Four London associates at Weil, Gotshal & Manges have been made up to partner, accounting for a third of the firm’s latest promotions round.
The New York-headquartered firm has elected 12 new partners and 15 new counsel in a promotions round that will take effect on 1 January 2015. Outside of London, two partners were made up in Paris, one in Washington DC and the rest in New York.
With well-known banking partner Stephen Lucas having departed for Kirkland & Ellis earlier this year, the firm opted to promote two banking and finance lawyers in the City. High-yield specialist Patrick Bright, a New York-qualified lawyer who recently acted for JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs on the financing of Hony Capital’s acquisition of Pizza Express from the Gondola Group, was promoted alongside leveraged finance specialist Tom Richards, who has had secondments at Goldman Sachs and HSBC.
London-based private funds lawyer Stephen Fox, who counts private equity firms aPriori Capital Partners, Graphite Capital and Montagu Private Equity among his clients, and structured finance and derivatives associate Brian Maher were also promoted. Maher’s biggest client is Barclays, where he was once seconded within the investment bank’s securitization team, and he has also spent time working in the firm’s New York office.
The four promotions at the firm’s Fetter Lane office is two more than this time last year, when litigator Hannah Field-Lowes and finance and restructuring lawyer Mark Lawford made partner in a nine-strong promotions round.
Two associates in London were made up to counsel, with James Gee and David Irvine promoted within the private funds group.
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk