Herbert Smith announced today a significant strengthening of its debt capital markets (DCM) offering with the hire of Andrew Roberts.

Andrew spent 25 years at Linklaters and was a partner there for 19 years, leaving in 2010. He has broad debt capital markets experience across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. He has strong relationships with a range of leading financial institutions and also has Islamic finance experience.

Global Head of Finance, Malcolm Hitching commented: "We're delighted to have a lawyer of Andrew's seniority and expertise joining the firm. Constraints on bank lending have led more of our corporate clients in developed and emerging economies to use the mainstream debt capital markets as an increasingly important tool for raising funds, and the DCM market has also become a vital source of finance for clients undertaking global M&A transactions. With Andrew's hire we are responding to these client needs and are very excited by the platform for growth his arrival will help provide."

Andrew Roberts added: "I am looking forward to joining Herbert Smith to help the firm grow its DCM offering to its corporate and banking client base. The firm has a leading ECM practice and is well-positioned to take its already strong DCM offering to the next level and build on recent high-profile transactions."

The firm's practice spans most of the DCM spectrum, including bond offerings in established and emerging economies, including offerings into the United States, exchangeables and convertibles, offerings by sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers, high yield, structured products and securitisations, regulatory capital, liability management, and Sukuk.