Having lost a string of London-based corporate stars in the last two years, Ashurst is making efforts to enhance its offering once more with the hire of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s former global private equity co-head Shaun Lascelles.
Cited by The Legal 500 as a key figure in the buyout industry, Lascelles specialises in cross-border M&A and private equity and advises a broad range of private equity firms, hedge funds, state-owned investment funds and other investment funds. Lascelles’ team was shortlisted for the Legal Business Private Equity Team of the Year in 2014 for advising BlackRock on the purchase of Credit Suisse’s exchange-traded funds division, giving the client an important footing in Europe.
For Ashurst the recruit counts as a major boost to its City corporate offering after the loss of heavyweights including former head Charlie Geffen, and partners Mark Sperotto, Nigel Stacey and Jonathan Earle for US rival Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 2014.
Meanwhile, Skadden’s global private equity practice will continue to be headed by Allison Schneriov. Other changes to its private equity practice include leading City veteran Allan Murray-Jones stepping down from his role as a partner last year and changing to an of counsel role.
Other recent corporate departures from Skadden include, from its German operations, PE partner Matthias Jaletzke, who counts Apax Partners among his clients, and joined Hogan Lovells this summer alongside two other lawyers.
On the recruit of Lascelles, Ashurst’s global corporate head Simon Beddow said: ‘Shaun has first-rate credentials and will be a great addition to the team. He will play an important role in enhancing and consolidating our global private equity offering which remains a core part of our global corporate practice. Shaun’s recruitment follows the recent arrival of David Stammers in Australia and we will continue to add to this resource base to meet global client demand.’
Lascelles added: ‘I am very excited to further develop the firm’s private equity and M&A capability. With private equity firms looking to take advantage of an influx of capital across the industry, helping them to leverage and unlock global opportunities is a key priority for law firms.’
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk