Sidley Austin’s London office made a major play last week with the hire of two prominent energy infrastructure and private equity partners from Weil, Gotshal & Manges. James MacArthur has joined the firm’s global energy, transportation and infrastructure practice and will be followed shortly by his Weil colleague Ed Freeman.
MacArthur is ranked as a Legal 500 ‘Leading Individual’ in corporate and M&A and acts for corporate and PE sponsors on both European and global deals.
MacArthur explained his decision to join Sidley to Legal Business: ‘I am excited to join Sidley’s expanding global energy, transportation and infrastructure practice, which works in tandem with its established world-class private equity practice, to support clients in the infrastructure space.’ MacArthur added: ‘Investors continue to look for opportunities to invest, despite the uncertain economic environment, and Sidley has a deep bench strength and knowledge of the sectors they are looking to invest in.’
Freeman advises on disposals, co-investments, cross-border acquisitions, equity investments and other financial sponsor related transactions, with a particular specialism in infrastructure.
Elsewhere, Philip Linton has been appointed as a partner to Ashurst’s London disputes and investigations practice. Before joining Ashurst, Linton was a managing director at Goldman Sachs and was the leader of its EMEA litigation and contentious regulatory team.
Speaking to Legal Business, Tom Connor, EMEA head of dispute resolution at Ashurst, said: ‘Building out our disputes and investigations capability remains a strategic focus for Ashurst. Our team has grown substantially in recent years and has been acting on a range of large cases, investigations and arbitrations. Philip’s arrival, together with other recent senior partner hires such as Nathan Willmott, Anna Morfey, Arne Fuchs and Martin Eimer, reflects the firm’s ambitions in this area. Philip is a very highly regarded and well known practitioner who brings a deep experience of the financial services markets from his time at Goldman Sachs.’
Meanwhile, Latham & Watkins has hired Simon Pritchard to its London antitrust and competition practice. Pritchard was previously a partner at Linklaters and specialises in advising on merger control matters, conduct inquiries, cases before the Competition Appeal Tribunal and market investigations.
Jacques-Philippe Gunther, vice-chair of Latham’s global antitrust and competition practice told Legal Business: ‘This is a time of significant growth for Latham’s antitrust practice, and the addition of Simon further strengthens our UK and EU competition offering. Against a backdrop of increased regulatory scrutiny, we are excited to have Simon on board as we continue to support clients on their most complex, cross-border transactions.’
In other moves, Pinsent Masons had a busy week with two hires to its London office. Graham Coop has joined from Volterra Fietta and will co-lead Pinsent’s investor-state dispute settlement and public law team, alongside Sylvia Tonova, who also recently joined the firm from Jones Day.
Speaking to Legal Business, Coop explained the rationale for his move: ‘Companies, states and international organisations are increasingly feeling the pressures of geopolitical volatility and unsurprisingly, we’re seeing a sharp increase in the number of international disputes including investor-state arbitrations. Pinsent Masons offers the ideal multinational and collaborative platform on which to develop my international legal practice.’
Additionally, the firm’s TMT team has hired partner Eleanor Ludlam. Moving from DAC Beachcroft, Ludlam advises on privacy litigation, cyber and data risk matters. David McIlwaine, head of Pinsent Masons’ global cyber practice told Legal Business: ‘Ellie’s arrival represents a key milestone in Pinsent Masons’ strategy of consolidating and developing its cyber practice. She will complement and expand upon our existing relationships in the cyber insurance market. Ellie was seconded into a major insurer, understands the industry and holds excellent relationships across the main cyber carriers. Ellie is expert in guiding organisations through the crisis of a cyber event, including through the remedies that are available through the Courts.’
Meanwhile, Gowling WLG has appointed Matthew Poole and Paul Shaw from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner as partners in its London tax offering.
Poole has advised on property and corporate taxation in the context of disposals, development, real estate finance, acquisitions, property funds, joint ventures and cross-border investment structures. His previous clients have included REITs, sovereign wealth funds, developers and institutional investors. Prior work highlights include advising Canary Wharf and Qatari Diar on the development of the Shell Centre site on the South Bank in London.
Shaw also advises on matters involving property and corporate taxation. He brings to Gowling experience handling tax issues relating to investment funds and corporate transactions. Previous work has included the £350m sale of Burlington Arcade.