Reed Smith confirmed today (21 March) King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) New York-based international funds partner Parik Dasgupta has joined the firm’s corporate practice.
Dasgupta (pictured) launched KWM’s US funds practice and was one of two co-founding partners based in the firm’s New York office. The office was until recently part of the collapsed European arm and has now been taken on by the new European entity dubbed KWM 2.0, which is funded by KWM’s Chinese verein.
Dasgupta’s exit leaves George Pinkham the only partner in the New York base.
Before KWM, Dasgupta was an associate at Mayer Brown, Kirkland & Ellis and Baker & McKenzie. He focuses on the commercial, legal and regulatory issues associated with private equity and venture capital fund formation. His key clients include PAI Partners, Triton, Macquarie, Astorg, Antin, First State, Capital Dynamics and UBS. Dasgupta was also a member of the firm’s India practice.
Matt Petersen, co-chair of Reed Smith’s global corporate group said: ‘Parik’s practice is a great fit for our corporate group and, in particular, our strong and growing funds practice. His high-end fund formation experience in connection with private equity and venture capital funds is a perfect addition to our existing practice.’
He added: ‘Parik also worked closely with many of the KWM attorneys who joined us earlier this year in Europe. All of these connections will be invaluable to us as we further grow our fund capabilities locally, nationally and globally,’ he added.
The addition of Dasgupta follows Reed Smith’s recent hire of 50 former KWM lawyers, including 17 partners who joined its London, Munich, Frankfurt and Paris offices in January.
Earlier this month, Reed Smith also took on three partners from Winston & Strawn, part of an eight-lawyer team in Paris.
However the firm’s global revenues fell for the second consecutive year in 2016, by 4% to $1.08bn from $1.12bn, which the firm said was the result of strategically managing down headcount by 81 lawyers over the year.
georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk
Read more on King & Wood Mallesons in: ‘Shattered – The final days of ‘SJ Berwin’