US firm returns to King & Wood Mallesons to staff Paris offering
The first quarter of this year has proved slow for many private equity (PE) practices in Europe but this has not deterred Goodwin Procter from recruiting in France.
Within a year of setting up a PE practice in London, Goodwin has opened a Paris office to build a French PE and M&A platform. The launch saw the firm return to King & Wood Mallesons (KWM)’s partnership for the second time in 12 months, picking six partners to move to Goodwin in Paris.
KWM Paris managing partner and co-head of corporate Christophe Digoy – who has headed the office since 2012 – will join Goodwin, alongside partners Maxence Bloch, Jérôme Jouhanneaud, Thomas Maitrejean, Pierre-Louis Sévegrand and William Robert. The team previously worked at Clifford Chance in Paris and joined SJ Berwin in 2003/04, which later merged with KWM in 2013.
While the team will initially focus on getting its PE offering up and running, the office would likely need to invest in a finance and tax capability to optimise its service.
The new base in Paris comes six months after the firm announced it was setting up shop in Frankfurt, after poaching four of Ashurst’s six Frankfurt property partners to establish a real estate capital markets platform.
‘Our next step was to build a mirror image in Germany. But Paris presented an opportunity and we took it.’
David Evans, Goodwin Procter
Goodwin London office chair David Evans said: ‘After building London, our next step was to build a mirror image in Germany, creating an offering that comprises capital markets, real estate and private equity, with some tax and funds. But life never happens in a linear way. Paris presented an opportunity and we took it.’
The US firm has been in London for eight years and initially focused on expanding its US real estate capital markets capability and fund formation practice in Europe. It has served clients like GreenOak, Angelo, Gordon & Co and Ares Management. The office has since grown to house 31 fee-earners, including 11 partners.
The firm is gearing up to relocate to 100 Cheapside in the City, doubling its current office space, at the end of this year, amid plans to expand further. In April 2015, Goodwin hired KWM City corporate co-head Richard Lever as it planned to build a substantial team with a proven track record in the City PE space, with Lever having acted for the likes of ECI Partners, Graphite Capital, Investcorp and Lion Capital.
Evans said: ‘One of the beauties of the mid-market private equity space is that it’s partner-focused as opposed to institutional. Hitching our wagon to our US horse has lent to our ability to attract business in Europe.’
jaishree.kalia@legalease.co.uk