With recent financial results displaying the added bite of US firms in the City, it appears their approach to the lateral recruitment market will continue to be just as aggressive. Paul Hastings continued to signal its M&A ambitions with the hire of Steven Bryan from Hogan Lovells, while Latham & Watkins proved again it is one of the biggest predators of the City elite after hiring Linklaters insurance partner Victoria Sander.
For Paul Hastings, the hire of Bryan is of little surprise. The firm has made no secret of its ambition to strengthen in public M&A and private equity, as seen last spring with the hires of Roger Barron from Linklaters and private equity star Anu Balasubramanian from DLA Piper. The addition of Bryan, meanwhile, sees another highly-rated M&A practitioner leave for a US firm – an area widely considered the last bastion of the institutional City firms.
‘We’re always on the lookout for exceptional talent,’ Paul Hastings London chair Arun Birla (pictured) told Legal Business. ‘We’ve made no secret that we want to recruit in private equity, M&A and finance, and Steve is thought of very highly by his clients. We want to strengthen the areas in London that we are already strong in globally.’
There are signs the strategy is paying off after Paul Hastings enjoyed a strong 2018 in London. The firm increased its City revenue 14%, exceeding the 9% growth in global turnover, and profit per equity partner rose 12% to break the $3m mark.
‘We’ve made no secret that we want to recruit in private equity, M&A and finance.’
Arun Birla, Paul Hastings
Meanwhile, Latham & Watkins is showing no sign of slowing its approach in London either. Having been a Linklaters lifer, Sander’s departure will come as a blow; however, it forms the latest in a flurry of Magic Circle acquisitions for Latham. Last spring the Los Angeles-bred outfit convinced regulatory partner Carl Fernandes to make the same switch from Linklaters, while Allen & Overy and Clifford Chance also lost partners, with private equity stars Conrad Andersen and Brendan Moylan joining Latham.
Like Kirkland & Ellis, which at the start of the year added to its expensive collection of private equity partners with the acquisition of Adrian Maguire from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the allure of Latham remains clear. In March, the firm reported an 11% revenue hike to reach $3.386bn in global turnover for 2018, with $323m added to the firm’s top line. As a corporate insurance partner, Sander’s experience includes leading on Legal & General’s £1.1bn acquisition of Vickers Group Pension Scheme.
Clearly the aggressive approach of US firms in the lateral market continues to contribute significantly to their standout financial performances in the City. And, unfortunately for the London elite, American firms are showing no sign of abandoning their assault.
- Slaughter and May chose Hong Kong again in March for a rare partner hire, with Jing Chen joining the firm from the Listing Division of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Chen rejoins having trained at Slaughters and leaving for a brief spell after joining the Listing Division on secondment in 2017.
- Mayer Brown also made a March move, strengthening its restructuring, bankruptcy and insolvency (RBI) practice after hiring DLA Piper duo Michael Fiddy and Amy Jacks. Fiddy will now lead the global RBI group alongside New York partner Brian Trust and Hong Kong-based partner John Marsden, while Jacks will co-lead the group in the UK.
- Crowell & Moring emboldened its London strategy by recruiting Squire Patton Boggs energy partner Robin Baillie. Baillie had been at Squires since 2014 and is the sixth Squires partner to join Crowell since the turn of the year.
- Legal Business 100 pacesetter Fieldfisher has added a construction and projects team from RPC, which saw two partners move to the firm. Dan Preston, RPC’s head of construction, joined Fieldfisher alongside David Thorne in addition to a team of five associates, one of which joins as partner. The team will primarily be based in the firm’s London office.
- Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) made a significant move with the hire of Clifford Chance (CC)’s director of its Africa group, Titus Edjua, bolstering WFW’s project finance capabilities. The move brings to an end a 12-year stint at CC for Edjua.
- In February, DAC Beachcroft secured the hire of Kirkland & Ellis partner Chris Wall to head up the firm’s banking team. It marks a rare departure for Kirkland, with Wall now set to be situated in London and Bristol for DAC.
- Reed Smith, meanwhile, hired Elle Todd from CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, where she led the firm’s digital and data offering. Todd focuses on data protection and technology deals, and had previously set up the media, data and technology practice in Asia for CMS.
For more on the approach of US firms in the City, see our Global London focus