The lateral hiring market for December and January was once again dominated by Paul Weiss’ impressive recruitment efforts in the City, resulting in the Magic Circle stepping it up in the US. Meanwhile, White & Case has been on a hiring spree of late, bringing in several partners in key practice areas in numerous locations.
Paul Weiss
Paul Weiss has continued to build out its London offering, targeting top-tier talent from the Magic Circle. It has brought over Legal 500 private equity Leading Individual Christopher Sullivan, who led the UK private equity practice at Clifford Chance (CC). He has almost two decades of experience advising private equity and other financial investors on cross-border, multi-sector M&A and portfolio companies on general corporate matters, including acquisitions, disposals and management equity arrangements.
Along with Sullivan, the firm has welcomed CC acquisition finance partner Taner Hassan, joining as head of European leveraged finance. Recognised as a Leading Individual in The Legal 500, he represents borrowers and sponsors and has a particular emphasis on handling leveraged and infrastructure financings in both European and emerging market scenarios. His key clients include EQT and Cinven.
The firm has also added another string to its bow with the hire of public M&A partner Dan Schuster-Woldan from Linklaters. He brings with him experience in public and private M&A joint ventures, equity capital markets transactions – including substantive IPOs – as well as corporate restructurings. His cross-border work has included deals in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa.
Nicole Kar has joined Paul Weiss as global co-chair of the antitrust practice and partner in the litigation department. Recognised in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame for her expertise in competition law, Kar dedicated more than 20 years of her career to Linklaters, joining the firm in 2001 and most recently heading up its antitrust and foreign investment practice.
Specialising in EC and UK merger control and antitrust regulation, Kar has overseen over 40 merger control investigations worldwide. She serves as a key adviser to a diverse roster of financial institutions, retailers, mining groups, and healthcare operators on a range of global investigations.
Outside of the Magic Circle, Paul Weiss has also hired Ropes & Gray competition partner Annie Herdman. She has experience in multijurisdictional merger control and foreign investment strategy and filings, as well as in EU and UK cartel investigations and compliance. A Legal 500 Next Generation Partner in EU and competition, Herdman made partner at Kirkland in 2019 before moving to Ropes in March 2022. She joins Paul Weiss as London head of antitrust and foreign direct investment.
Magic Circle in the US
Despite some recent London losses, Linklaters has made a bold play with the hire of a six-lawyer M&A team from Shearman & Sterling in New York. Led by George Casey, the team also includes partners Heiko Schiwek and Gregory Gewirtz. Casey, who had been global managing partner at Shearman from 2018 up until his departure, joins Linklaters as its global co-chair of corporate, while Schiwek joins as one of Linklaters global chemical sector leaders.
Meanwhile, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has strengthened its antitrust practice in the US by bringing on board former Federal Trade Commissioner, Christine Wilson. She joins the firm’s Washington DC office as a senior adviser in its antitrust practice.
Freshfields has also recruited partner Steven Li to its M&A team in New York. Previously with Kirkland, Li brings expertise in advising on diverse M&A transactions for public and private companies, including domestic and cross-border deals, carve-outs, minority investments, and spin-offs.
The New York office also welcomed Cravath M&A partner Sanjay Murti to its corporate department. Leaving behind Cravath after nearly a decade, with the last two spent as a partner, Murti’s practice focuses on M&A, shareholder activism defence, corporate governance, and other corporate matters.
Freshfields also announced it would bring Deutsche Bank chief innovation officer Gil Perez into the firm as global chief innovation officer from April. Silicon Valley-based Perez has experience working with clients to assist them in adopting novel technologies, including generative AI.
White & Case
As mentioned in ‘White & Case: Global elite leader or missed opportunity?’ (LB317), the firm has had a notable influx of new hires which has continued apace into 2024.
White & Case saw the return of Patrick Sarch to its global M&A practice in London, where he will be head of UK public M&A. Sarch worked at White & Case between January 2017 and March 2021, moving to Hogan Lovells in March 2021, where he was co-head of the firm’s UK M&A practice. He advises on corporate finance as well as cross-border and domestic public company M&A.
The firm has also strengthened its global debt finance practice with the addition of Lauren Winter as a partner in London. Winter moves from Shearman and has worked previously at Paul Hastings and Allen & Overy (A&O). Specialising in cross-border and UK acquisition finance and restructuring, Winter advises on syndicated cov-lite financings, second-lien loan financings, unitranche financing, super-senior revolving credit facility and high-yield bond financings.
Speaking to Legal Business about her move, Winter said: ‘I’m excited to join White & Case and its strong and established debt finance team in London and the wider EMEA region. White & Case has built an outstanding, broad finance practice that spans bank lending, private credit and borrower finance, which is an ideal fit with the focus of my practice advising investment banks, alternative credit providers, corporate borrowers and private equity sponsors on a variety of acquisition financings and restructurings.’
For its white-collar practice, White & Case has recruited Macfarlanes corporate crime and investigations practice head Neill Blundell in London. A Legal 500 Hall of Famer, Blundell’s practice sees him advising both individuals and large corporates on a range of white-collar matters spanning from compliance to investigation.
White & Case has made two further London partner hires, bringing Stephen Shergold into its ESG and sustainability practice and Anthony Tama into its global capital markets practice. Shergold was a partner at Dentons and chair of the firm’s ESG steering group committee, while Tama joins from Cahill. Shergold is also in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame for environmental law.
Over in the US, the firm has hired Taurie Zeitzer, the former co-head of Paul Weiss’ M&A group in New York. Recognised as a leading lawyer by The Legal 500, Zeitzer will join White & Case as co-head of the global private equity industry group. Her key clients include private equity house Apollo Global Management where she advised on its $5.2bn acquisition of aluminium products maker Arconic last year.
Finally, in Germany, the firm has hired competition partner Ingo Brinker to its global antitrust practice. He will be based in Düsseldorf and moves from Gleiss Lutz. He advises on investigations, merger control, compliance programmes and litigation before the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, the European General Court and the German Federal Cartel Office and the German antitrust courts.
Elsewhere, there have been some significant partner hires in the corporate, banking and finance, white-collar crime, competition and arbitration practice groups.
Corporate
In the US, Baker McKenzie has welcomed partner Eric Schwartzman to head up its private equity practice in California, joining from Latham & Watkins. With 25 years’ experience, Schwartzman specialises in advising private equity sponsors and companies on corporate matters, including M&A, recapitalisations, restructurings, and joint ventures across various industries.
He told Legal Business: ‘Every company is a tech company, and every company is global. Bakers has a fantastic offering on both counts. The firm has a large M&A tech group that has developed over the past four years, and the global footprint is unparalleled. Now the firm is building up private equity and will continue to serve our clients globally. This was very attractive.’
Shearman has lost private equity and energy partner Sarah McLean to Willkie in Houston, ahead of its proposed merger with A&O in May. Leaving behind an almost six-year career at Shearman, McLean’s move strengthens Willkie’s corporate and financial services department and private equity group. She brings with her more than 20 years of experience advising private equity funds on high-profile deals in the energy space.
Speaking to LB about her move, she said: ‘I joined Willkie because of its funds and private equity practices and the energy team in Houston. In oil and gas, deal activity has been trending up and I would expect that to continue in the coming months.’
Banking and finance
Quinn Emanuel has made a significant move in London, hiring restructuring veteran David Ereira from Paul Hastings. In The Legal 500 Hall of Fame for corporate restructuring and insolvency, Ereira has a wealth of experience advising clients from governments to debtors, creditors, and investors on a wide range of insolvency and restructuring issues.
Meanwhile, Akin has hired London financial restructuring partner Jacqueline Ingram. Ingram has moved from Milbank and was previously at Cadwalader. Her clients include distressed investors, corporates, CLOs, and credit committees. Ingram specialises in downside protection, developing structures focused on maximising recoveries and preserving value. She also has experience advising on special situations financings and direct lending.
Baker McKenzie has welcomed back Richard Needham as a partner in its corporate reorganisations team. Needham, who had a tenure of almost 15 years at Baker McKenzie until 2021, had a brief interlude to join KPMG’s legal services arm as a partner. He brings with him experience advising clients on a range of reorganisations, including legal entity rationalisations, post-acquisition integrations, holding company restructurings and other transformations.
‘Baker McKenzie was the clear and obvious choice for me both to continue the development of my practice and to also further my personal development,’ he told Legal Business.
Latham has strengthened its private credit practice in London by adding two partners from Akin. Fergus Wheeler and Paul Yin joined Latham’s banking practice, having each spent less than ten months at their previous firm. The duo brings significant expertise in advising global private credit funds, direct lenders, commercial and investment banks, private equity sponsors, and corporate borrowers on diverse and intricate cross-border debt financing matters, with a specific emphasis on private credit transactions.
Meanwhile, Reed Smith has hired Linklaters capital markets partner Mark Drury into its financial industry group in London. Drury, a specialist in structured finance with experience advising on matters relating to fintech and crypto, told Legal Business that he has joined to help grow the firm’s collateralised loan obligations offering (CLO) in Europe.
Despite a tough year for global markets, Drury is optimistic: ‘The CLO market has seen a decline in new issuances this year as a result of macroeconomic headwinds, but there is a sense in the market that activity will pick up next year,’ he explained. ‘There is a lot of dry powder in the system and the global economy is showing positive signs due to interest rates beginning to stabilise.’
Disputes and regulatory
In London, Brown Rudnick has appointed Paul Feldberg as head of white-collar defence, investigations and compliance in the UK. Feldberg joins from US firm Jenner & Block, where he was a partner for five years and was co-chair of the firm’s national security sanctions and export control group and the bribery and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act group. Earlier in his career, Feldberg served as a senior prosecutor at the Serious Fraud Office.
‘My clients are predominantly large multinational corporations, so I look forward to collaborating with colleagues across practices on both sides of the Atlantic and leveraging Brown Rudnick’s strengths from M&A to brand and reputation management. Also, a lot of my clients are based in Europe or have to comply with regulations there, so it’s beneficial that London is Brown Rudnick’s European hub,’ said Feldberg.
Simpson Thacher has recruited Legal 500 international arbitration leading individual David Edwards from Skadden. Edwards will co-lead the firm’s European disputes practice alongside Tyler Robinson. The hire brings the London office to a total of five dispute partners: Edwards, Robinson, and antitrust specialists Antonio Bavasso, Ross Ferguson, and Étienne Renaudeau.