Paul Weiss has added another partner to its City restructuring practice with the hire of former Kirkland & Ellis partner Kai Zeng.
This follows the addition of former Akin restructuring partner and Legal 500 corporate restructuring and insolvency leading individual Liz Osborne to launch its European restructuring team back in July.
Zeng spent eight years in Kirkland’s London office between 2013 and 2022, becoming a partner in the restructuring team in 2021. He moved to investment fund Blantyre Capital as counsel in 2022, becoming an investment director earlier this year.
He brings experience advising financial sponsors, debtors, and creditors on cross-border restructurings and distressed transactions.
Since the news first broke last summer that Neel Sachdev (pictured) and Roger Johnson were leaving Kirkland to establish an English law practice at Paul Weiss, the pair have expanded the office through a series of eye-catching hires from firms including Kirkland, Linklaters and Clifford Chance.
These include Kirkland equity partners Matthew Merkle (capital markets) and Timothy Lowe (tax), Linklaters partners Nicole Kar (competition), Dan Schuster-Woldan (M&A) and Will Aitken-Davies (M&A), as well as private equity star Christopher Sullivan and acquisition finance partner Taner Hassan from Clifford Chance.
More recently, Paul Weiss hired TDR Capital general counsel David Holdsworth, who is returning to private practice after less than two years at the PE house.
For more on Paul Weiss, see LB’s feature ‘Market forces: Paul Weiss, Kirkland and the war for London talent’ .
