Americas
A high volume of lateral moves took place as the summer drew to a close. WEIL GOTSHAL & MANGES, a firm plagued by partner-level defections in recent months, gained an experienced partner in early September with the hiring of Damian Ridealgh from Ashurst in New York. Ridealgh, previously a partner at Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, is an M&A and corporate finance partner and has a strong background in the UK’s financial markets, having worked at Ashurst in London prior to his move to New York in 2003.
Meanwhile, HOGAN LOVELLS in the first week of September bolstered its finance practice in New York with the hiring of Lewis Cohen as a partner. Cohen, previously a partner at Clifford Chance, has a specialty in capital markets transactions.
In yet another hire in the banking and finance area, MCGUIREWOODS gained Kay McNab, a highly experienced lawyer previously with competitor Winston & Strawn, as a partner based in Chicago. McNab advises underwriters and placement agents in domestic and cross-border secured and unsecured loan transactions and has extensive experience working with venture capital firms and with companies granting or receiving seed financings.
FRESHFIELDS BRUCKHAUS DERINGER made a decisive push at the beginning of September to broaden its stateside transactional platform, hiring Mitchell Presser as head of the firm’s U.S. M&A practice and James Douglas as head of its U.S. leveraged finance team. Presser’s background includes not only working as a partner at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, but also an executive role as a founding partner of private equity shop Paine & Partners. Douglas, a former head of the banking practice at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, is known for playing a crucial role in RJR Nabisco’s leveraged buyout and other headline-making deals.
In further M&A news, JONES DAY recruited Michael McGuinness and George Flemma as partners in New York. McGuinness is the former head of Shearman & Sterling’s Latin America M&A practice, and Flemma is the former executive counsel for M&A at General Electric as well as the former senior counsel for global M&A at Citigroup.
Washington D.C., also witnessed high-level lateral moves, as SCHIFF HARDIN brought aboard Kenneth McCracken, a former Commodity Futures Trading Commission attorney, as a partner in the firm’s financial markets and products group, while CROWELL & MORING launched an Israel practice, appointing Samuel Feigin, who joined the firm from Nixon Peabody in April 2014, as practice chair. The new practice group will specialise in cross-border deals involving Israeli clients active in the tech, energy, media, life sciences, defence, cybersecurity, and other sectors. Also in Washington, TROUTMAN SANDERS lured Kurt Jacobs from Sidley Austin. Jacobs comes to Troutman as of counsel in the firm’s energy practice.
Another high-level energy sector move took place in Canada, as CASSELS BROCK hired mining and energy lawyer David Redford as a Vancouver-based lawyer in the firm’s securities and corporate finance division. Redford, previously with Goodmans, specialises in M&A, capital markets, and finance transactions with a natural resources component.
Asia/Pacific
It’s been a busy month on the lateral hires front in Asia-Pacific. In Hong Kong we have seen early signs of horse trading as KIRKLAND & ELLIS recruited leading Asia restructuring lawyer Neil McDonald and Damien Coles - one of the region's rising stars - from competitor Hogan Lovells in Hong Kong. In return HOGAN LOVELLS strengthened its corporate practice with its second corporate hire this year with the hire of partner Steven Tran from Kirkland & Ellis.
As competition law continues to develop in Hong Kong and China, BAKER & MCKENZIE bolstered its offering in Hong Kong by hiring competition partner Stephen Crosswell from Clifford Chance. It also brought in employment partner Rowan McMonnies from Linklaters.
ASHURST has strengthened its Asia-Pacific restructuring practice with a partner hiring spree from O’Melveny & Myers and one from White & Case. Bertie Mehigan joined Ashurst’s Hong Kong banking and finance team and relocates from O’Melveny & Myers’s Singapore office. Corporate partner Joel Hogarth joins as a senior foreign legal consultant with Ashurst's associated Indonesian firm - Oentoeng Suria & Partners (OSP).
Ipop Nawangsari also joined OSP as a partner in its energy, resources and infrastructure practice, and Debby Sulaiman, joined as an expert in dispute resolution, bankruptcy and restructuring. Ashurst also hired Anne-Marie Slot, White & Case’s principal Asia high yield and debt capital markets partner to work alongside another recent Ashurst hire, capital markets partner Nigel Pridmore, who left Linklaters four months earlier.
OSP is not the only foreign firm-tied local outfit that has seen expansion. Clifford Chance’s Indonesian associate firm, LINDA WIDYATI & PARTNERS (LWP) hired finance partner Arisia Pusponegoro from local firm Lubis Ganie Surowidjojo. In Singapore, private equity expert Mae Shan Chong joined JONES DAY from White & Case.
Finally, it has been a busy month in India as partner Amit Manubarwala left Wadia Ghandy & Co for ECONOMICLAWS PRACTICE (ELP) in Mumbai after joining Wadia’s partnership in 2012.
Elsewhere New Delhi-based Trilegal M&A counsel Sameer Guha assumed the role of India legal counsel at FMCG group Mars International India, while co-founder of Clasis Law, Sakate Khaitan, broke away from the firm with three senior associates, forming KHAITAN LEGAL ASSOCIATES (KLA). The corporate and litigation firm will have offices in Mumbai and London. The senior associates, now co-founding partners, are Satyendra Shrivastava who is overseeing the London office, and Sangeeta Jhunjhunwala and Radhika Iyer who sit in Mumbai.
Another partner who moved away from his firm is capital markets specialist Sumes Dewan formerly with Desai & Diwanji (D&D). The one time head of D&D’s Delhi office has now started up a new legal service outfit, LEX FAVIOS, with 14 other attorneys. Partners Indranil Ghosh and Sandeep Menon join him.
Europe, Middle East and Africa
In London the most active firm in the past month turned out to be JONES DAY, the U.S. firm has been steadily adding to its ranks for the past year but late summer saw a flurry of hires across the finance and corporate teams. Arguably the most high profile addition was that of high yield specialist Jonathan Bloom who joined the team from Ropes & Gray. Recognised as a ‘Leading Lawyer’ in the IFLR1000, Bloom is New York qualified and had been one of the founding members of Ropes & Gray’s London base in 2009. Joining him at Jones Day are M&A specialist Benedict O’Halloran who moved from an in-house position at GE and structured finance and securitisation partner Neil Hamilton (another ‘Leading Lawyer’) who made the switch from Paul Hastings.
A few weeks prior to Bloom’s move another high-yield partner was on the move in the form of Gil Strauss as the Weil Gotshal partner re-joined SIMPSON THACHER & BARTLETT at the end of August. Strauss had only been with Weil since 2012 having moved from Freshfields and then had only joined the ‘magic-circle’ firm in 2010 from Simpson Thacher.
Other City moves in the last four weeks include ROPES & GRAY’S capture of Travers Smith private equity partner Phil Sanderson, ANDREWS KURTH’s hire of oil and gas specialist John Conlin from Norton Rose Fulbright; EVERSHEDS’ addition of Pinsent Masons M&A partner Alison Starr; BROWNE JACOBSON’s appointment of projects partner Stephen Matthew from Nabarro; and REED SMITH’s swoop for Allen & Overy real estate finance partner Francisca Sepúlveda.
There has been an exodus from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Amsterdam office this month, especially in its M&A team. The first move saw the experienced Robert ten Have, an equity capital markets and M&A partner, join boutique firm RUTGERS & POSCH. Having been in practice for more than 20 years, and been with Freshfields for more than nine years, his departure represents a significant loss of knowledge and experience for the team. He was followed by M&A partner Richard Norbius, who moved to EY (Ernst & Young) to be part of its global law leadership team. Again, his leaving represents a significant loss of experience as he has been active as a lawyer in the Netherlands, along with secondments to New York, for more than 30 years and had been a partner with the firm since 1999.
Counsel Cristine Brinkman, also from the M&A practice, was the third person to say goodbye to the team when she left to work with OSBORNE CLARK. These three departures are just the latest blow to the Dutch M&A team which also saw the departure of partner Alexander Doorman in late 2013 to the firm’s Beijing office.
As befits the summer period, the French market has been sparing with news of moves over the past month but among the few announcements that were made there were some significant changes to CLIFFORD CHANCE’s team. In early September the firm hired Fabrice Cohen, a leading private equity and M&A partner, from Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Cohen joined Willkie two years ago from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Moving with him are counsel Gabriel Flandin and senior associate Basma Paradin. At the same time the firm announced its recruitment of U.S. capital markets partner Alex Bafi from the London office of Herbert Smith Freehills.
Another notable lateral hire came in the form of corporate partner Benoît Charrière-Bournazel, who left for DS AVOCATS in early September after two years with CBR & Associés. He was previously part of the team that launched the Debevoise & Plimpton Paris office.
In Germany, August saw HERBERT SMITH FREEHILLS make its seventh partner hire since launching in the country last April, when it recruited Freshfields former energy co-head, Dirk Hamann. Elsewhere in Central Europe, following on from Hogan Lovells's decision to pull out of the Czech Republic earlier this year, one notable hire last month saw WEINHOLD LEGAL recruit Hogan Lovells’ last remaining partner in Prague, and its former managing partner for the office, Miroslav Dubovský, a corporate specialist. In Poland, Gessel lost M&A specialist Ewa Szlachetka, who departed for WIERZBOWSKI EVERSHEDS where she will head up the firm’s Polish M&A team. Elsewhere CMS added to its finance capacity with the addition of banking and finance specialist Tomasz Zwolinski who will head the project finance practice.
Ukraine’s challenging economic climate caused another international firm to announce it would be closing its doors in the country’s capital last month. Following on from the exits of German firms Noerr and Beiten Burkhardt, which both left in Kiev in the last 13 months, CHADBOURNE & PARKE has also decided to call time on its Ukrainian operation. DENTONS was the first firm to benefit from the U.S. outfit’s decision, hiring experienced corporate partner Adam Mycyk for its office in the city.
A further notable development in Kiev was the departure of five of Vasil Kisil & Partners’ 11 partners. Anna Babych, Yulia Kyrpa, the firm’s former banking and finance head, Denis Lysenko, previously in charge of the corporate and M&A teams, Oleksandr Mamunya and Mariya Nizhnik resigned to launch a new firm AEQUO. The split was attributed to a differing of opinions on taking the firm forward.
In something of a rarity for the Turkish market, there were two significant moves in Istanbul this month. The first saw Müge Koyutürk Tansel join GEN TEMIZER ÖZER from her position as an in-house counsel with the Fiba Group, a Turkish investment company. She had previously worked for two of the leading Turkish law firms so brings with her a range of experience. The second move saw a firm-to-firm change with Selen İbrahimoğlu Güreş taking up the managing partner role at ÖZBEK ATTORNEYS. She joins the team from Cerrahoğlu where she had been since 1999 and had been a partner since 2007.
In Saudi Arabia, LATHAM & WATKINS hired corporate partner Sami Al-Louzi from Vinson & Elkins, which has been scaling back its Middle East operation for more than a year. He will work across the firm’s Riyadh and Dubai offices, focussing on cross border M&A and equity capital markets deals in the region.
CLYDE & CO bulked up its Middle East Islamic finance offering last month, hiring Herbert Smith Freehills partner Adil Hussain, who specialises in advising banks on structuring and developing shariah-compliant products, in Abu Dhabi. Hussain’s departure leaves his old firm with only one partner in the country’s capital.
Egypt has had a turbulent year with Trowers & Hamlins’ exit from the market in January 2014, which resulted inlocal partner Sara Hinton moving to local independent Ibrachy & Partners. In July 2014 Sarie-Eldin & Partners then lost two partners when Hossam Omar and Motaz Eldreny both left. In September it then emerged that MATOUK BASSIOUNY had signed an agreement to hire Helmy Hamza & Partners/Baker & McKenzie M&A partner and rising star Tamer El Hennawy.
In Kenya, September saw the merger between Hamilton Harrison & Matthews and Oraro & Company go live. The merger of two of the market’s biggest firms is big news. The new outfit will be named HHM ORARO and led by managing partner Adil Khawaja.
There have also been a couple of announcements affecting the Africa-bench of international law firms. Among these, BRACEWELL & GIULIANI’s energy focused London office welcomed Matthew Mulqueen as of counsel from Clifford Chance. Over the past six years Mulqueen has been advising Vestas Wind Systems on the 300MW Lake Turkana Wind Project in Kenya.
In South Africa there was one move this month, which saw Lionel Shawe depart from Bowman Gilfillan. Rumours abound as to his next move but as yet there has been no confirmation from the experienced mining finance lawyer.