Luwam Mezue is counsel in Ropes & Gray's finance group; her practice focuses on corporate and financial transactions. Prior to joining the firm, Luwam was an associate at a leading international law firm in New York and London.
Luwam has experience working on a broad range of high yield and investment grade SEC registered securities offerings, unregistered offerings (Rule 144A and Regulation S transactions), sovereign issuances, liability management transactions as well as cross-border banking and loan transactions including leveraged and acquisition commitments and financings. She has experience representing corporate issuers, sponsors and lenders in a variety of industries including, financial institutions, fintech, consumer products, art, sports, telecom, pharmaceuticals, airlines, oil & gas and agri-food.
Luwam completed her JD at Harvard Law School and also studied international law for a semester at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
Luwam was recognised in Financial News’ Rising Stars of European Finance 2025 list, which recognises the most talented individuals under the age of 40 in financial and professional services.
Experience
- Advising Oriflame in connection with a comprehensive recapitalisation to deliver a substantially de-levered and sustainable balance sheet with a debt reduction of approximately €520 million and a meaningful maturity runway
- Advising Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Mizuho on all the financing elements of Outbrain’s acquisition of Teads, which consisted of a $625 million funded bridge facility, a $100 million revolving credit facility, and issuance of $637.5 million of 10.000% senior secured notes due 2030, which was used to refinance the bridge facility
- Acting for Morgan Stanley and the other initial purchasers in connection with the €600 million offering of senior notes due 2025 by Intrum AB, a leading provider of credit management services and solutions, and the €250 million follow-on offering of senior notes due 2025
- Acting for Altice France in connection with the financing aspects of its complex multi-part transaction to significantly simplify the Altice group's capital structure, including a €2.1 billion equivalent offering of senior notes and senior secured notes, a multi-tranche exchange offer for €1.4 billion and $1.6 billion of notes issued by Altice Luxembourg and the automatic flip-up of €1.6 billion of senior notes to a new holding company of Altice France
- Advising BidFair on the financing for its US$3.7 billion acquisition of Sotheby's, which included, among others, a $600 million high yield bond, a $500 million term loan B and a $400 million revolving credit facility
- Advising Goldman Sachs on the financing for the SEK13bn public takeover offer by the Af Jochnick family in respect of Oriflame Holding
- Advising Altice USA on the structuring and financing aspects, totaling $6.75bn, of the combination of its Suddenlink (Cequel) and Optimum (Cablevision) businesses under a single credit silo. Ropes & Gray was awarded the Transatlantic Finance Team of the Year at the Legal Week Transatlantic Awards in connection with its representation of Altice USA on this transaction
- Advising Altice Europe on the refinancing of € billions of debt within its Altice France and Altice Luxembourg credit pools
- Advising Liberty Global on the refinancing of € billions of debt within its Virgin Media and Vodafone Ziggo credit pools including issuance of vendor financing notes
Experience prior to joining Ropes & Gray
- Advising the initial purchasers on high yield issuance by RCS&RDS, the only Romanian corporate group issuer to date of international high yield bonds
- Advising the Hellenic Republic on an exchange offer of existing sovereign bonds and the issuance of new sovereign Reg. S senior bond
- Advising HSBC on the issuance of AT1, Tier 2 and TLAC registered securities
- Advising HSBC on the issuance of first ever Social Development Goal bond
- Advising a Latin American corporate issuer on establishment of an export financing program with the Export-Import Bank of the United States and concurrent section 3(a)2 senior unsecured notes offering
- Advising initial purchasers on 144A/Reg. S bond offerings by BNP
- Advising initial purchasers on registered bonds offering by various corporate issuers including Chevron and Enterprise
- Advising seller and buyer’s counsels on confidential M&A acquisitions
- Advising GSK and HSBC on Exchange Act reporting and establishment of shelf programs
- Advising various corporate issuers on initial and follow-on equity offerings
Credentials
Awards
Disclaimer
Ropes & Gray International LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in Delaware, United States of America and is a recognised body regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (with registered number 521000).