US firms are once again on the march in London, with Kirkland and Cravath leading the moves of the last few weeks with hires from legal tech Harvey and Linklaters respectively.
Kirkland & Ellis leads the high-profile moves of the last few weeks with its hire of Suril Patel as the firm’s first structured finance partner in London.
Patel has joined Kirkland as a partner in the debt finance group, alongside Jared Axelrod from Milbank, who joined in New York.
Patel joins after less than a year and a half at legal tech AI platform Harvey. He marks the second recent exit from Harvey, following Gordon Moodie’s move to Debevoise & Plimpton‘s New York office at the end of September.
Previously, Suril worked at pre-merger Allen & Overy for just under nine years, where he made partner in 2019. His practice focuses on advising sponsors, credit funds, institutional investors, financial institutions and borrowers on a range of structured finance transactions.
Meanwhile, Cravath, Swaine & Moore is set to strengthen its London offering with the addition of leveraged finance pair Chris Medley and Rohan Saha.
The duo will become the first English law partner hires since the firm launched its English law offering in March 2023 with corporate duo Korey Fevzi and Philip Stopford from then-Shearman & Sterling. The firm also has an additional three corporate partners in London who are admitted to practice in New York, according to its website.
The duo are both individually ranked as Legal 500 next-generation partners for acquisition finance. Medley spent 19 years at Linklaters and made partner in 2018, while Rohan was at the firm for 13 years and made partner in 2022.
Fellow magic circle firm Freshfields also lost a partner, as capital markets specialist Victoria Hills moved to Macfarlanes.
She joins after nearly 22 years at Freshfields, bringing extensive expertise in managing large-scale, complex, and often multi-jurisdictional transactions, with a particular focus on hotel investments.
Elsewhere in the City, Gowling life sciences head Jenny Davies has joined Cooley as a partner in the firm’s life sciences partnering and licensing practice in London.
Davies spent 16 years at Gowling, and her practice covers the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. She has also led UK patent litigations and European Patent Office oppositions.
In other moves, Goodwin has bolstered its executive compensation practice with the hire of Anna Humphrey, who joins from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
She joins after just under three years at Orrick, and previously spent 15 years at Taylor Wessing, becoming a partner in May 2017. Her experience includes structuring and implementing the equity incentive arrangements of private and public companies and multinational groups.
Elsewhere, Forsters has hired Withers partner Tracy Evlogidis to head its immigration practice.
Evlogidis, a Legal 500 Hall of Famer for immigration, has over 25 years of experience. She leaves Withers after seven years, and earlier in her career spent time at Morgan Lewis, legacy Speechly Bircham, and Harbottle & Lewis.
Charles Russell Speechlys has hired James Stewart as a partner for its corporate tax and incentives team, joining from Sheridans where he spent just over two and a half years. He was previously at Taylor Wessing for almost 15 years.
Finally, in Edinburgh, CMS has welcomed Caroline Maciver to its infrastructure, construction and energy disputes practice. Maciver joins the firm from Burness Paull where she spent 16 years. She brings experience in leading large, complex disputes in the private and public sectors.
