Pinsent Masons has hired Scottish rival Maclay Murray & Spens’ financial services head David Young (pictured) to Pinsents’ Edinburgh and London offices, as it grows its funds and finance offering.
Young’s clients have included Scottish Widows, Lloyds Banking Group, Railways Pension Scheme, Aberdeen Asset Management, Dalmore Capital, Martin Currie, Threadneedle and Lothian Pension Fund.
He qualified and has spent his career at Maclays, where he was made up to partner in 2009, when he set up and led the firm’s alternative fund practice in Scotland.
Specialising in fund structuring, formation and investment for investors and fund managers, Young also advises on as asset management regulation.
Global group head of finance and projects, Michael Watson told Legal Business: ‘David’s a fund and financial regulation partner of some repute in the UK’. He has expertise in the financial services sector, ‘one of our key sectors’. He also ‘does a lot of work with funds that operate in the infrastructure and energy markets which are very important to us’ as an area of growth, Watson said.
‘Our goal is to be a market leader in infrastructure, energy and financial services sectors. That means we want to support clients across all different skill sets in different sectors’, he added.
Alexis Roberts, Pinsents’ financial services’ head, said that the UK funds market was an active industry in which the firm had a long-term commitment and continued to invest.
Young’s appointment comes shortly after Pinsent Masons announced last week that it will open in Dublin with the hire of a three-partner team. That office will initially focus on the financial services and technology sectors. Investment funds partner Gayle Bowen joined from Walkers, boosting the firm’s finance team, alongside data protection and IT partner Andreas Carney from Matheson and corporate partner Dennis Agnew from Bryne Wallace.
Pinsents recently acquired a diversity specialist company.
Madeleine.farman@legalease.co.uk