Shearman & Sterling has lost another two partners in London, as infrastructure and projects partners Ben Shorten and Trinh Chubbock moved over to Gibson Dunn, where Shorten will head the firm’s EMEA projects team.
‘Gibson Dunn has a fantastic energy practice,’ said Shorten. ‘When the opportunity came up, it was too good to miss out on.’ Chubbock concurred: ‘The platform speaks for itself.’
Federico Fruhbeck, Gibson Dunn’s projects and infrastructure practice group co-chair and head of private equity in Europe, outlined the growth of the firm’s practice. ‘When we arrived in the region, we were very quick to build on the private equity infrastructure side of things. Hiring Ben and Trinh helps us expand our capacities in greenfield work.’
The moves come at a particularly strong time for the infrastructure sector. ‘The expansion of what infrastructure means is massive’, said Fruhbeck. ‘It’s getting into a lot of core private equity sectors. There’s a wider breadth of assets being brought to the market.’
Shorten added: ‘The energy transition, the move to net zero, and the rising importance of energy security impact everyone. There’s a huge amount of opportunity.’
Debevoise & Plimpton also hired a partner from Shearman, bringing over Sam Whitaker as international counsel in its corporate department. Whitaker’s practice focuses on employment and benefits and includes advising on employment issues in relation to a range of corporate transactions.
Debevoise’s European corporate practice head Paul Bird said: ‘From complex transactions to high-stakes disputes, our team has a long history of guiding clients through related employment issues.’
Shearman also suffered losses on its US home turf: antitrust partner Ryan Shores moved to Cleary Gottlieb in Washington DC, and former global head of real estate Malcolm Montgomery moved to O’Melveny in New York. The departures come as Sheaman gears up to vote on its proposed merger with Allen & Overy.
Back in London, Reed Smith has hired Patrick Rappo into its global regulatory investigations and enforcement practice. Rappo joins from DLA Piper, where he was global co-chair of the firm’s investigations and compliance group, and has prior experience at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), where he acted as joint head of its bribery and corruption divisions.
A number of firms also made moves in finance. Norton Rose Fulbright strengthened its leveraged and acquisition finance team with the hire of Christopher Akinrele from Eversheds Sutherland. Akinrele brings experience in both domestic and cross-border transactions, and advises clients including private credit funds, alternative lenders, bank lenders, private equity sponsors, and portfolio companies and corporate borrowers.
‘The last couple of years have been a particularly fascinating time to be a leveraged finance lawyer’, he told Legal Business. ‘We’ve seen capital coming from an increasingly wide range of sources, even in challenging macroeconomic circumstances.’
Madhavi Gosavi, who heads the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Asia banking and finance offering, characterised the market as ‘still buoyant’, noting an increase in refinancings and distressed transactions. Akinrele’s hire, she explained, fits in to the firm’s strategy to ‘further connect all of our offices in the region. We are a global firm, and, as we continue to expand our global footprint, we want our clients to see the full benefit of our cross-border, multi-jurisdictional capabilities.’
BCLP, meanwhile, appointed David Scott to its financial services disputes and investigations (FSDI) practice. Scott previously spent more than two decades at Freshfields, including as global dispute resolution head from 2015 to 2019, and joins BCLP from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), where he was interim general counsel.
‘I wanted to be involved in a growth project and a new challenge’, Scott explained. ‘My role as senior consultant is to be collaborative and supportive. I am looking forward to helping the team grow’.
Polly James, FSDI practice co-leader, highlighted Scott’s experience at the FCA as a reason for his hire: ‘He has the perspective from the other side of the table, which is invaluable for clients to tap into when they’re dealing with complex regulatory situations.’
Litigation specialist Stewarts also made two hires, bringing over Alex Leitch, former head of complex litigation at Paul Hastings, and Chloe Derrick, who was a managing associate at Mishcon de Reya, and joins Stewarts as a partner.
Leitch explained his reasons for moving from a full-service firm to a specialist practice: ‘The litigation market at the moment is buoyant, and there is an increasing awareness on the part of clients that you want specialist litigation lawyers, and lawyers who are absolutely free of any conflict.’
Derrick joins the firm’s policyholder disputes department, established in September 2022 with the hire of Aaron Le Marquer from Fenchurch Law. ‘Stewarts has the firepower to support the kind of big-ticket claims we’re seeing more and more of in the current environment’, she said. ‘We set up a new policyholder disputes practice 10 months ago and the team’s been busy straight away, including at the forefront of some of the most ground-breaking disputes this year. I expect the team to continue to grow considerably in size.’
White & Case has hired Winston & Strawn’s transportation finance practice chair Mark Moody. Moody joins W&C’s asset finance practice and brings particular experience in the aviation industry.
The firm was also active in Spain, where it expanded its EMEA infrastructure M&A offering with the hires of Ignacio Paz and Pablo García-Nieto, both from Herbert Smith Freehills. Paz headed HSF’s energy and infrastructure practice in Spain, while García-Nieto headed the firm’s Spanish corporate and private equity practice.
Speaking to Legal Business, both Paz and García-Nieto cited W&C’s global footprint and client base as motivations for their move. ‘The presence White & Case has in Europe and the US made a big difference’, said García-Nieto. ‘So did the exposure that it has to big private equity and infra funds.’
Commenting on the wider market, Paz pointed to ‘ambitious plans for growth in the energy sector – not only with established technologies, but with new ones like storage, hybridisation, and even newer technologies that will come to the market soon’. García-Nieto, meanwhile, pointed to activity in the tech sector.
Juan Manuel de Remedios, Madrid executive partner and head of W&C’s M&A and corporate group in Spain, set the hires in the context of continued expansion in the country, which saw M&A partner Javier Monzon and debt finance partner Jaime Rossi join from Freshfields and HSF, respectively, in 2022, and Francisco Malaga join from Linklaters in 2022.
‘Strengthening our platform in Spain was a key objective for us. There’s so much money going into the energy transition. Add the fact that there is so much dry powder in the funds that they need to deploy, plus the large deficits being run by many states around the world and the need for private sector investment, and you get a very active infrastructure and energy sector.’
Eversheds Sutherland has made hires in Scotland and Paris. Real estate partner Alan Cook joined the firm’s Edinburgh office from Pinsent Masons, while private equity specialist Gautier Elies came over to the Paris office from Weil.
Finally, Pinsent Masons also lost real estate partner Wolfram Paetzold to Gowling WLG in Frankfurt, and Fieldfisher has hired transactional partner Jahanara Hussain into its Manchester office from TLT.
