Transfer window stays open for summer as Paul Weiss picks up Kirkland City funds partner and Goodwin hires from Dechert.
Paul Weiss has again used Kirkland & Ellis as a recruitment shop for its London office, hiring Jeremy Leggate as a partner and European investment funds co-head.
Leggate made partner at Kirkland in 2017 having joined the firm in 2015 from Sidley Austin. He has experience advising private investment fund sponsors across the full spectrum of issues relating to fund structuring and operations and on a wide range of transactional matters including restructurings, spinouts, joint ventures, and GP-led deals.
The hire brings Paul Weiss’s London partner count to around 26, according to the firm’s website, including those splitting their time across different offices. The firm brought in Akin restructuring partner and Legal 500 corporate restructuring and insolvency leading individual Liz Osborne to launch its European restructuring team just last week, while it began building its London funds bench in March with the hire of James King, who made partner at Kirkland in 2020.
‘We are thrilled to welcome Jeremy, a talented and well-respected private funds lawyer, to our partnership’, said Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp in a statement. ‘Jeremy’s experience and deep relationships with some of the most sophisticated funds in Europe and the UK make him a wonderful fit for our best-in-class London office and global Investment Funds Group.’
In addition, Goodwin built up its London funds practice with its hire of Dechert’s Thiha Tun, who brings broad expertise across a range of fund formation, investment, and transactional matters. His arrival follows the firm’s January hire of Debevoise funds partner John Anderson.
Also hiring a former Kirkland partner last week was Keystone Law, which brought in banking and finance partner Philip McEachen as one of 11 hires, alongside Irwin Mitchell IP partner Marcus Collins, Goodwin commercial property partner Eric Lim, Armstrong Teasdale property litigation partner David Wise, BPE Solicitors commercial property partner Antonia Shield, regulation and insurance partner Frank Maher and professional discipline and regulatory partner Sue Mawdsley from Legal Risk. Whitehead Monckton director and property team lead Robert Coombe, O’Donnell Solicitors family law director Gianna Lisiecki-Cunane, Microsoft commercial lawyer Nick Owers, and Sonder Inc GC Nadia Milligan also joined as partners.
Meanwhile, in continental Europe, Bracewell launched in Paris with an 11-lawyer energy and infrastructure team from Norton Rose Fulbright, including three Legal 500 ranked partners for energy in France: Hall of Famer and NRF global energy co-head Anne Lapierre, leading individual Arnaud Bélisaire, and next-generation partner Simon Cudennec.
Also in Paris, Proskauer brought Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s Paris managing partner Bryan Sillaman into its corporate investigations and compliance, securities litigation, and white collar defense and investigations practice.
