Latham & Watkins continues to enhance its finance roster, this time with experienced Hogan Lovells partner Gary Hamp. The hire comes shortly after Hogan Lovells had taken three Latham partners in Dubai.
Hamp departs Hogan Lovells City banking practice and had led its Hong Kong practice until 2014 before returning to London. While it is understood he could relocate to Latham’s Hong Kong office, the firm declined to comment on this.
He specialises in acquisition and leveraged finance, distressed investments, structured secured lending and debt restructurings and workouts. Significant clients include Bank of America Merill Lynch, which he advised on the financing of Avant Homes by Angelo Gordon, Alchemy and Avenue Europe; advising the syndicate of lenders including HSBC and Bank of China on a $3.2bn loan to COFCO Group to finance the acquisition of Nidera Capital Noble Agri; and Standard Chartered Bank on the HK$5bn financing for the public acquisition of TCC International Holdings.
News of the hire comes just after the resignation of three key partners in Latham’s Dubai office, with corporate duo Charles Fuller and Andrew Tarbuck set to depart for Hogan Lovells, along with finance partner Anthony Pallett. It also saw the departure of London corporate duo Graeme Sloan and Vladimir Maly this year to Morrison & Foerster.
Latham, however, has been proactive in building a strong City offering – particularly in corporate and finance – successfully tapping into the talent pool of rival Global 100 firms, including former Clifford Chance M&A trio David Walker, Kem Ihenacho and Tom Evans, and investment funds specialist Nick Benson, formerly of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
