust-based issuers. This rapidly expanding space covers the equity, rates and commodity-linked notes, warrants, certificates, and CD’s. Here we advise on SEC-registered shelfs, and domestic and foreign bank note programs, as well as special purpose trusts and the like.

Hedge Fund Derivatives: We assist in the development and execution of a wide variety of products, including hedge-fund structured products (and their OTC counterparts) such as principal-protected notes, warrants, and certificates. The fund underlyers and strategies include indexes, single funds, alpha strategies, dispersion strategies and the like. We are also regularly involved with hedge fund financing transactions in derivatives such as accreting strike call options and delta-hedged call options. In addition, we regularly advise on related hedge fund financing transactions such as credit facilities, secured loans and collateralized financial obligations.

Hybrid Transactions: Our derivatives experience, as well as our regulatory expertise, has aided clients in the development of derivative and hybrid instruments and other innovative trading and investment vehicles, as well as creative strategies that offer clients more efficient risk management or more attractive risk/return results — from triple-A derivative product subsidiaries for major financial institutions to joint ventures between derivative dealers and credit enhancers and insurer “wraps” of derivative dealers.