Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton is advising on Greece's current debt negotiations with its eurozone creditors, Legal Week understands.

The German parliament agreed a four-month extension to Greece's financial aid package on Friday (27 January), a move that still needs ratification from other eurozone members owed money by Greece.

Greece's Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA), the body charged with managing the country's borrowing programme and debt portfolio, is taking advice from Cleary, which is fielding a team including London partner and international debt specialist Andrew Shutter.

Cleary's relationship with the PDMA dates back several years.

In 2012 corporate and international finance partner Lee Buchheit led a team of roughly 20 Cleary lawyers advising the Greek state on sovereign debt issues when a new €130bn (£109bn) bailout package was agreed.

The 2012 deal saw private sector investors holding portions of the country's sovereign debt agree to take further losses in return for government-imposed austerity measures.

While discussions on that deal are understood to have involved legally intensive work around the private sector investors' holdings, current negotiations with the eurozone's finance ministers have required the lawyers involved to handle more politically sensitive issues.

Clifford Chance (CC) could potentially get involved further down the line for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the temporary crisis resolution mechanism created by the euro area member states in June 2010.

CC Paris partner Jonathan Lewis has advised the EFSF since 2010 but no law firm has yet been instructed for the EFSF on this occassion. 

Allen & Overy and White & Case, which advised the private sector debt holders in 2012, are not involved in current negotiations given the absence of private creditors this time round.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras pledged to have half his nation's debt written off when his Syriza party won elections in late January.