Kirkland & Ellis was at the centre of not one but two of the biggest stories in the London lateral hiring market last week . First, the news broke that former Linklaters private equity star Roger Johnson was set to leave. Then, the firm announced its hire of Paul Weiss London managing partner Alvaro Membrillera.
Membrillera’s departure leaves Paul Weiss with only three partners in London, according to the firm’s website: David Carmona and Adam Wollstein, who made partner in December 2018 and January 2021, respectively, and David Lakhdhir, who cofounded the office in 2001 with Mark Bergman, of counsel in Washington DC since 2021.
The firm remains the only major US firm in London without an English law practice, following Cravath’s hire of Philip Stopford and Korey Fevzi from Shearman & Sterling in March.
Elsewhere in London, Fieldfisher has built up its London competition and regulatory group with the hire of an eight-person team from US litigation boutique Constantine Cannon, which shuttered its London office on 31 July. The team is led by partners Richard Pike and Stephen Critchley.
‘Anchoring the competition team within the regulatory team offers clients a much richer and more coherent service,’ Fieldfisher’s competition and regulatory group co-head John Cassels explained to Legal Business. ‘Competition law, exciting as it is, tends to touch on other areas, including public and regulatory law. We were looking to build out on the contentious side – you can’t do competition law without competition litigation. When the opportunity came along, the Constantine Cannon team were an exceptional fit.’
The firm has also made moves in Dublin, recruiting Ciara Burke, previously in-house at Meta, as the new head of its data protection and privacy offering.
McDermott Will & Emery grew its transactions practice group with the hire of corporate derivatives specialist Vlad Maly from Morrison Foerster. ‘Corporate equity derivatives is an area of law that is increasingly used by PE funds, family office founders, CEOS, and sovereign wealth funds,’ Maly said to Legal Business. ‘McDermott is the prime law firm offering access to such private clients, family offices, and private equity.’
London managing partner Hamid Yunis explained the hire: ‘We had some corporate derivatives work in London, but not someone with Vlad’s outstanding expertise who could really build a practice. His hire fits in with our general growth in London, and offers us the opportunity to triangulate: to do more work for these sorts of clients across practices with our private equity, financing, and private client teams.’
Maly also brings experience in cross-border work, and his practice at McDermott will see him collaborate with lawyers in the firm’s offices in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The firm is especially interested in building up in Asia, Yunis said, pointing to its April hire of former Baker McKenzie China practice head Peter Lu as a key boost in this area.
Firms were active in energy and infrastructure, too, with K&L Gates bringing over James Wyatt from boutique Avonhurst. Wyatt has experience in project finance and development, construction, commercial operations and M&A, with a focus on low-carbon and energy transition technologies.
In the same space, Hunton Andrews Kurth has hired energy finance and M&A specialist Philip Mace from Clyde & Co. In comments to Legal Business, Mace highlighted ‘the strength of Hunton’s energy practice and its commitment to the energy sector’ as key reasons for his move. ‘It’s very full-service’, he went on. ‘It’s strong on the corporate side, as well as in environmental and regulatory work.’
The firm aims to build its international practice, according to Mace. ‘How that will transpire, we’ll have to wait and see. But adding bench strength to the corporate and transactional side in London was certainly a priority, and that’s where I fit in.’
Overseas, Clifford Chance continued to expand its US presence with the hire of four partners in New York and Washington DC into its tech group. Violetta Kokolus joins from Ropes & Gray, and brings expertise in transactional work for both tech companies and tech-focused private equity clients. The firm will announce the further three hires in the coming weeks.
In New York, Simpson Thacher has brought Jennifer Albrecht into its alternative capital and private credit practice. Albrecht rejoins the firm after departing as an associate in 2017. Her most recent role was as deputy general counsel at SVB Capital.
Paul Hastings has expanded on the West Coast with the hire of white-collar and investigations partner Adam Fee, a former assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York’s criminal division.
Meanwhile, White & Case has launched its financial restructuring and insolvency practice in Sydney with the hires of Timothy Sackar and Jillian McAleese, both from Clayton Utz.
Finally, Charles Russell Speechlys gained a new head of international arbitration in Dubai-based Thomas Snider, who joins from local practice Al Tamimi & Co.
