Berwin Leighton Paisner has made a double hire to start a US securities group in the City, hiring former Proskauer Rose partner Katherine Mulhern and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) director Bobby Schrader.
Mulhern and Schrader, who both join BLP as partners, will provide US securities advice crucial to the firm’s M&A, funds and structured debt offerings and represent a step-forward for the firm in building its corporate finance practice.
Schrader started at the firm after a decade working for BAML. During that time Schrader has had stints as counsel to the EMEA equity capital markets division and the global research business in London. He leaves the investment bank after having climbed to be assistant general counsel and director.
Mulhern, who will join the firm on 1 September, has stayed in private practice and brings experience of building US securities practices. She helped to establish Hogan Lovells’ EMEA US securities practice in the late 2000s and co-founded Proskauer Rose’s European capital markets practice in 2012.
Mulhern, who was of counsel at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer before making partner by moving to Hogan Lovells, counts the London Stock Exchange and investment banks JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch as clients. She is currently acting as interim executive director at the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa after departing Proskauer Rose after just two years in January.
The duo, who take the number of corporate finance partners at the firm to 27, bring a book of contracts across the City’s investment banking outfits as BLP seeks to ramp up its coverage of underwriters executing transactions. The hires follow the firm’s appointment of financial regulation specialist Martin Sandler, who spent 10 years as head of the legal team at BAML on the advisory and public sell side.
Lisa Mayhew, managing partner at BLP, said: ‘There is a small pool of talented individuals in this particular marketplace but in Bobby and Katherine we have two people of high calibre with diverse experiences that give us the ability to advise clients at every level of the value chain in respect of capital market transactions in London.’
Mulhern added: ‘With the solid foundation already in place at BLP, I will look to strengthen existing relationships, bring in new contacts to the firm, and with the strong ECM team already in place, win additional work.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk
