Ongoing talk of a merger with Hogan Lovells has prompted an exodus from Shearman & Sterling, with the departure of EMEA and Asia M&A head Philip Cheveley to Sidley Austin one of the headline moves in the London market in recent weeks.
The blow to Shearman will be even more keenly felt since the move represents a reversal for one of its stated ambitions to focus on corporate, and because Cheveley only joined from Travers Smith less than two years ago, in March 2021.
After hiring new global restructuring group leader Stephen Hessler into its New York office from Kirkland & Ellis in July 2022, Sidley also expanded its restructuring practice in London with the rehire of partner Kieran Sharma. Sharma, who previously spent three years at Sidley as a senior associate, joins from global investment firm Strategic Value Partners (SVP), and brings expertise in cross-border restructurings and distressed investment.
Sharma explained his move to Legal Business in the context of an expected increase in restructuring work into 2023. ‘As we see increasing headwinds on a global scale as the cycle begins to turn, Sidley’s global restructuring group is ideally placed to service the full range of stakeholders across the capital structure.’
This sentiment was shared by Helena Potts, who joined Paul Hastings’ London insolvency and restructuring team in another departure from Shearman. ‘Restructuring has been quite quiet but the market looks set to turn.’
‘Brexit has made UK antitrust enforcement far more important – you need more than just Brussels.’ Mike Cowie, Dechert
Potts was one of several partners to come to the firm this year, following the headline-grabbing moves of Linklaters’ former infrastructure co-heads Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson, as well as high-yield specialist Alexander Horstmann-Caines, who followed the path trodden by former colleagues Patrick Bright and Morgan Bale in leaving Weil, Gotshal & Manges for Paul Hastings.
Restructuring was also a focus for Charles Russell Speechlys, which hired restructuring and insolvency specialist Alison Goldthorp from Norton Rose Fulbright into its litigation and dispute resolution practice in early February.
Roger Elford, head of Charles Russell Speechlys’ insolvency and restructuring team, echoed market sentiment: ‘The team sees an uptick in work in this area in 2023 in light of the increasing headwinds facing businesses, including the rise in interest rates, the energy crisis, and the effects of supply chain delays and recruitment challenges post-pandemic and post-Brexit.’
Shearman was not the only firm that suffered losses in the early weeks of this year. Once a rare phenomenon, exits from Travers Smith have gathered pace recently, with a spate of departures to more profitable US rivals. In January, Stephanie Biggs was hired to co-lead Simpson Thacher’s European financial services and funds regulatory team. Then in February, the firm announced the hires of Ed Ford and Sacha Gofton-Salmond. Partners at Travers since July 2021 and July 2022, respectively, Ford and Gofton-Salmond will bring to Simpson Thacher capabilities in the sought-after private equity secondaries market.
Jason Glover (pictured), managing partner of Simpson Thacher’s London office and head of its European funds team, signalled the firm’s confidence in the continued expansion of the secondaries market, after total transactions reached a new record of $57bn in 2022, according to Jefferies’ global secondary market review. ‘Secondaries have grown in popularity in recent years,’ he said, ‘and we expect that their use will continue to grow in a wide variety of private equity strategies.’
In addition to its losses to Simpson Thacher, Travers also saw respected private equity head Ian Shawyer leave for Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Jessica Kemp for White & Case. Kemp headed Travers’ M&A tax team since September 2022 after making partner at the firm in 2015.
Elsewhere, Dechert announced its hire of four antitrust partners and one counsel from Orrick. Douglas Lahnborg joined the London office with Saira Henry, who was a senior associate at Orrick, while John Jurata joined in Washington DC and Russell Cohen and counsel Howard Ullman joined in San Francisco.
With these hires, Dechert has established a dedicated London-based competition offering for the first time, with Lahnborg and Henry set to work closely with lawyers in the US and across Europe, as well as with others in London who handle antitrust work arising from areas such as white-collar defence and investigations. ‘We’re meeting a strategic need,’ global antitrust and competition group co-chair Mike Cowie explained. ‘Brexit has made UK antitrust enforcement far more important – you need more than just Brussels. You need a strong presence in London, you need depth. And Saira and Douglas bring that.’
Lahnborg and Henry each have particular expertise in the tech sector, including in cutting-edge areas such as cloud computing and AI. Lahnborg highlighted this aspect of his practice in conversation with Legal Business. ‘With this team, we’re particularly focused on technology. A lot of the enforcement activity we see in the US, in Brussels, and increasingly in the UK, is around tech. It just keeps generating market studies and investigations.’
In another departure from Orrick, European syndicated lending and direct lending specialist Anthony Kay moved to Baker McKenzie. Made up to the partnership at Orrick in 2020, Kay brings additional breadth to Baker McKenzie’s leveraged finance offering.
‘We add Anthony to a strong bench of banking and finance partners,’ New York and London-based capital markets partner Rob Mathews asserted. ‘His hire plays well into our broader complementary private equity and leveraged finance strategies.’
‘Secondaries have grown in popularity in recent years and we expect that their use will continue to grow in a wide variety of private equity strategies.’
Jason Glover, Simpson Thacher
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) also made moves in leveraged finance, picking up Ambarish Dash from Kirkland, where he spent more than four years developing his experience in debt finance. Dash highlighted HSF’s ‘strategic focus on private capital investment’, which he said made the move ‘a very good opportunity for someone like me to build my practice’.
Simmons & Simmons was active in asset management, hiring David Hicks from Charles Russell Speechlys and Alexander Keepin from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP). Keepin headed BCLP’s mining team since 2011, and will work closely at Simmons with UK energy, natural resources, and infrastructure head Iain Duncan and corporate partner Isabella Roberts. Hicks, meanwhile, adds to the firm’s bench strength in fintech, crypto, and digital assets.
‘The lateral hires reflect the growing nature of our business,’ UK company and commercial group head Arthur Stewart told Legal Business, ‘and both fit well within our sector focus.’ They are also ‘the tip of the iceberg’, as Simmons continues to both recruit and promote internally.
In January, DWF appointed Deepa Deb as global head of development and investment in its real estate practice. Deb joined from Dentons, where she was head of real estate for the last three years, and hers is the latest in a series of hires that have seen DWF build out its full-service real estate offering, even as many in the market brace for a slowdown.
Finally, Mishcon de Reya continued to grow after completing its tie-up with Taylor Vinters on 1 January, bringing M&A veteran Nigel Stacey into its corporate team from Baker Botts.