Ashurst has fired up its corporate hiring drive by adding a second corporate partner in as many days in the form of high-growth and tech lawyer Jonathan Cohen from Clyde & Co.
The London hire comes hot on the heels of yesterday’s recruitment of Fabio Niccoli from CDP Equity, where he was general counsel, to lead the firm’s private equity offering in Milan.
Cohen had been at Clydes since 2017, most recently as a legal director. He advises on private M&A, fundraisings, private equity, commercial contracts, restructuring, and general corporate and commercial matters. Clients include high growth technology focused businesses across the financial, health, renewables, education, engineering and software sectors.
Ashurst head of corporate Karen Davies said: ‘[Cohen’s] experience will be a great complement to the work we are undertaking in building our high growth & VC team, led by Tara Waters. Jonathan’s strong credentials within the space will help us to even further accelerate the growth of our technology focused practice, alongside our strong M&A capabilities.’
Meanwhile in Milan, Niccoli, who had been CDP’s GC since 2012, was responsible for setting up the entire legal structure of the business. He has advised on a number of high-end private M&A and private equity deals, with a focus on the Italian mid-cap market. He began his career at Bonelli Erede Pappalardo.
He has also worked at Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners, before joining the newly-founded firm, Labruna Mazziotti Segni, contributing to its start-up and becoming a partner in the M&A and private equity practice.
Ashurst Milan office managing partner Carloandrea Meacci said: ‘This is a significant development for our practice in Milan – we are able to offer first-rate private equity expertise to complement our market-leading offering in all areas of infrastructure and energy M&A.’
The moves come after Jason Radford, Ashurst’s global head of corporate, last October vowed to redouble the firm’s hiring efforts for corporate, with London, France, Italy and Germany all cited as areas of intended investment.