Who you will learn from

Students on the MSc Law and Finance benefit from the combined expertise of UCL Laws, the School of Management, and the Department of Economics. Our teaching team reflects the programme’s core philosophy: law, finance and regulation are not separate silos, but interconnected disciplines that shape how markets operate and how major transactions are structured.

You will be taught by internationally recognised scholars and senior practitioners who have advised governments, regulators, global law firms and financial institutions. Their experience ensures that academic rigour is grounded in real-world practice.

Please note: The information below reflects the teaching team and module convenors for the 2025–26 academic year. We review teaching allocations annually, and any updates for 2026–27 will be published here once confirmed.

Graham Penn

Professor Graham Penn, Programme Director of the MSc and Professor of International Finance Law, combines deep academic knowledge with decades of experience in global legal practice, including as a former partner and co-head of the Global Finance practice at Sidley Austin LLP, one of the world’s largest international law firms. During this period, he was consistently recognised as ‘a world-leading practitioner in Capital Markets, Structured Finance and Securitisation’ by Euromoney and as one of the ‘Top Legal Innovators of the Year’, by the Financial Times, which also noted his involvement ‘in some of the most ground-breaking transactions of the past two decades’.

He is the author of a number of leading textbooks in the fields of finance law and banking regulation and has been the editor of the highly regarded Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation for many years. 

Professor Penn’s teaching currently focusses on all aspects of the law and regulation of debt finance, including complex capital markets transactions and highly leveraged financings commonly seen in the private equity markets.

Alexander Gorbenko

Alexander Gorbenko is Co-Programme Director of the MSc and Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at UCL School of Management, with a global perspective and a strong record in academia and practice. He’s taught at London Business School and the University of Southern California, where he received multiple teaching awards. 

An expert in corporate finance, M&A, private equity, and venture capital, his research on high-value transactions offers insights into legal and economic aspects of deal-making. His work appears in top journals such as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Finance, and has been featured by Bloomberg and Private Equity Findings. 

Recipient of the NASDAQ OMX Award, Alex combines academic excellence with real-world insight to help students apply rigorous economic thinking to legal and financial challenges. 
 

Pedro Schilling de Carvalho

Pedro Schilling de Carvalho is Deputy Director of the MSc and brings extensive practical experience to his teaching. Before joining UCL, Pedro worked on operations and advisory projects at the World Bank Group’s Legal Vice Presidency in areas related to corporate law, corporate finance and financial regulation. He has also been appointed as one of fifteen academic experts worldwide (and the only one in the UK) to work with the World Bank Group’s Development Economics Vice Presidency.

Pedro has advised governments and organisations including the EBRD, OECD, Green Climate Fund and Gates Foundation on legal and regulatory reform. He also brings significant legal practice experience, having worked as a transaction and dispute resolution lawyer in IFLR1000 and GAR100-ranked firms lawyer in leading international firms and served as Chief of Staff in his home country’s top commercial law court.

His research on international fragmentation and sustainable finance has received the Yorke Prize from the University of Cambridge and has been cited by institutions including the International Monetary Fund and UK Parliament.

On the MSc, he co-delivers the core Theory and Practice of the Law of Corporate Finance module and convenes the optional Corporations, Finance and the Environment module.

Iris H-Y Chiu

Professor Iris H-Y Chiu is Professor of Corporate Law and Financial Regulation at UCL. A leading scholar in banking law, corporate governance and financial innovation, her work examines the legal architecture underpinning banks, financial institutions and the evolving fintech and crypto economy.  She has published extensively in the fields of banking regulation and corporate governance, and brings both comparative and policy depth to her scholarship.

Before entering academia, Professor Chiu served as a legislative draftsman and State Counsel in Singapore, grounding her academic work in first-hand experience of law-making and regulatory design. On the MSc, she convenes the optional Law and Regulation of Banks and Fintech Services module, offering students a rigorous examination of the principles and policy choices shaping one of the most highly regulated sectors of the global economy.

Christopher Hale

Christopher Hale is a leading European private equity lawyer with over 40 years of experience at Travers Smith LLP, where he served as senior partner and is now Chair Emeritus.  As founder of the firm’s Private Equity and Financial Sponsors practice, he has worked on many of Europe’s most significant and high-level private equity deals.

Christopher is also a respected academic contributor—serving on advisory boards at both Oxford and Cambridge . He is the author of Private Equity: A Transactional Analysis (5th edition, 2024), the UK’s leading practitioner text on private equity. On the MSc, he plays a key role in the delivery of the  Private Equity module.
 

Alex Wood

Alexander Wood brings extensive expertise in corporate finance, restructuring, and insolvency with nearly three decades in top-tier legal practice—including senior roles at Shearman & Sterling, Weil Gotshal, and Hogan Lovells. He has advised major private equity firms, hedge funds, and sovereign clients on complex, cross-border restructurings.

Alex joined UCL Laws to teach a new Corporate Insolvency and Restructuring module, launched in 2025–26. His market leading expertise in law, finance, and risk make him an ideal  resource for students exploring how legal frameworks shape high-stakes financial decisions.
 

Jonathan Haines

Jonathan Haines is a senior consultant and former partner in the Global Markets practice at Ashurst LLP. Recognised by The Legal 500 as a leading practitioner in derivatives and structured finance, he brings over two decades of experience advising major global financial institutions.

He has worked with top investment banks—including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Société Générale, and Nomura—on complex transactions involving corporate equity derivatives, margin financing, structured repos, stock lending, and longevity risk transfers.

Jonathan is a Lecturer at the UCL Faculty of Laws, where he specialises in the private and comparative law of financial markets, secured lending, financial collateral, and digital assets.

Philip Gavin

Philip Gavin is a Lecturer at UCL Laws whose research focuses on directors’ duties, corporate purpose, and the legal frameworks that govern companies in financial distress. He has examined how directors’ obligations to creditors are structured across jurisdictions—particularly in the UK and Ireland—and how these duties evolve through statutory reform and judicial decision-making.

Dr Gavin is also co-author of the forthcoming eighth edition of Equity and the Law of Trusts in Ireland (publishing June 2025). Before joining UCL, he taught company law, equity, and tort law as an Assistant Lecturer at Technological University Dublin.

Franziska Arnold-Dwyer

Dr Franziska Arnold-Dwyer is Associate Professor of Law at UCL Laws and an internationally recognised specialist in insurance and reinsurance law. Her research examines the interaction between contract law, regulation and transnational standards, with particular focus on how insurance markets support sustainability and climate resilience.

A qualified solicitor in England and Wales and former practitioner at Clifford Chance, she combines academic rigour with industry insight. She is co-editor of MacGillivray on Insurance Law and executive editor of The Law of Reinsurance in England and Bermuda.

On the MSc Law and Finance, she convenes the optional Insurance Law and Risk module, exploring the legal and regulatory architecture of global insurance and reinsurance markets, including the PRA and FCA regimes, reinsurance structures and emerging issues such as ESG and climate risk.