Amid a recent spate of senior deal lawyer appointments, McDermott has brought former Kirkland & Ellis partner Usman Khan into its transactions practice. Khan specialises in real estate finance, and has experience acting for clients including banking institutions, private equity sponsors, credit funds, and sovereign wealth funds.
Mayer Brown has also grown its London banking and finance practice, with the hire of Victoria Thompson from Morgan Lewis. Thompson focuses on domestic and cross-border secured lending and restructuring transactions and is dual-qualified in New York and England and Wales.
Meanwhile, Baker McKenzie has expanded its London private equity team with its hire of experienced transactional lawyer Hannah Luqmani from Fried Frank, where she was associate.
‘The 12 months from June 2022 was a very challenging period for private equity’, said Baker McKenzie corporate head David Allen. ‘There was a liquidity squeeze, where it was very difficult to finance a billion-dollar-plus LBO for a significant amount of that period, unless there were very special circumstances. But as we came into the current calendar year, sentiment began to improve.
‘There is an enormous amount of capital that needs to be deployed. Notwithstanding the challenging macro environment, we as a team had one of our best years ever. Hannah’s hire brings our London partner team focused on private equity and financial sponsors up to 12, and we’re planning to grow more both in London and our other core markets.’
Macfarlanes was also active, hiring Peter Chapman into its investment management group. Formerly a senior associate at Sidley Austin, Chapman has experience advising private fund sponsors on matters including fund formation and management structuring, as well as institutional investors on private fund allocations, co-investments, and LP portfolio sales.
Keystone Law has made yet more waves with its hire of six new partners. These include employment specialists Katy Edwards, previously of Gibson Dunn, and Marie van der Zyl, who has served as president of the board of deputies of British Jews since 2018, and comes to Keystone from Ince.
Planning specialist Anna Fouracre, formerly an associate director at Osborne Clarke, has joined as a partner, while Keystone also welcomed former Mackintosh Law director Zena Bolwig as a probate and estate planning partner, as well as licencing and gambling partner Sarah Taylor from Poppleston Allen and residential real estate partner Jason Roston from Fladgate.
In comments to Legal Business, Keystone CEO James Knight said: ‘We will recruit when we have demand, because we are recruiting lawyers who are bringing clients with them for themselves and for their Keystone colleagues.’
Van der Zyl praised Keystone’s model, highlighting its nature as ‘a collaborative firm’. She described her practice as broad. ‘There are a lot of disputes in the workplace at the moment’, she commented. ‘These range from sexual harassment to other forms of gross misconduct and partnership disputes. It’s really busy, and I’m keen to develop my practice across the board, working for both individuals and companies.’
McDermott, meanwhile, has brought former Kirkland & Ellis partner Usman Khan into its transactions practice. Khan specialises in real estate finance, and has experience acting for clients including banking institutions, private equity sponsors, credit funds, and sovereign wealth funds.
Mayer Brown has also grown its London banking and finance practice, with the hire of Victoria Thompson from Morgan Lewis. Thompson focuses on domestic and cross-border secured lending and restructuring transactions and is dual-qualified in New York and England and Wales.
Eversheds Sutherland announced two hires last week, bringing former Baker McKenzie senior associate Katia Finkel into its international arbitration practice as a partner, and former Reed Smith partner Graham Green into its employment team. Finkel brings broad expertise in complex multijurisdictional arbitrations with a particular focus on the energy, mining, and infrastructure sectors, while Green specialises in advising clients in the TMT sector, with experience in broadcast media.
Green cited the opportunity to scale his practice as a reason for his move. ‘In broadcast media in the UK, there’s been a lot of focus on representation, both onscreen and offscreen. You need real sector knowledge to help clients with that sort of issue, and you need to be able to field a strong team. Eversheds has a great employment team in London and around Europe. We’ve got the ability to deliver in terms of scale. We should be the go-to firm for all UK employment work for major media clients, and that’s where I want us to be.’
Pinsent Masons has hired senior patent litigator James Marshall from Taylor Wessing. Marshall has additional experience in trade secrets and licencing and comes to Pinsents with a strong focus on the life sciences and technology sectors.
Bates Wells, meanwhile, grew its dispute resolution team with the hire of Tim Constable from Dentons. Constable comes with experience in a range of corporate and commercial disputes and professional negligence claims, and his hire brings the total number of disputes partners at the firm to four.
Howard Kennedy also made moves in dispute resolution, adding Nikki Edwards to its commercial dispute resolution team and David Hamilton to its business crime and regulatory team, from Temple Bright and Pinsents, respectively.
Shoosmiths grew its London intellectual property team with the hire of former Lewis Silkin partner Antony Craggs. Craggs specialises in patent, trade mark, and design litigation, in sectors from tech and medical devices to consumer goods and retail.
Outside the UK, Allen & Overy has continued to expand in the US ahead of October’s partner vote on its proposed merger with Shearman & Sterling, bringing New York partner Elaine Hughes into its funds and asset management practice. Hughes joins from Lowenstein Sandler, where her roles included co-chair of the firm’s investment management group and a position on its executive board.
Also in New York, Simpson Thacher has hired intellectual property specialist Marisa Geiger from Paul Weiss, where she was counsel.
Greenberg Traurig launched its UAE office with the hires of real estate partners Stephen Kelly and Sarah Mahood from BCLP. The firm’s receipt of a licence to operate in the UAE marks another step in its expansion into the Middle East, following its March announcement of an affiliation with Saudi Arabia’s Khalid Al-Thebity Law Firm.
White & Case made two hires into its overseas offices. Former Ashurst insolvency and restructuring partner Sophie Lyall joined the firm’s office in Hong Kong. In Madrid, meanwhile, the firm established a competition presence in Spain with the hire of former DelaCalle managing partner José Antonio de la Calle, who will work as part of the firm’s global antitrust practice.
Bird & Bird, meanwhile, was also active in Europe, with three partner hires across its offices in Warsaw and Madrid. Debt capital markets and finance regulatory specialist Piotr Lesinski joined the Warsaw office from Allen & Overy. In Madrid, Fernando Gutiérrez Rizaldos joined the finance & financial regulation team from Dentons, and real estate transactional specialist Conchita Sáinz Sodupe joined as a partner from Ashurst, where she was a counsel.
Finally, Simmons & Simmons has bolstered its legal services platform, Simmons Solutions, with the hire of partner Lucy Shurwood, who previously headed the Advanced Delivery Team at Pinsent Masons. Shurwood will work within the firm’s legal engineering arm Wavelength, acquired in 2019, with a focus on financial institutions and asset management clients.
