Proskauer Rose has continued to build its London corporate offering, bringing in M&A partner James Howe from Kirkland & Ellis, while Hogan Lovells has strengthened its debt capital markets (DCM) team in the City with the hire of high-yield partner Sylvain Dhennin from Dentons.
Kirkland’s Howe joins as Proskauer builds its London office with recent private equity hires including Steven Davis and Matt Rees from King & Wood Mallesons and Simmons & Simmons respectively. He has experience in cross-border M&A and leveraged buy-outs, particularly in financial and business services, and technology.
Davis, who heads the UK M&A group commented: ‘It’s been an exciting few months at Proskauer. The firm is committed to growing its global M&A and financing platform and James’ arrival further strengthens our team in London.’
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson hired three Kirkland partners, led by Mark Mifsud, last week (27 May) as it also looks to build a signficant corporate offering in the City.
Meanwhile, after having lost banking specialist Stuart Brinkworth to Fried Frank two weeks ago, Hogan Lovells hired Dhennin into its finance practice from Dentons’ high yield group where he focused on bond and securities offerings in emerging markets. He joined Dentons from Gide Loyrette Nouel in 2012, having also worked in-house as assistant vice-president at JPMorgan Chase, where he dealt with French and German capital markets transactions within the DCM EMEA group and at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
High profile clients includes Société Generale and HSBC while recent mandates include advising automotive parts manufacturer Faurecia on its €500m 3.125% senior notes issue due 2022 as part of an overall refinancing.
Commenting on the firm’s latest hire, global finance practice head Sharon Lewis said: ‘The European high yield bond market has grown as a direct result of the financial crisis and corporates and funds are increasingly looking to this market as part of their financing arrangements. High yield is a specialised field in which only a small number of lawyers have gained real experience and Sylvain’s expertise will be invaluable in building our high yield offering in London.’
Other hires made by the firm of late includes Frankfurt-based senior corporate partner Matthias Jaletzke from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Paul Hastings’ project finance head Joseph Kim to its Tokyo finance practice; and Kirkland & Ellis corporate partner Steven Tran to the Hong Kong corporate practice in September.
Its City office did, however, see the resignation of Brinkworth, who is set to lead Fried Frank’s London finance offering with a mandate to build debt fund relationships.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk