Corporate partner Peter Baldwin joins the City outfit from Ropes & Gray
Traditionally reticent to engage in the lateral recruitment market, Macfarlanes has continued its recent flurry of hires, this time recruiting special situations and corporate partner Peter Baldwin from Ropes & Gray.
Baldwin focuses on advising credit funds and the special situations investing groups at global banks. He had until recently spearheaded Ropes’ special situations practice, while prior to that he had spells at Jones Day, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Slaughter and May. Baldwin will be working across Macfarlanes’ debt finance, tax, insolvency, pensions and corporate teams in his new role.
‘Our basic position is that we grow organically. We made up a record number of partner candidates this year.’ Charles Martin, Macfarlanes
‘We’ve known Peter for a long time and been across the table from him on multiple occasions so knew he would be a good fit with us,’ Macfarlanes senior partner Charles Martin (pictured) told Legal Business. ‘He is an extremely experienced and able practitioner with a loyal client following. His focus on special situations funds is an area that is naturally adjacent to our core private equity practice and one that we expect to be busy over the coming years.’
Baldwin joins a firm that continues to enjoy a strong showing. In 2017/18, Macfarlanes upped revenue 20% to £201.6m and posted a striking 27% increase in profit per equity partner to reach £1.74m. The results see the firm notch an eighth successive year of revenue and profit growth.
However, despite the strong financials, Macfarlanes rarely makes lateral hires. Over the last ten years, it has hired just 14 partners, but three of those have come since the start of 2019. Most significantly, Robert Ogilvy Watson joined after quitting Ashurst in February, with Macfarlanes citing a desire to strengthen its public M&A offering as the primary motivation for the move. However, many feel this desire to strengthen came following the departure of highly-rated M&A partner Graham Gibb, who retired last year, with Ogilvy Watson primed to fill the gap.
Also in February, Macfarlanes hired Charles Russell Speechlys private client property partner Ian Cooke. The move came as former Macfarlanes private client property partner, Tristan Ward, departed to join BDB Pitmans. Macfarlanes suggests recent moves are partly due to timing rather than a significant change in strategy, with the firm enjoying a spell during its economic cycle that makes such moves more compelling.
‘Our basic position is that we grow organically. We made up a record number of internal partner candidates this year,’ Martin continued. ‘Incidentally, all but one of those candidates trained at the firm, so our view in terms of partnership is long term. Having said that, if we see exceptional talent in the lateral market, we will consider it. Our decisions on laterals are a mix of opportunistic and strategic.’