Mika LEHTIMAKI
Research Associate
9 January 2020 - 31 December 2020

Mika is a full-time research associate at the Centre for Banking and Finance Law (from 9 January 2020). Prior to joining the Centre, Mika completed his Masters degree at the University of Helsinki, and his M.Jur (Distinction) as well as his MSt at the University of Oxford. He is currently at the final submission stage of his DPhil at the University of Oxford.

Mika has extensive experience, on partner level, of legal practice in M&A, corporate and financial transactions law and he has worked for a number of years in European, cross-border and domestic arrangements. He has been ranked throughout 2011-2019 as a leading Banking and Finance lawyer as well as M&A lawyer by Chambers Global and Europe, IFLR1000 and Legal 500. He has advised private equity and hedge funds, financial institutions and corporates in numerous financial and corporate transactions and is able to draft and analyse most types of cross-border arrangements. Mika employs also statistical analysis, game theory and coding (Python and R) on analysing financial and corporate transactions.

He is also engaged in the work combining financial law and regulation with game theory and computer science. Mika has been an associate editor of the Oxford Business Law Blog. He has also earlier acted as the Co-govenor of the Oxford Financial Law discussion Group.

Research Areas

Quantitative and qualitative analysis of private equity funds and transactions and their contractual and capital structures as well as their impact on broader financial architecture

His research focuses on legal and empirical analysis of Private Equity agreements and structures and how they control (also game-theoretically) the relationships between the fund manager and the limited partners (investors) and the creditors of the portfolio groups. The research takes a look at the common law contracts and contrasts these with the same encountered in the Asian markets. The research will give insight into the financing structures of private equity and how these can be controlled by (i) financial regulation and (ii) contractually resulting in desired policy objectives. The work has both international and domestic applicability and combines law, contractual analysis and financial regulation.

The research employs also financial databases, and coding and tests empirically whether the contracts are able to control the parties' interactions and agency costs and what this means to the cost of financing. The research builds on the theoretical background research he has carried out at the University of Oxford.

Selected Publications