Sidley Austin has hired a private equity team to its Los Angeles and Washington DC offices.
The team consists of partners Mehdi Khodadad, Josh DuClos and Eric Kauffman, as well as several associates.
All three partners will be based in Sidley's Century City, Los Angeles office.
The team is led by Khodadad, who is recognised as a 'Notable practitioner' by IFLR1000.
"With Sidley, I was truly impressed by the strength of not just the global platform but the caliber of the leadership team, their strategic focus and commercial-minded approach to becoming a leading player in the PE market," Khodadad said about the decision to join his new firm.
"My team had the opportunity to join any law firm platform, but we are convinced Sidley is truly best positioned, both strategically and culturally, to truly create a world class PE practice focused on serving the premium middle market while also maintaining a firm culture that fosters being and doing good to each other."
The Los Angeles market has been incredibly active recently, with particular attention paid to the area's burgeoning Silicon Beach technology sector.
"Based on the current market and trends, transactions both for PE sponsors and across PE, especially in the TMT sectors (technology, media and telecom), represent an ever increasing share of the transactions in the market," Khodadad said about how the market has been changing.
"With the focus on TMT, law firms have all recognised the strategic importance of having a competitive PE offering, and especially in the California market, with its large concentration of TMT companies and related investors. In the Los Angeles market especially, there really is a need for market leaders, especially focused on the premium middle market."
Accompanying the local market's increase in PE transcations has been an increase in local demand for legal services, contributing to several firms' recent decisions to make headline lateral hires or open new offices in metropolitan Los Angeles.
Asked about the significance of these developments and their future bearing on the Los Angeles legal market, Khodadad replied that, "We will continue to see consolidation in LA as law firms juggle for leadership in a fragmented market. The moves you are seeing in the LA market are only indicative of how law firms that move swiftly and strategically in seizing market opportunities will position themselves well for success."
"I have tremendous respect for Sidley’s leadership team in their strategic moves in the Los Angeles and larger California market, and we will continue to see the dividends of that commercial foresight in the years to come," Khodadad concluded.