It’s been a busy week for US firms in London as they continue to exercise their hiring power, with several lateral moves across private equity, IP and financial services.
Reed Smith has bolstered its corporate practice with the hire of private equity partner François Feuillat, who moves from Willkie Farr & Gallagher and works across the energy, infrastructure, industrial and technology sectors.
Discussing his move with Legal Business, Feuillat said: ‘There are a number of attractions [to Reed Smith]; the main one is the energy and infrastructure practice. I’ve seen Reed Smith do credible deals, particularly in renewable energy, so having that platform and lots of energy lawyers doing amazing work looked to me like a big opportunity to add to the private equity practice in that area.’
Commenting on market trends in the private equity space, he added: ‘The major trend that has been dominating, because of the imperative of investing in energy infrastructure due to climate change, is the amount of capital required for these investments, which is absolutely enormous.’
Meanwhile, Paul Weiss has lost the deputy head of its London office, Ramy Wahbeh, and corporate partner Kaisa Kuusk to Sidley Austin. Wahbeh and Kuusk will be joining the private equity and M&A practice at Sidley’s London office. Eight new partners have been added to Sidley’s London office in 2023 across a range of teams, including laterals James MacArthur, Ed Freeman, Philip Cheveley and Kieran Sharma.
Elsewhere, Linklaters has suffered a partner loss with Natalie Ellerby leaving to join Baker McKenzie in its intellectual property, technology and data practice. Ellerby advises on IP-critical acquisitions and disposals, as well as a range of IP-related disputes.
Baker McKenzie has made a considerable number of lateral partner hires recently into its London partnership. Banking and finance partners Anthony Kay, and Sarah Smith; intellectual property, technology and data partners Vinod Bange and Elizabeth Denham; corporate partners Ash Tiwari, Rakesh Rathod, and Andrew Hedges, and tax partners Jim Charlton and Miles Humphrey are also recent hires.
Financial services regulatory lawyer Joy Davey has left Macfarlanes for CMS. Davey will work with partners Angela Greenough, and Ash Saluja, alongside the wider team. Her practice focuses on regulated outsourcings by financial institutions.
‘We would love to really develop the regulatory outsourcing practice within CMS, focusing on the operational capability of regulatory firms, it would be great to grow the practice and bring in some wonderful clients on the journey with us,’ Davey told Legal Business.
Greenough added: ‘I joined CMS in 2019 to focus on regulated outsourcing. The proposition when I moved to CMS has been very well received by clients. With a successful and growing practice in those areas, we needed more expertise to help with that.’
Internationally, Akin Gump has hired Kirkland & Ellis alumni Tarun Warriar, who moves from alternative investment firm Värde Partners, where he was previously a managing director. Warriar will join Akin’s Hong Kong office as a partner in its special situations and private credit team. He advises on restructuring, investments, and contentious matters in both public and private markets.
Clifford Chance has recruited Holger Lutz to join its Frankfurt office. He will lead the firm’s tech and digital team in Germany. Lutz moves from Baker McKenzie, having previously led its IP tech team.
In Singapore, George Cyriac will join Morgan Lewis’ global corporate transactions team. He moves from Stephenson Harwood and advises on cross-border M&A and private equity transactions. He has previously acted for private equity funds, sovereign wealth funds, banks, state-owned enterprises and multinational companies.
Finally former Morgan Lewis partner, Robin Nunn, has joined Linklaters’ litigation, arbitration, and investigations practice in the US. She will work across the firm’s New York and Washington offices.
Holly.McKechnie@legalease.co.uk
