Passionate in conciliating law and finance from the early stages of her education, Katia Merlini is Counsel with the International Debt Capital Markets team focusing on derivatives, structured debt issuances and synthetic securitisation transactions. She acts for financial institutions as well as corporates, whether they are based in France or elsewhere in Europe and the world.

Katia has more than 15 years' experience in derivatives and capital markets from Simmons & Simmons and prior to that Clifford Chance. She advises French and other European banks (including Crédit Agricole CIB, Société Générale and Edmond de Rothschild France), asset managers and insurance companies, focusing on complex derivative products (including commodity, equity, credit, fund and index linked swaps) and structured notes, certificates and warrants with embedded derivatives. Katia regularly gives training seminars in respect of derivatives, securities lending and repurchase transactions to French financial institutions, including in conjunction with reputable training institutions such as First Finance, Development Institute International or EFE.