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‘This is a wake-up call’ – what the insider trading scandal means for elite law firms

This week’s news that lawyers at some of the most prestigious firms in the US were involved in a decade-long insider trading scheme has raised questions over the safeguards firms have in place to protect client confidentiality and sensitive deal information.

According to an indictment released by the US Department of Justice this week, a total of 30 individuals have been charged in connection with the scheme – which prosecutors allege centred on the misuse of market-sensitive M&A information – and 19 have been arrested.

The indictment does not name the firms; however, the M&A deals cited in the breach indicate the involvement of lawyers who worked at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Latham & Watkins and Goodwin.

According to DOJ prosecutors, New York lawyer Nicolo Nourafchan – who from 2013 to 2023 worked at law firms including Latham and Goodwin – sat at the heart of the scheme, accessing, as part of a wider network of lawyers, non-public information relating to pending acquisitions and providing it to traders in exchange for ‘kickbacks’.

One example cited in the indictment was Amazon’s proposed $1.7bn acquisition of iRobot in 2022, on which Goodwin advised the seller.

At the time, Nourafchan was employed by Goodwin, and, according to the indictment, ‘while on a ‘leave of absence’ from the firm, viewed confidential materials related to the deal.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Goodwin said: ‘We are deeply disappointed that a former employee is alleged to have violated the trust placed in him and misused confidential information as part of a broader criminal scheme affecting multiple law firms and their clients. We have been cooperating and continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement.’

A spokesperson for Latham added: ‘The former associate charged today has not been associated with our firm for five years, and the conduct as alleged would reflect a serious violation of our robust policies and procedures.’

‘It is reasonable to ask whether the apple barrel had cracks in it’

While the firms are not named explicitly in the indictment, the case raises broader questions around compliance, confidentiality and the reputational impact on law firms.

Market observers suggest this was a situation firms were always at risk of being exposed to. ‘There is so much information that people are privy to, with no oversight, and no punishment,’ they said. ‘Everyone knows what is going on, even the receptionists.’

Michael Evans, co-managing director at reputation consultancy Byfield, sums up the scale of the challenge facing law firms.

‘You can have really good systems in place, but if people are determined to circumvent processes and systems they will find ways,’ he says.

But he is quick to highlight both the scale and duration of the alleged crime. ‘This was not one moment of weakness. It spans a decade and roughly 30 deals. That can’t be explained away as one bad apple. It is reasonable to ask whether the apple barrel had cracks in it.’

The law firms implicated have been quick to respond, a move Evans sees as vital in damage limitation.

‘Anyone who thinks they might be touched should be getting ahead of conversations. A good first principle of stakeholder management is when you have a known issue you pick up the phone to key institutions,’ he says. ‘Transparency and speed regarding client and media questions about data security is key.’

Wachtell issued a statement on the day, stating that ‘the former employee’ of the firm implicated in the case ‘has not been associated with the firm for over six years and the transaction involved dates back to 2019.’

But image control after the fact is one thing. One market insider noted that the incident is unlikely to be isolated, suggesting a broader culture of weak compliance controls within law firms. 

‘The fact that this type of activity has been widely rumoured in the market for years, and that law firms don’t take it seriously, suggests there is significant opportunity for this to happen,’ they say.

‘Firms will be trying to damp down the feeling that it is endemic behaviour at their specific law firm,’ they add. ‘But I doubt they are doing anything to ensure it doesn’t happen, or looking for evidence. Hear no evil, see no evil.’

‘It shows there is a systemic question to answer’

Barry Vitou, the head of HFW’s global investigations and white-collar team, says the scale of the indictment offers an indication that insider trading remains firmly within the DOJ’s enforcement focus.

Referring to a DOJ memo released at the beginning of President Trump’s second term, which outlined the prioritisation of ‘urgent threats’ to US security – including cartels, international money-laundering and digital asset fraud – Vitou said: ‘Some people thought that meant a lesser focus on more traditional white-collar offences, like insider trading.’

However, the case shows that the DOJ remained ‘active and focused’ on insider trading investigations,’ he said.

One legal market observer added a further dimension, highlighting the Trump administration’s sustained attack on law firms. 

‘Even if the reputational damage is deserved, the way this administration has conducted itself in the past will cause people to question the credibility of what the DOJ is saying. It has damaged its credibility greatly in the way it has tried to prosecute the President’s perceived enemies.’

Evans adds: ‘There is always a political dimension to which cases get pushed up to surface. This doesn’t change the fact that if wrongdoing is found, it shows there is a systemic question to answer,’ he says.

‘A wake-up call’

Longer term, reputational fallout will likely be limited, Evans believes.

‘Firms are remarkably resilient, but that is highly dependent on trusted relationships as well as outcomes,’ he says. ‘We might see clients asking for stronger contractual protections around data security, but they are unlikely to change firms.’

But he also sounds a note of caution. ‘If proven in court, this was a large-scale criminal enterprise running in parallel inside some of the most prestigious legal establishments in the world.’

‘That is a wake-up call.’

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Revolving Doors: US firms lead hiring as White & Case, Cleary, McDermott build across Europe

The London and European lateral markets have seen continued churn in the last week, as firms have targeted funds, corporate, disputes and real estate talent, alongside further team moves on the continent.

Leading the City hires, Cleary Gottlieb has added funds partner David Christmas from US rival Fried Frank. A Legal 500 leading partner in private funds, Christmas advises fund managers, sponsors, financial institutions and family offices on fund formation across a spread of alternative asset classes, alongside experience in GP-led secondaries.

He joins after ten years at Fried Frank, where he made partner in 2018. He starts at the firm today (5 May).

King & Spalding has made a pair of hires into its London office, bringing over Goodwin private equity real estate partner Raymond Fang and Paul Hastings antitrust and competition partner Jade-Alexandra Fearns.

Fang joins the firm’s London real estate and funds practice after more than seven years at Goodwin. His practice spans cross-border real estate PE deals, including structured M&A, joint ventures and GP stakes, and secondaries.

The move follows a string of private capital exits for Boston-founded Goodwin. In October last year, it lost PE partner Tessa Agar to Mayer Brown, followed by PE tax partner Katie Leah to Skadden in January. Most recently, it saw a three-partner PE team move to Ashurst.

Fearns, meanwhile, joins the government matters and regulation practice group from Paul Hastings, where she arrived as a partner in 2022 after four years as special counsel at Proskauer. Her practice spans merger control, foreign investment, and national security filings across a range of jurisdictions, and includes advising clients on cartel defence, competition compliance and regulatory frameworks across industries, including energy, insurance and sport.

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has hired competition litigator Helen Fairhead. She will join the firm’s London office on 1 June from Norton Rose Fulbright, where she has spent the last 13 years, making partner in 2022.

Fairhead’s practice covers an array of contentious competition matters, with a particular focus on damages claims, and includes experience acting for both claimants and defendants in High Court litigation.

Taylor Wessing has hired disputes and investigations partner Jamie Humphreys from Cooley, where he served 11 years as special counsel. Humphreys specialises in product liability litigation, advising international clients across the full product lifecycle, with a particular focus on consumer products.

With Taylor Wessing’s now approved tie-up with Winston & Strawn set to go live between May and June, the period since the merger’s announcement last December has seen other notable hires including RPC head of commercial Jeremy Drew in February, and Travers Smith competition head Stephen Whitfield in March.

White & Case has hired energy infrastructure regulatory partner Simon Stuttaford into its City office from Castletown Law in Edinburgh. He joins the firm’s global project development and finance practice and energy group after nearly seven years as a principal at Castletown. His prior experience includes in-house roles at EnergySolutions UK and Horizon Nuclear Power, as well as two years as joint head of environment at DWF from 2015 to 2017.

Stuttaford has particular experience in the nuclear sector, where he has advised on contracting structures and related corporate matters.

Arnold & Porter has hired antitrust and competition litigation partner Nicola Chesaites. Qualified as both a barrister in England and Wales and an advocate in Belgium, she brings more than 17 years’ experience in competition damages litigation, EU litigation, and collective actions, in disputes across banking, trade, sanctions, pharmaceuticals and transport.

Chesaites previously practiced at Willkie before going freelance in 2025. Prior to this, she served six years at Quinn Emanuel, making partner in 2019.

Also in London, Proskauer has added Kos Vavelidis as a partner in its structured credit practice. He joins following three years as partner at DLA Piper, with time in New York and London, and previously worked as an associate in London at Paul Hastings and legacy Allen & Overy.

He brings experience advising transaction participants on a broad range of structured finance, derivatives, securitisation and asset-backed lending matters, with a particular focus on CLOs.

Morrison Foerster has made a trio of hires, bolstering its City technology transactions bench.

TMT partner Will Holder joins from Baker McKenzie, where he advised institutional investors on public and private M&A, leveraged buyouts and joint ventures, private equity and portfolio company transactions, notably in the music and fintech subsectors.

Corporate business transactions partners Mike Pierides and Oliver Bell join from Morgan Lewis, where Bell was a senior associate in the firm’s technology and outsourcing group.

Following seven years at the former firm, Pierides brings across experience in commercial and technology transactions, advising on outsourcings, data privacy and cybersecurity, strategic restructurings, and technology transactions in industries including AI, fintech, telecommunications and data centres.

Greenberg Traurig has hired M&A partner Robert Gray from Baker McKenzie. Gray joins Greenberg’s corporate practice after nearly 18 years at his former firm, where he made partner in 2021. His practice spans cross-border and domestic M&A, joint ventures and carve-outs, with a focus on agribusiness sectors involving CEE and the Nordics.

Duane Morris has hired a new City corporate head, corporate partner Simon Gamblin who joins from Clyde & Co in London.

Gamblin’s practice covers international and domestic corporate finance, including public and private M&A, cross-border joint ventures, restructurings, financings and PE transactions. He brings with him special counsel Ben Chalkley and senior associate Daniel Li.

Clyde & Co has also parted ways with London insurance disputes partner Mandip Singh Sagoo, who has moved to Norton Rose Fulbright. Prior to spending eight years as partner at the firm, Sagoo spent twelve at Mayer Brown, making partner in 2012. He specialises in advising insurers on claims involving financial institutions, warranty & indemnity and D&O.

For its part, Clyde & Co has hired aviation disputes senior associate Nick Roberts as a partner in London. He joins after just under seven years at Norton Rose Fulbright.

Eversheds Sutherlands has hired insurance partner Helen Hallan and corporate finance and M&A partner Chrissy Findlay.

Hallan spent the past eight years in-house, latterly as lead counsel for Canada Life’s Insurance arm, where she advised on a range of matters in bulk annuities, reinsurance and capital activity.

Findlay joins following almost two decades at Pinsent Masons. She advises financial services clients on M&A, restructurings, governance and strategic reorganisations, with a particular focus on banking, lending and payments.

DLA Piper has hired fund finance partner Rob McClean from Cadwalader, where he was a special counsel. McClean joined Cadwalader from Reed Smith in September 2024, and his practice focuses on advising financial institutions, investment banks and alternative platforms on fund finance matters.

Osborne Clarke has hired a pair of partners, bringing over tech, media and telecoms partner Justin Edgar from DWF and corporate real estate partner Philippa Rigby.

Edgar spent nine years at DWF, making partner in 2019, while Rigby spent a decade at Pinsent Masons, where she was a senior associate.

However, Osborne Clarke also saw the departure of equity capital markets and public M&A lawyer Ed Nisbet, who joined Shoosmiths in London after eight years at Osborne Clarke, where he became an associate director in 2021.

DWF has hired Jemma Brimblecombe as a partner in its professional indemnity team in London. Brimblecombe joins from Kingsley Napley, where she led the professional negligence practice, making partner in 2024.

Also in the City, Haynes Boone has hired arbitration partner Philipp Kurek from Signature Litigation, where he spent more than two years. Before that, he spent 14 years at Kirkland & Ellis, where he made partner in 2017.

Finally in London, TLT has added partner Fosia Solomou to its real estate practice. Solomou joins from Dentons, where she was senior associate, advising on commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and disposals and joint ventures.

In Edinburgh, Pinsent Masons has hired financial services litigation partner Stuart Murdoch. A regulatory, ESG and disputes specialist, Murdoch joins from DLA Piper, where he was co-head of its international financial services disputes and international funds ESG workstreams.

In Milan, McDermott Will & Schulte has welcomed a five-partner team from Italian firm Gitti & Partners.

The team is led by corporate and private equity partner Vincenzo Giannantonio who joins as office co-managing partner. His practice covers mid-market and sponsor-led transactions, with a focus on PE and growth capital investments.

Joining Giannantonio are corporate M&A and PE partners Giacomo Pansolli and Domenico Patruno, employment partner Elisa Mapelli, and Marco Blei, an intellectual property partner focusing on life sciences and tech.

In Paris, Morgan Lewis has added financial services regulatory partner Arnaud Grunthaler from Forvis Mazars Avocats.

Grunthaler, who spent just under two years at his previous firm, brings experience advising financial institutions and market participants on EU regulation and financial products, notably digital assets and fintech.

In Berlin, Dentons has added a seven-lawyer litigation and dispute resolution team from PwC Legal.

The team is led by partners Roman Dörfler and Martin Beckmann, who both served seven years at their previous firm, and includes two counsel, one senior associate and two associates. They bring experience in corporate and insolvency-related disputes, model declaratory actions and class actions, particularly in the areas of banking and capital markets law.

Dentons was also active in Glasgow, where the firm has hired construction partner Gordon Anderson from Addleshaw Goddard.

For its part, Addleshaw Goddard has recruited a tier one Legal 500 five-lawyer team to establish a public procurement and construction practice in the Warsaw office it acquired from Linklaters last February.

Joining from Polish firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka, the team is led by partner Katarzyna Kuźma, and includes partner Tomasz Michalczyk, counsel Wojciech Hartung and two senior associates.

Both partners bring experience in public procurement and the delivery of complex investment projects, Kuźma advising public and private sector entities on the structuring of complex, public-sector involved projects with international aspects, and Michalczyk adding the contractor advisory piece, including in disputes proceedings.

In Spain, Garrigues has added labour and employment partner Jaime Silva Castañón in Madrid. He joins from Labormatters Abogados, where he spent four years as a partner, and has built a practice advising domestic and international companies undergoing employment litigation and collective disputes.

Finally on the continent, Latham & Watkins has appointed Alexander Stefan Rieger as managing partner of the firm’s German offices, based in Frankfurt. A Legal 500 next-generation partner for M&A, Rieger previously served as the firm’s regional chair of corporate in continental Europe, with clients including infrastructure and pension funds, insurance companies, PE investors and corporates. He joined the firm from Hogan Lovells in 2023.

The move comes as Latham expands its German offering, bringing over four partners from Freshfields last December.

In the Middle East, DAC Beachcroft has announced plans to open a new office in Dubai with a trio of insurance partners from Clyde & Co.

Michael Morris served 11 years at Clydes, most recently as a litigation partner and head of insurance for the Middle East. His practice focuses on commercial and professional liability claims.

Michael Ducker, formerly co-head of Clydes’ Middle East and Africa healthcare group, brings experience spanning healthcare and insurance, including medical malpractice, environmental matters and product liability.

Mark Beswetherick, a Legal 500 leading partner for dispute resolution in the UAE, was previously head of Clydes’ insurance and dispute resolution group in Dubai. With a practice spanning arbitration, international litigation and corporate investigations, he brings a particular focus on D&O liability, professional negligence and multi-jurisdictional insurance disputes.

DAC Beachcroft was also active in the UK, hiring lawyers’ liability and professional indemnity partner Will Sefton in Bristol. A Legal 500 leading partner for professional negligence in the South West, Sefton joins from RPC.

Finally, Simmons & Simmons has hired Reed Smith Asia-Pacific Investment Funds practice head Han Ming Ho in Singapore. Before his time at Reed Smith, Ho spent time as a partner at both Sidley Austin and Clifford Chance, where he established and led the firm’s Singapore investment funds practices.

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Sidley sees exit of four-partner private equity team across NY and London

New York City cityscape

Sidley is set to see the departure of a four-partner transatlantic private equity team, including a trio who previously worked together at Paul Weiss.

The group leaving includes three partners in New York and London PE partner Jonathon Hamill.

The New York trio – Gerald Brant, Jeffrey Kochain and Brittany Harrison – have all been at Sidley since late 2023, when they joined the firm’s New York office in a team move from Paul Weiss.

The team are understood to be moving to Akin, where both Kochain and Brant worked together before their time at Paul Weiss.

The quartet advise private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on a range of leveraged buyouts, joint ventures and mergers, and have a track record of work for Apollo. Kochain, Brant and Hamill were among the lead partners last year when Sidley advised Apollo portfolio company Evri on its merger with DHL.

London partner Hamill joined Sidley as a senior associate from Vinson & Elkins in 2021. He later spent almost a year on secondment at PE giant Apollo before returning to the firm and making partner in January 2024.

Sidley has been through a sustained period of targeted recruitment in London of late, most recently securing the high-profile hires of restructuring duo Philip Hertz and Melissa Coakley from Clifford Chance. The firm also added Latham’s former global real estate co-chair Jeremy Trinder in January and UK capital markets co-head James Inness last month.

The firm’s London PE bench was also strengthened earlier this year with the arrival of Sean Carney – a global co-head of the firm’s private equity and insurance practices, and a member of its executive committee – who relocated to the UK from Chicago.

Sidley’s London private equity team also includes practice co-head Ramy Wahbeh and Kaisa Kuusk, both of who moved over from Paul Weiss in 2023, and Adam Runcorn.

Sidley‘s London revenues climbed by almost a third in 2025, up 32% to hit $299m, enough to place it within the UK’s 40 largest law firms. That increase came against a 9% hike in global revenue to $3.74bn.

Akin has also been recruiting in London, most recently taking three restructuring partners from Weil Gotshal & Manges’ London office, including City restructuring co-head Neil Devaney. Last November, the firm also took on a pair of private equity partners from Ropes & Gray – Dan Oates and Angela Becker.

For more, see Sidley’s Galacticos – how the US firm went all-in on big names in London

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A&O Shearman, McDermott, Paul Weiss become latest major firms to cut staff

A&O Shearman and McDermott Will & Schulte have become the latest firms to make job cuts, with Paul Weiss also letting some of its associates go.

A&O Shearman has made cuts to its business services ranks, including roles in its tech function as well as other support teams.

LB understands that the changes follow the completion of systems integration work at the firm, with roles supporting that process no longer deemed necessary.

It is also understood that no fee earner roles are affected. The firm declined to comment on the locations of the staff affected.

In a statement, an A&O Shearman spokesperson said: ‘Over the past two years, we have been investing significantly in our central business teams, as well as in technology and data, to deliver smarter and more consistent ways of working across a firm of our scale and ambition.’

‘That work has created new roles and reshaped others. In some areas this has meant limited and localized headcount reductions. Where that has been necessary, we are working closely to support affected colleagues,’ they concluded.

Meanwhile, McDermott is laying off a number of associates, with the move coming after the merger of McDermott Will & Emery and Schulte Roth & Zabel last year.

LB understands that the associates are being laid off at the firm’s US offices.

A spokesperson for the firm said: ‘McDermott Will & Schulte has made the difficult decision to separate from a small number of associates across the firm as we continue to align with shifting client needs.’

They continued: ‘We are grateful to the associates who are departing; their work has made a meaningful impact on our clients and the firm.’

‘As markets evolve, we remain focused on the areas where we lead, making disciplined decisions about how we invest and grow so we can stay at the forefront and help our clients do the same,’ they concluded.

Paul Weiss has also dismissed a number of associates. LB understands that the associates were all based in the US, and were dismissed following negative performance review.

A Paul Weiss spokesperson said in a statement: ‘There were no layoffs. These were performance based decisions based on the review process we conduct every year.

The redundancies at A&O Shearman are the latest in a line of business services reductions across major firms, with fellow magic circle firm Clifford Chance axing 10% of its business support staff in London last November.

Last month, Freshfields finished its redundancy round, impacting its business services hub in Manchester, where around 20 paralegal roles were cut.

Baker McKenzie has conducted the largest set of redundancies thus far, cutting 10% of its global business services team in February, which equates to around 600 roles.

The news comes as law firms have been ramping up the introduction of AI, with Freshfields and Anthropic launching a partnership this spring.

A&O Shearman has a long-running partnership with legal tech firm Harvey, after it became the first major law firm to integrate AI at an enterprise level in 2022.

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Legal Business Awards 2026: which firms made the shortlist?

Freshfields, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer and Slaughter and May are among the most-nominated firms for the Legal Business Awards 2026, with the shortlist revealed today (7 May).

The awards, which will be handed out on 29 September at London’s Grosvenor House, recognise the best of the best across the legal profession, with honours for the private practice lawyers, law firms, barristers and in-house lawyers operating at the top end of the legal market.

Freshfields is up for a total of 10 awards, including Disputes Team of the Year and M&A Team of the Year, while HSF Kramer is also in the running for 10 honours.

HSF Kramer global CEO Justin D’Agostino is on the shortlist for Management Partner of the Year, where he will compete against Sidley London managing partner Tom Thesing and Taylor Wessing UK managing partner Shane Gleghorn.

Slaughter and May has won spots on seven shortlists, recognising the firm’s strengths across capital markets, competition, finance and more. It will go head-to-head with Kirkland & Ellis in a number of those categories, with the US giant also securing places on seven shortlists.

New awards for 2026 include AI Initiative of the Year, which will identify the law firm demonstrating the most impressive deployment of AI, with the contenders including Cleary, Clifford Chance and Osborne Clarke.

Other new categories will recognise the most influential business services teams, the leading intellectual property and public sector practices, as well as a new client service award, which will go to the firm which received the highest scores from clients during the annual Legal 500 research.

This year, the firmwide awards will identify the International Firm of the Year, the UK Firm of the Year, and the Global London Firm of the Year, which will go to the US firm making the biggest strides in the capital, Elsewhere, a line-up of big-name KCs from chambers including Essex Court, 4 New Square and One Essex Court are in the running for Barrister of the Year.

The biggest names in the in-house legal community will also be recognised, including GC of the Year and In-house Team of the Year – with these shortlists set to be revealed in a separate announcement next week (14 May).

Latham & Watkins, BT, Burges Salmon and Freshfields were among the winners at last year’s awards, which were hosted by comedian Katherine Ryan. Latham took the award for International Firm of the Year, while Burges Salmon picked up the award for top UK firm.

View the shortlist for the Legal Business Awards 2026

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McDermott hires HSF Kramer global energy lead

McDermott Will & Schulte has hired HSF Kramer’s head of global energy into its London office, in a move that comes less than a year after each firm completed its respective merger.

Lewis McDonald (pictured below right), who has been at HSF Kramer for over 20 years, has led the firm’s global energy group since 2018.

Recognised as a leading partner in Legal 500’s projects, energy and natural resources: oil and gas rankings in London, McDonald has significant experience working int he Asia Pacific region, beginning his career in Perth in 2001, before moving to London in 2005 and to Hong Kong and Singapore in 2008.

After five years at legacy Herbert Smith Freehills’ Singapore office, he moved to South Korea to launch the firm’s Seoul office in 2013, where he spent four years as managing partner, advising on notable deals such as Korea Gas’s $11bn investment in the Coral Floating LNG project in Mozambique.

McDonald then took on the role of head of corporate for HSF in Asia in 2016, and subsequently moved to Tokyo in 2017.

After taking on the role of global head of energy, McDonald then relocated back to London in 2019.

Energy has long been a key sector for HSF Kramer, and firm leaders have emphasised to LB the industry’s ongoing importance as the firm doubles down on the US after the merger between legacy HSF and legacy Kramer Levin & Naftalis that went live last June.

Analysis published by LB at the end of last year showed that HSF Kramer was among the firms with the most tier 1 energy rankings in UK Legal 500 research, in joint second place with Clifford Chance, behind only Linklaters. McDermott, by contrast, has only two energy rankings in the UK, in tier 5 for both oil and gas and renewables.

However, the picture is different in the United States, where HSF Kramer has no energy rankings, and McDermott has four.

Global head of McDermott’s transactions practice group, Harris Siskind, said of the move: ‘Energy markets are becoming more complex and interconnected, and clients are looking for clear, commercial advice across the full spectrum of energy and infrastructure.’

He continued: ‘Lewis brings a rare combination of sector depth and transactional experience that will help us guide clients through cross-border M&A and strategic investments with greater precision and confidence.’

On his move, McDonald said: ‘McDermott has the scale, platform and ambition to build a leading European Energy practice. I’m excited to join and support clients as they navigate complex global energy markets, drawing on the firm’s strength across traditional energy, renewables and private capital.’

Managing partner of McDermott’s London office, Aymen Mahmoud, added: ‘Lewis is a standout addition to our London team at a pivotal time for the energy sector.’

He continued: ‘His arrival reinforces our position in Europe and strengthens how we connect our London office with our US platform. For clients, that translates into seamless support across jurisdictions and across the full investment lifecycle.’

McDonald is set to start at his new firm in October.

HSF Kramer said in a statement: ‘We thank Lewis for his valued contribution to the firm and we wish him well.’

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Inside the $240bn secondaries boom sparking a new private equity talent war

Proskauer’s co-head of secondaries, Bruno Bertrand-Delfau, first encountered the asset class as a senior associate in 2003.

A client wanted liquidity from a portfolio of assets, and the partner handed him the matter, seemingly uninterested in what they viewed as a small and strange transaction. ‘The partner was an expert in large public takeover mandates. He asked me to deal with it on my own, and so I did,’ he says. 

At that time, no one knew what these transactions were, and people were sceptical, Bertrand-Delfau recalls. Investors were wary about selling at prices set by sponsors rather than by the open market. ‘A common but dismissive joke in the industry was that secondaries were “M&A for dummies”,’ he explains.

But the matter’s complexity told a different story. The deal, the first large secondary transaction in France, proved tricky and dragged on for two years through multiple pieces of litigation as GPs and portfolio companies tried to block it, unsure about what it would mean for them. In the end, however, it proved to be a turning point for both the client and Bertrand-Delfau.

Bertrand-Delfau (pictured) was on the sell-side but across the table was AXA Private Equity, which would later go on to become Ardian.

‘This was a landmark transaction for Ardian, and one that marked the start of a long partnership,’ he tells LB.

Even though Bertrand-Delfau had worked opposite AXA, the deal was so arduous that the PE shop brought him in to advise on its behalf for the next transaction. More than two decades on, he is still advising Ardian, which last year raised the world’s largest secondary fund at $30bn. 

Ardian’s trajectory mirrors the wider market. A recent Jefferies report found secondaries hit record volumes in 2025, rising 48% year-on-year to $240bn, split roughly evenly between LP- and GP-led deals. Demand has been fuelled by new entrants, growing pools of dedicated capital and a push for liquidity as sponsors delay exits. 

Sponsors and asset managers have responded by building out secondary capabilities, with recent examples including investment bank Lazard last week acquiring British firm Campbell Lutyens, and EQT acquiring Jeremy Coller’s pioneering platform in January.

Law firms have been following suit. In recent weeks, Weil and Fried Frank have hired London secondaries partners from Kirkland, an early mover in the space. Weil added Charles Cooper-Isow to build on its recruitment of Simon Saitowitz last year, while Fried Frank added Rhett McPhie. A broader wave of hiring has seen Simpson Thacher, Freshfields and others deepen their benches through lateral moves since 2022. 

Starting out

The scramble for talent today is a far cry from how niche the practice once was. Early secondaries work sat awkwardly between funds and M&A, with few lawyers comfortable straddling both. 

‘M&A folks just didn’t understand funds and the funds people were all scared of M&A because they were geeks – fun geeks, though,’ recalls John Daghlian, now a senior funds consultant at Travers Smith. 

Daghlian (pictured) himself joined legacy SJ Berwin, which ‘owned the fund space’, in the mid-90s, when the firm began advising the then newly founded Coller Capital. ‘There were flashes of real brilliance,’ he says. ‘I knew this was interesting; no one else was doing this.’ 

In 2000, he advised Coller on its acquisition of a $1bn+ private equity portfolio from NatWest (now Bridgepoint), then the largest deal of its kind. Around the same time, Kate Downey—now head of Fried Frank’s European private equity funds practice—was advising Vision Capital on acquiring portfolios from struggling funds such as Morgan Grenfell. 

‘They had a rump set of assets that they needed to get rid of; they weren’t necessarily bad, but they weren’t liquid,’ Downey explains. ‘There was no playbook for this…but there was a lot of reward for creativity.’ 

These early transactions fed the perception that secondaries were tied to ‘zombie funds’—a characterisation Daghlian dismisses as a ‘great myth’, noting, ‘People don’t want to buy problems, however cheap they are.’ 

As the market matured through the 2000s, lawyers began moving between firms and jurisdictions, importing more developed US approaches into Europe.

Daghlian moved to O’Melveny & Myers, while Downey (pictured) moved to Kirkland. ‘It opened everybody in Europe’s eyes to the wider market and showed there was a more developed way of doing things on the US side,’ says Downey. She adds: ‘The market had to grow up a bit after the financial crash.’

Banks also became active sellers, with Coller acquiring a £1bn portfolio from Lloyds in 2012 as part of post-crisis deleveraging. 

‘It was one of the first of a wave of managed funds-style transactions,’ says Paul Koffel, a partner at Coller. ‘Sponsors had moved beyond the stigma of not wanting secondaries and were aware of the need for liquidity, but it was a much more tactical way of defensive selling. Strategic selling came later.’ 

By 2017-18, the dynamic shifted again. GP-led secondaries became a commoditised business, with bigger transactions, more financing and a growing professionalisation of the market; these trends were further exacerbated by hikes in interest rates and the state of capital markets as a route to exit.

‘Top-tier GPs began to use these techniques to continue to own and manage prize assets through what is now broadly known as continuation vehicles (CVs),’ Bertrand-Delfau recalls. As these GP-led secondaries became mainstream, deal sizes began to climb and recourse to different financing options expanded, together creating repeat and scalable work for advisers. 

Looking forward

Recent macroeconomic conditions—higher interest rates, subdued exit markets and geopolitical instability—have reinforced the role of secondaries as a liquidity tool. The Jefferies report estimates that nearly 80% of the top 100 sponsors by AUM completed a continuation vehicle transaction in 2025. 

‘The secondary universe is developing specialisms,’ Koffel (pictured) says, pointing to the ‘turbo-charged’ growth of GP-led deals across the market spectrum. That specialisation is feeding demand for lawyers.

‘Prior to the interest rate rises of 2023, there were a handful of lawyers doing this work … suddenly all law firms needed this expertise to help clients access liquidity,’ says Theo Varcoe of Bishopsgate Search. 

The strategy is also spreading across asset classes. ‘The whole secondaries market is innovating again. That is part of the reason I unretired,’ Daghlian jokes. Credit GP-led secondaries have tripled in volume since 2024, while infrastructure and real estate are emerging as newer frontiers.

‘The infrastructure market has remained buoyant and pricing on exit has continued to be quite strong,’ Downey says, adding: ‘However, as pressures build on exit, the market sees infrastructure secondaries space as a viable solution and I don’t see that changing.’

Notable partner moves in the secondaries market since 2021

  • Aleks Bakic, Akin to Kirkland (London, 2022)
  • Jacqueline Eaves, Kirkland to Goodwin (London, 2023)
  • Ed Ford and Sacha Gofton-Salmond, Travers Smith to Simpson Thacher (London, 2023)
  • Timothy Clark, Goodwin to Freshfields as global co-head secondaries (New York, 2023)
  • Alex Chauvin, Ropes & Gray to White & Case (London, 2024)
  • Joanne Mak, Kirkland to Simpson Thacher (London, 2025)
  • Simon Saitowitz, Ropes & Gray to Weil (London, 2025)
  • Dan Drabkin, Clifford Chance to Sidley (New York, 2026)

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DLA Piper promotes more than 60 partners as firm shifts to single leadership structure

DLA Piper has promoted 62 new partners globally, with the London and New York offices counting the most and second most new partners respectively, as the firm makes moves towards further integration after more than two decades as a verein.

The total number of promotions is down only slightly, from 65 last year, with a consistent spread across both regions and practices.

The US again saw the most promotions, with 24 – one up from 23 last year. Continental Europe was again in second place, though its number of promotions dipped from 20 to 14, and the UK was again third, with nine promotions this year compared with 12 last year.

In addition this year, six new partners were made up in Canada, and five in Australia.

Comparing promotions across practice areas, the firm’s corporate department again saw the highest number of new partners, with 20, up from 19 last year. Litigation was in second this year with 12 partners, down from 13 last year, while finance slipped from second place last year, with 12 new partners, to third this year, with eight.

The firm also promoted seven new partners in intellectual property and technology, five in real estate, four in regulatory and government affairs, and two each in employment, investment funds, and tax.

The promotions are the first new partners DLA has made up since the firm’s partners voted last month to approve plans to dissolve its long-standing Swiss verein structure and introduce a new global leadership structure, with a team led by Frank Ryan as global chair and global co-CEO and Charles Severs as global co-CEO. The global structure will sit above the firm’s US and international LLPs, which it will retain.

Commenting on the promotions, Ryan said: ‘Our new partners have the judgment, solutions-oriented mindset, and collaborative approach that clients expect of DLA Piper. They’ve earned the trust of clients and colleagues alike, and we’re proud to welcome them to the partnership.’

Severs added: ‘This is a special moment for each of our new partners, and we congratulate them on an important achievement. Their promotions demonstrate DLA Piper’s depth of talent across the world, the value and quality we offer our clients, and the continued evolution of our global firm.’

The promotions came into effect on 1 May.

[email protected]

DLA Piper new partners in full:

UK

  • Mark Briggs, litigation and regulatory, London
  • Liam Freeman, corporate, London
  • Ian Graves, real estate, Birmingham
  • Ben Collins, corporate, Leeds
  • Clare McLaren, corporate, London
  • Katie Palms, litigation and regulatory, London
  • Jonathan Paines, corporate, Manchester
  • Philip Povey, finance, London
  • Natalie Thorn, finance, London

US

  • DK Donghyun Kim, corporate, Atlanta
  • Lara Assaf, investment funds, Austin
  • Zac Loney, intellectual property and technology, Austin
  • Oriana Montani, real estate, Boston
  • Nick Beard, real estate, Chicago
  • Haley R. Curry, regulatory and government affairs, Dallas
  • Greg Young, finance, Los Angeles
  • Joseline Rodriguez, corporate, Miami
  • Maximilian Viski-Hanka, investment funds, Miami
  • Orley Granot, finance, New York
  • Dan Kagan, regulatory and government affairs, New York
  • Neal Kronley, litigation, New York
  • Carina Meleca, corporate, New York
  • Steven M. Rosato, litigation, New York
  • Dylan Caplan, corporate, Philadelphia
  • Rachel A.H. Horton, litigation, Philadelphia
  • Gina H. Lee, corporate, Raleigh
  • Kevin England, tax, San Diego
  • Joseph Davison, litigation, Seattle
  • Bianca Jean LaCaille, corporate, Seattle
  • Thomas E. Daley, regulatory and government affairs, Washington DC
  • James Patrick McGraw, corporate, Washington DC
  • Peter Shroyer, regulatory and government affairs, Washington DC
  • James Stewart, intellectual property and technology, Washington DC

Europe

  • Alexander Severance, litigation and regulatory, Aarhus
  • Diederik Schuurmans, corporate, Amsterdam
  • Péter Szajlai, corporate, Budapest
  • Conor McEneaney, intellectual property and technology, Dublin
  • Barry Noonan, real estate, Dublin
  • Nils Grunicke, employment, Hamburg
  • Dr Marcus P. Lerch, litigation and regulatory, Hamburg
  • Francisco Bachiller Ströhlein, corporate, Madrid
  • Hamza Akli, litigation and regulatory, Paris
  • Louis-Augustin Jourdan, tax, Paris
  • Nicoletta Alfano, finance, Rome
  • Emil Alexanderson, real estate, Stockholm
  • Anders Svensson Clark, finance, Stockholm
  • Paweł Turek, finance, Warsaw

Canada

  • Lee K. Axford, corporate, Edmonton
  • Rob D. McDonald, intellectual property and technology, Edmonton
  • François Tremblay, corporate, Montréal
  • Cristina Mihalceanu, intellectual property and technology, Toronto
  • Rosalie A. Clark, litigation, Vancouver
  • Tyson Gratton, corporate, Vancouver
  • Middle East and Africa
  • Adrianus Schoorl, litigation and regulatory, Dubai
  • Brian Malcomess, corporate, Johannesburg

APAC

  • Edward Eisdell-Moore, intellectual property and technology, Auckland
  • Allen Xu, intellectual property and technology, Beijing
  • KC Tai, litigation and regulatory, Hong Kong
  • Maddison Hardiman, corporate, Melbourne
  • Sarah Birkett, intellectual property and technology, Melbourne
  • Matthew Roberts, finance, Perth
  • Conor Dolphin, corporate, Sydney
  • Mitch Robertson, employment, Sydney
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Legal 500 unveils first Disputes Services research

broken scales

Legal 500 has launched its first Disputes Services research, expanding its coverage beyond law firms to rank the specialist providers underpinning complex litigation, arbitration and investigations across the UK and US markets, with additional global rankings.

The rankings reflect the growing role of external advisers in disputes work. As matters become more data-intensive, cross-border and reliant on specialist expertise, firms are increasingly turning to advisers in forensic accounting, eDiscovery, litigation funding, investigations, insurance and strategic communications.

The research involved more than 200 interviews with providers, law firms and clients, alongside nearly 150 submissions. In total, more than 175 firms were ranked across 15 practice areas, with over 500 individual practitioners recognised.

Disputes services rankings

United Kingdom:

United States:

Global:

Among the top-tier providers, a relatively concentrated group dominate across multiple practice areas.

In forensic accounting and eDiscovery, FTI Consulting and Alvarez & Marsal achieved tier 1 rankings across both the UK and US rankings, alongside Forensic Risk Alliance, Grant Thornton and Deloitte.

In business intelligence and investigations, Nardello secured top-tier rankings in both jurisdictions. S-RM, Sigma7 and Raedas are among the UK leaders, while Vantage Intelligence and Guidepost Solutions feature highly in the US edition.

Bench Walk Advisors, Omni Bridgeway and Woodsford are among UK leaders in this year’s litigation funders rankings, while Burford Capital, Parabellum and Fortress Investment Group are some of the firms to have achieved thtop spot in the US coverage. Specialist brokers, including Exton Advisors and Factor Risk Management, also achieved tier 1 positions in the inaugural rankings.

The full rankings are now available on the Legal 500 rankings page.

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Slaughters and Linklaters take the call as Vodafone buys CK Hutchison out for £4.3bn

Slaughter and May and Linklaters have picked up the lead roles as Vodafone agrees to buy CK Hutchison’s (CKHGT) 49% stake in the VodafoneThree joint venture for £4.3bn.

Freshfields is also advising, handling the merger control and foreign investment aspects of the deal.

In summer 2023 mobile network operators Vodafone and Three agreed to merge. The deal completed last May, creating the UK’s largest mobile operator, of which 51% was owned by Vodafone and 49% by Hong Kong conglomerate CKHGT.

Now, Vodafone has announced that it has reached an agreement to buy out CKHGT’s stake via a cancellation of shares, funded by £4.3bn in cash.

Slaughters, Linklaters and Freshfields reprise their roles from the initial merger, with Slaughters advising Vodafone, and Linklaters leading for CKHGT, with Freshfields advising on antitrust.

Corporate partners Victoria MacDuff and Richard Hilton lead the Slaughters team on the deal, with support from global head of competition Claire Jeffs, who splits her time between London and Brussels, competition partners William Turtle and Alexander Chadd, technology, digital, data and IP partner Duncan Blaikie, tax partners Mike Lane and Charles Osborne, and pensions partner Chris Sharpe.

Slaughters has previously handled a number of corporate and commercial matters for the telecoms provider, and MacDuff and Hilton also advised on the tie-up between Vodafone and Three.

Speaking with LB at the time, MacDuff said: ‘It’s a mammoth transaction. The market in the UK has been ripe for consolidation for a while and the telecoms sector has changed quite significantly over the last 10 to 15 years. As it stands, Vodafone and Three do not benefit from the same scale as others, and this deal will help them achieve that.’

Linklaters is advising CKHGT, with a team including London corporate partners Robert Cleaver and Hugo Stolkin, Hong Kong corporate partner Roger Cheng, and tech, media and telecoms partner Rich Jones and tax partner Chris Smale, both also in London.

Cleaver and Stolkin also led the team that advised on the completion of the merger last year.

The Freshfields team advising CKHGT on antitrust matters is led by the London antitrust, competition and trade head James Aitken.

In a statement, chief executive of Vodafone Group, Margherita Della Valle said: ‘A year on from the merger, the team has made remarkable progress, as we maximise the full potential of VodafoneThree and capture the significant synergies.’

She continued: ‘I’m delighted that we will now have full ownership of VodafoneThree as we roll out one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks, provide the UK’s best customer experience and drive long-term value for our shareholders.’

Karen Thorpe, who served as UK head of legal at Vodafone from 2021 to last June, and is now a legal director there, spoke with LB in 2024, as the transaction was underway, describing the merger as a ‘once in a lifetime deal.’

Under the terms of the deal, Max Taylor, who became chief executive officer of then-Vodafone UK in April 2024, and stayed on as CEO of VodafoneThree, will continue as CEO.

The buyout is expected to complete in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

[email protected]

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Elite trio prompt Anthropic’s $1.5bn JV with Blackstone, Hellman and Goldman

Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Davis Polk & Wardwell have taken lead roles on a major deal that has seen three heavyweight financial backers team up with Anthropic to create a new AI services company.

Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs are partnering with the AI company behind Claude for a joint venture reported to have secured around $1.5bn in committed funding.

The deal will see the formation of a standalone business focused on helping mid-sized companies embed Anthropic’s Claude AI into core operations.

Kirkland advised Blackstone on the deal, with a team led by New York corporate partners Lauren Colasacco and Alan Heisman, alongside technology IP and transactions partners Seth Traxler in Chicago and Amber Harezlak, who splits her time between Salt Lake City and the Bay Area.

Simpson Thacher, meanwhile, advised both San Francisco-headquartered private equity firm Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs.

The team advising Hellman was led by corporate partners Naveed Anwar and Atif Azher in San Francisco, alongside New York IP transactions partners Lori Lesser and Jamie Talbot.

The team for Goldman Sachs was led by New York corporate partners Katherine Krause and Timothy Gaffney, together with capital markets partner Hui Lin.

Davis Polk is understood to be advising Anthropic, with a team including corporate partner Michael Diz, head of the firm’s Northern California office.

Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Leonard Green & Partners and Sequoia Capital are also investing in the venture and will support its build-out alongside the founding partners.

In a statement, Anthropic said that the new organisation would work with ‘mid-sized companies across sectors to bring Claude into their most important operations’, and that its applied AI engineers would aim to ‘identify where Claude can have the most impact, build custom solutions, and support customers over the long term.’

Anthropic CFO Krishna Rao said that enterprise demand for Claude was ‘significantly outpacing any single delivery model’, and that the company’s partnerships ‘with the world’s leading systems integrators are central to how Claude reaches large enterprises.’

The latest deal comes after Freshfields recently agreed a multi-year deal with Anthropic, rolling out Claude across the firm and agreeing to collaborate on development of further AI services and workflows.

In an interview with LB, Freshfields chief innovation officer Gil Perez explained how the firm would work directly with Anthropic’s legal team to ‘explore how we could collaborate and set up workflows between a law firm and Anthropic’, describing the deal as an opportunity to ‘get a glimpse into the future’ which it would then be able to share with clients.

[email protected]

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Freshfields and Slaughters advise as EQT tables improved bid for FTSE 100 Intertek

Freshfields is acting for Swedish private equity giant EQT after the buyout shop tabled a third bid for FTSE 100 quality assurance company Intertek, advised by Slaughter and May.

The latest bid for Intertek stands at £8.9bn of equity and values the FTSE company at over £10bn including debt. This follows two previous bids that were rejected last month.

Slaughter and May is providing counsel for the company’s strategic review, announced in April, as it explores a sale or demerger, as well as the bids from EQT. The team is led by corporate partners David Watkins and Natalie Cook.

On the buy side, Freshfields’ team is led by global co-head of the firm’s private capital group and Legal 500 high-value private equity Hall of Famer Victoria Sigeti, M&A partner and chair of the firm’s board Piers Prichard Jones, and M&A partner Kate Cooper.

The firm has been winning more mandates for the Swedish asset manager in recent years after winning a place on its UK and European panel in 2024, with today’s mandate allowing it to combine its sponsor relationships with its well regarded public M&A practice.

In the last three years EQT has stepped up its instruction of Clifford Chance and Freshfields, having previously favoured Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis before that, said a person with knowledge of the buyout shop’s processes.

Last year Freshfields advised on EQT’s acquisition of a majority stake in the B2B pharmaceutical dossier company Advalo, a deal corporate partner Mark Brewer led on.

However, EQT mandates in the UK have landed at a variety of firms in 2026. Ropes & Gray advised the fund on its £3.7bn acquisition of Coller Capital in January, while Kirkland acted on its acquisition of a 42% stake in Kelda Holdings, the parent company of Yorkshire Water, last month.

The takeover bid for Intertek, if accepted, would be the latest example of a large listed company being taken private. Earlier in the year Schroders agreed to a £9.9bn takeover by US asset manager Nuveen, with Slaughters acting for the FTSE-listed company.

[email protected]

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Trading Places: Paul Weiss and Kirkland grow in Houston, while Gibson Dunn hires S&C appellate co-head

Paul Weiss has continued to grow its recently opened Houston office, hiring a pair of partners from Kirkland & Ellis and Latham & Watkins.

Aisha Lavinier, from Kirkland, will join Paul Weiss’ M&A team, while tax partner Jim Cole is moving from Latham. Both partners have been at their respective firms for over twelve years.

Paul Weiss opened in Houston in February this year, when it hired two Kirkland corporate partners to launch the office, including Legal 500 leading partner for energy transactions: oil and gas, Sean Wheeler, who heads the office and serves as co-chair for global M&A.

The hires see the firm keep its Texas focus on transactional and finance work, in particular in the state’s crucial energy sector. Lavinier brings experience advising PE sponsors and a range of private and public companies and investors on deals in sectors including energy, healthcare and life sciences, tech and digital infrastructure, and industrials. Meanwhile, Cole has particular expertise advising corporate and PE clients on the tax aspects of energy, infrastructure and project finance deals, with energy expertise across upstream, midstream, and downstream players.

‘Aisha’s versatility in advising clients from a broad range of industries on transformative deals, and Jim’s breadth of experience advising energy clients through all the tax implications of their most important transactions, including on energy tax incentives, each strengthen our full-service transactional offering in Houston,’ said Wheeler. ‘Their arrivals mark an exciting step in the continued growth of our Houston team.’

The firm has also added to its New York office, as litigation partner Adam Hoeflich has moved to the firm, following over 30 years at litigation boutique Barlit Beck in Chicago. Hoeflich brings experience leading high-profile disputes from pretrial through appeal in federal and state courts across the country, with particular expertise designing and advising on major US and international mass tort and product liability resolutions.

For its part, Kirkland has also added to its Houston team, with the hire of energy and infrastructure project finance partner Christopher Peponis from Latham.

Peponis, who has been at Latham for over four years, moves as part of a nine-lawyer team focused on energy and infrastructure project finance and transactions. Earlier in his career, Peponis spent a decade in-house at Shell, where he focused on LNG.

It was originally reported that Peponis would be joined in his move by New York project finance partner Hamad Al-Hoshan. However, Latham has confirmed that Al-Hoshan is not leaving the firm.

Elsewhere, Kirkland has made further additions, hiring former Tennessee solicitor general Matt Rice as a litigation partner. Rice brings experience in appellate advocacy and high-stakes litigation, and joins the Nashville office that Kirkland launched this February.

In Philadelphia, the firm has hired corporate partner Adam Prince from Morgan Lewis. Kirkland launched its office in Philadelphia last January with a product liability team from Skadden, but hired its first corporate partner this April, former Dechert partner Stephanie Haas. Prince marks the office’s second corporate partner.

Meanwhile, Gibson Dunn is expanding its litigation and appellate team with the hire of four partners from Sullivan & Cromwell, including former acting solicitor general and appellate litigation practice co-head Jeff Wall.

Wall served as principal deputy solicitor general of the United States during President Donald Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, also serving as acting solicitor general from July 2020 until Trump left office the next January. He then returned to S&C, where he also represented Trump in his New York criminal case in 2023-24 – the first ever criminal indictment brought against a former US president. He joins Gibson Dunn as co-chair of the firm’s appellate and constitutional law practice.

Joining Wall in the move to Gibson Dunn’s DC office are fellow partners Morgan Ratner, who also acted on the Trump case, and Judd Littleton. In addition, Yaira Dubin joins the firm in New York, where she will lead the office’s appellate practice.

All four lawyers have extensive experience in both private practice and government, with Ratner and Dubin each serving in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States as assistant solicitors general, and Littleton working for the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Programs Branch.

‘We are thrilled to be joining forces with Gibson Dunn,’ said Wall. ‘Gibson Dunn is a powerhouse known for its depth of talent, strong culture, and extraordinary client base. Together with the rest of the Gibson Dunn team, we will be unmatched in our ability to help clients navigate their highest-stakes matters.’

Alston & Bird has hired a three-partner IP litigation team from Winston & Strawn, including Legal 500 intellectual property: copyright hall of fame partner and former vice chair of the firm Michael Elkin, and co-chair of global IP and Legal 500 intellectual property: copyright leading partner, Jennifer Golinveaux.

Elkin, who served as vice chair from 2009 to 2024, will join Alston in New York alongside fellow Winston IP litigation partner Sean Anderson. Golinveaux will join Alston’s office in San Francisco.

Reed Smith has also hired from Winston, with private equity partner Bryan Ikegami joining its Century City office. Ikegami spent nearly three years as a partner at Winston, joining the firm in 2023 from Massumi + Consoli, the midmarket-focused US national firm founded by former Kirkland partners in 2015. Ikegami also spent nearly a decade at Kirkland, where he made partner.

These moves mark the latest departures for the soon-to-be Winston Taylor, following the firm’s merger with Taylor Wessing, approved by partners this January and set to go live this quarter.

Earlier this year, a total of 15 partners also left Winston, joining King & Spalding’s offices in Dallas, Charlotte and Washington DC.

That said, Winston has begun to rebuild in Dallas, with the hire of IP trial lawyer Aimee Fagan from Sidley Austin. Fagan spent more than five years as a partner at Sidley, and brings significant experience in tech and IP matters, in particular within the energy sector.

Reed Smith was also active in California, where the firm has rehired energy and infrastructure lawyer Kevin Levy as partner, who was previously a counsel in the firm’s San Francisco office, before moving to Norton Rose Fulbright in 2025.

Also on the West Coast, Davis Polk is launching an office in Los Angeles, with the hire of business litigation partner Jason Russell from Skadden. Russell will serve as head of the firm’s LA office, following over 30 years at Skadden.

He will be joined at the new office by finance partner Rob Morrison, who joined Davis Polk from White & Case last summer, with further partner hires expected as Davis Polk builds what it calls a ‘full-service platform’ in the city.

‘Jason is an exceptional litigator, and we are thrilled to welcome him to Davis Polk,’ said Davis Polk chair and managing partner Neil Barr. ‘As a major hub for sponsors and for the entertainment, sports and technology sectors, the Los Angeles market presents a number of attractive opportunities for us to better serve clients and to augment our team with the exceptional talent in the region.’

He continued: ‘While we have had LA on our radar for some time, we wanted to ensure that we had the right team in place to help lead our presence in the region. We found that in Jason, and I am excited to partner with him as we embark on this exciting new chapter for our firm.’

Russell added: ‘Davis Polk is on a remarkable trajectory. I am grateful for the opportunity to join the firm’s unmatched platform and to lead the Los Angeles office as we continue to grow our California footprint. I look forward to working alongside my distinguished new colleagues to support clients facing complex commercial litigation both in California and in courts across the country.’

Davis Polk has also expanded in Washington DC, where it launched a new Supreme Court and appellate practice with its hire of Paul Weiss litigation co-chair, DC office co-head, and Supreme Court and appellate practice group chair, Kannon Shanmugam.

Shanmugam, who is recognised as a Hall of Fame partner in Legal 500’s dispute resolution: appellate: courts of appeals/appellate supreme courts (state and federal) rankings, moves after seven years at Paul Weiss, and is joined by fellow partner Masha Hansford, who rejoined Paul Weiss as a partner in September 2025 after leaving in 2020 as a counsel to take a role at DOJ as an assistant to the solicitor general. Shanmugam also served at DOJ in the same role, from 2004 to 2008.

‘We are thrilled to have Kannon, a dean of the appellate bar, and Masha, an exceptional first-chair appellate litigator, join us to establish an elite Supreme Court & Appellate practice,’ said Barr. ‘Each brings a distinguished record of success before the nation’s highest courts. Welcoming a team of this caliber is a critical step in the continued growth of our Washington DC platform. We look forward to building out the team further and working alongside our clients on their highest-stakes appeals.’

Also active in litigation was Freshfields, which has hired white-collar defence and investigations partner Alessio Evangelista to its Washington DC and New York offices.

Moving from Skadden, where he spent nearly four years, Evangelista has nearly two decades of experience working inside the US government, including as head of the enforcement and compliance division at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the US Treasury between 2020-2022.

In New York, Baker McKenzie has hired Proskauer restructuring partner Tim Karcher. Karcher spent nearly 15 years at Proskauer, where he also chaired the firm’s hiring committee in New York.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has also grown its New York team, with the addition of shareholder activism and private funds litigator Minji Reem from McDermott Will & Schulte.

Reem was previously a partner at legacy Schulte, Roth & Zabel before the firm merged with legacy McDermott, Will & Emery last summer. While at Schulte, she worked closely with fellow partner Michael Swartz, who moved to Quinn last March.

Simpson Thacher has grown its Houston office, with the hire of former Clifford Chance energy and infrastructure partner Victoria Salem. Salem has previously worked in-house for Texas-based energy companies, including as assistant general counsel at Cheniere Energy, before moving to CC in 2025.

Simpson Thacher has also hired former Kirkland & Ellis associate Katie Taylor as a partner in its San Francisco office. Taylor specialises in leveraged finance and debt financing.

In New York, Cleary Gottlieb has hired A&O Shearman financial institutions partner Jennifer Morton. Morton spent nearly two decades at her previous firm, joining legacy Shearman & Sterling as a counsel in 2007, and making partner in 2020.

Meanwhile, A&O Shearman has hired  antitrust partner Kathryn Mims to its Washington DC office. Mims joins from White & Case, where she started her career over eleven years ago.

For its part, White & Case has hired former Reed Smith global M&A chair Jennifer Cheng and Freshfields corporate partner Andrea Merediz Basham to its New York office. Cheng spent nearly ten years at Reed Smith, while Merediz Basham has been a Freshfields partner since 2021.

Covington & Burling has also looked to Freshfields, as it hired former life sciences partner Vinita Kailasanath to its Palo Alto office.

Back in the capital, Latham & Watkins partners Danielle Conley and Jude Volek have joined Dunn Isaacson Rhee, the litigation boutique established last summer by Paul Weiss litigation department co-chair Karen Dunn, DC office head Jeannie Rhee, and litigators William Isaacson and Jessica Phillips.

Conley joins after more than three years at Latham, while Volek spent just over two years at the firm, making partner this March, according to his LinkedIn. Both lawyers have experience working in government, in the administration of President Joe Biden. Conley was deputy counsel to the president from January 2021 to June 2022, while Volek worked at the Executive Office of the President from August 2021 to December 2023. Before that, he spent a decade at DOJ, including as deputy chief of the Civil Rights Division.

Also in DC, Clyde & Co has launched its regulatory and investigations practice with Evershed Sutherland’s former co-head of national security and global co-head of industrials Jeff Cottle.

Cottle will take the role of head of regulatory and investigations, white-collar crime and sanctions in the Americas, as well as co-head of white-collar crime and sanctions across Clyde’s EMEA offices.

Debevoise & Plimpton has hired antitrust and M&A partner Rebekah Scherr from Kirkland in DC, where she spent nearly three years as a partner, joining from Paul Weiss in 2023, where she was an associate.

Finally in DC, partners from Skadden, Munger Tolles and MoloLamken have launched new litigation boutique Liu Shur Kravis.

Jessie Liu from Skadden, Justin Shur from MoloLamken, and Jonathan Kravis from Munger Tolles have set up the firm, which aims to represent companies, individuals, and other institutions in a range of high-stakes disputes, investigations, and trials with significant legal and reputational weight.

Liu spent more than five years at Skadden, and previously served as the US attorney for the District of Columbia from 2017 to 2020, during which time she oversaw the criminal prosecution of Roger Stone, a long-time associate of President Trump, then in his first term. Kravis was also involved in the case, working at the US attorney’s office in DC as deputy chief, Fraud and Public Corruption from 2018 to 2020. Shur also has government experience, having worked as deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section at DOJ from 2008 to 2012, when he moved to MoloLamken.

McGuireWoods has made multiple hires across its corporate teams, adding former Kirkland tax partner Andrew Chan to its San Francisco office, as well as capital markets partners Hillary Patterson and Jessica Tobin, formerly of Hunton Andrews Kurth, to its Richmond office.

Orrick has also expanded in San Francisco, as it hired the former global director of youth safety policy and leader of global youth litigation strategy at Meta Platforms, Nicole Lopez.

Finally, Mayer Brown has attracted in-house talent as well, with the addition of former PEG Companies chief legal officer Andrew Kwok. Kwok joins Mayer Brown’s global funds and asset management practice in LA.

[email protected]

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Paul Hastings hires Covington PE and real estate team as London buildout continues

Paul Hastings has continued its London expansion with the addition of a four-partner private equity and real estate team from Covington & Burling. The team is led by partners Lyndsey Laverack and Jade Williams-Adedeji.

Both Laverack and Williams-Adedeji joined Covington in 2024 having previously worked together at Sidley Austin for over a decade. Both are ranked as Legal 500 next-generation partners for commercial property: investment, and work with clients such as Apollo, KKR and Welltower, the largest real estate investment trust (REIT) in the US, with client relationships expected to follow the partners in their move, LB understands.

Alongside the pair, Jack Mayall and José Maria Rodrigues join Paul Hastings as partners. Both were special counsels at their previous firm, which they also joined from Sidley in 2024.

Laverack’s practice focuses on private equity and M&A, while Williams-Adedeji’s specialities lie in real estate where she advises REITs, funds and companies in investments across sectors including retail, data centres, healthcare and housing. Williams-Adedeji was head of Covington’s real estate practice in London.

The move comes after Paul Hastings lost five PE real estate partners last Autumn, with Michael James and Edward Meadowcroft joining Hogan Lovells, Rehan Hanif and Miles Flynn moving to Milbank, and Stephen Nicolas shifting to Cleary to launch the firm’s European real estate practice.

The hires are the latest stage of Paul Hastings’ ongoing growth plan in the UK capital, part of which has been to bolster its PE capabilities. In December, Legal 500 high-value privat equity Hall of Famer Anu Balasubramanian moved to from Paul Hastings to Goodwin alongside two other partners.

In recent months Paul Hastings has added Mark Zerdin from Slaughter and May and Ferish Patel from Cooley to its PE and M&A platform. These are the latest in a long string of hires over the previous six months that has spanned investment funds, structured credit, tax and high yield.

Last year, the firm’s London revenue soared by 25% to $272.4m, meaning the office now contributes more than 10% to the firm’s total $2.68bn turnover.

Firm chairman Frank Lopez previously told LB that the firm’s London practices are in stages 2-5 out of a 10 stage life cycle. ‘Our goals are to get that office from $250m to $500m over the next three to four years,’ he said.

Lopez added that the firm views London and New York as two ‘twin hubs’ for it global footprint, and the latest analysis from LB has the firm’s London office in the top quarter of international firms in the capital by headcount.

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‘It isn’t enough to raise awareness’ – Freshfields’ Reena Parmar on how to create accountable change for disabled lawyers

‘The statistics are staggering. Around 25% of the UK population are disabled, But in 2025, the Solicitors Regulation Authority reported that only 8% of lawyers declared they had a disability.’

For Freshfields counsel Reena Parmar, who last night was named Disability/Neurodiversity Champion of the Year at the Legal 500 UK ESG Awards, this suggests that ‘a large proportion of disabled and neurodivergent people simply don’t trust their firm with this information.’

Debt capital markets specialist Parmar, who began her career as a trainee at Clifford Chance in 2001 and joined Freshfields in 2014 after secondments at both Citibank and Credit Suisse, is one of a small but growing group of lawyers who are open about their disabilities within the profession.

Though there remains significant work ahead, she says, ‘increased visibility, stronger evidence and coordinated advocacy have created momentum that did not exist a decade ago.’

In 2020, research published by Legally Disabled? was instrumental in anchoring the conversation around disability and neurodivergence because, Parmar explains, ‘It was the first time we had an evidence-based report that highlighted inequalities faced by disabled lawyers, and a list of recommendations.’

However, much of the ‘heavy lifting on organisational change continues to be borne by employee disability networks, rather than operational teams.’ While consultation with those with lived experience remains paramount, Parmar wants to see this voluntary work shift to dedicated teams with independent budget and resource pools.

‘It is not enough to raise awareness, educate and hold events to mark celebration days,’ she says. ‘This needs to be coupled with ongoing tangible action and accountability in order for disabled and neurodivergent employees to feel like an organisation is genuinely invested in them.’

‘Innovation, problem-solving, adaptability and creativity are exactly the capabilities that the legal sector needs’

In 2024, Parmar attended an event at Buckingham Palace after being nominated for her advocacy and campaigning work around disability inclusion. ‘As first-generation immigrants from humble beginnings, my parents never dreamed their daughter would make it past the black iron gates of the Palace,’ she says. That year Parmar ranked as one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK, according to Shaw Trust Disability Power.

Career achievements and advocacy accolades aside, Parmar’s journey at times has been challenging. ‘Reframing my personal and working life around accepting my disability at a time when there were very few people speaking about this was lonely and isolating,’ she recalls.

Embracing mentorship roles has been a potent and cathartic use of this experience, though Parmar’s decision was also driven by necessity: ‘I decided to focus my efforts on this community because there are so few formal mentoring schemes in the legal sector that support disabled and neurodivergent candidates, and a tremendous need for this kind of career support.’

Parmar regularly hears from candidates who feel at a disadvantage before even submitting applications, uncertain or scared about broaching their additional needs with prospective employers. ‘They fear sharing this personal information will be viewed in a negative light,’ she explains – a feeling that is ‘grounded in their personal experiences of stigma and negative perceptions.’

‘They often veer on the side of caution and omit any mention in their application which means that many valuable skills and qualities that they have developed through navigating disability or neurodiversity are buried from the outset, rather than profiled in a positive light.’

‘Representation across the full spectrum of seniority matters. If you can see it, you can be it’

Despite the continued stories of candidates being met with ‘blockers,’ Parmar has had mentees who have had tangible success after leveraging their learnings from mentoring programmes. ‘Hearing about these successes is immensely gratifying and fulfilling,’ she says, adding that other candidates’ setbacks only fuel her motivation.

For all the success of such efforts, Parmar wants to see more mentoring – including reverse mentoring schemes where those with lived experiences mentor senior colleagues – broadened to include disability and neurodivergence.

As with all minorities, improving equality of opportunity in recruitment is only the beginning, she says: ‘We need to look at the full life cycle of employment to ensure that disabled and neurodivergent candidates are getting in, staying in, progressing in, and thriving in their organisations.’

‘Representation across the full spectrum of seniority matters,’ she adds. ‘If you can see it, you can be it. Notwithstanding the challenges, there are examples of disabled or neurodivergent lawyers who have forged successful, fulfilling, and impactful careers.’

No doubt leading by example in this respect, Parmar also stresses that disabled or neurodivergent lawyers or staff bring unique skills: ‘Innovation, problem-solving, adaptability and creativity (often skills one will have had to refine out of necessity) are exactly the capabilities that the legal sector needs now and in the future.’

Reena Parmar is a formal mentor through Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme, the International Capital Markets Association Mentoring Platform, and the King’s College London Leadership Mentoring Programme. She helped found Freshfields Enabled UK network and informally acts as a mentor for a number of individuals.

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S&C and HSF Kramer lead as Lazard acquires Campbell Lutyens in latest secondaries tie-up

Sullivan & Cromwell and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer have taken the lead roles as global investment bank Lazard agrees to purchase UK-based private capital advisory firm Campbell Lutyens, known for its expertise in secondary and GP-led transactions.

The deal, announced yesterday (30 April), is valued at approximately $575m, and follows EQT’s acquisition of Coller Capital in January, a deal which saw Ropes and Kirkland take the lead roles.

Sullivan & Cromwell advised Lazard, with a team led by London corporate partner Ben Perry and North America M&A co-head Keith Pagnani in New York. Also involved were antitrust group co-head Juan Rodriguez, financial regulation partner Barney Reynolds, and tax partner Ian Ferreira in London, as well as capital markets co-head Cathy Clarkin, tax group co-head Davis Wang, tax partner Tessa Lee, and executive compensation partner Heather Coleman in New York.

Ashurst also advised Lazard, providing specialist employment counsel with a team led by partner Dan Ornstein.

On the sell side, senior corporate partners Greg Mulley and Alex Kay led the team for HSF Kramer, which has had a close relationship with Campbell Lutyens for some time.

Also on the team were incentives partner Mark Ife, employment partner Tim Leaver, US securities group head Tom O’Neill, New York-based US securities partner Daniel Zimmerman, UK competition head Veronica Roberts, financial regulatory partner Marina Reason, tax partner Casey Dalton, and Andrew Cooke. With the exception of Zimmerman, all partners are based in the firm’s London office.

‘This strategic transaction builds upon recent experience advising on financial services advisory transactions and underscores our deep expertise in this sector,’ said HSF Kramer’s Kay.

‘We are privileged to have supported Campbell Lutyens on what is its major milestone transaction in the firm’s 38 years,’ Mulley added.

Campbell-Lutyens was founded in 1988 and provides specialist expertise across GP capital solutions – a sector of increasing importance as secondary transactions, particularly through continuation-vehicles, becoming an ever more viable and favourable option for private equity houses.

Travers Smith senior funds consultant John Daghlian classed Campbell-Lutyens as one the ‘original pioneers’ of the now-booming secondaries market that was still in its infancy at the turn of the century.

Lazard’s existing private capital advisory group will combine with Campbell Lutyens to create Lazard CL, with the combined business set to surpass $100bn in GP and LP secondary transactions over the coming two years, Lazard said in a press release.

An additional $85m in fees can be triggered if certain performance goals are met over the coming years.

The deal is expected to close in 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

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Latham, A&O Shearman and WBD take honours at Legal 500 UK ESG Awards

Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman and Womble Bond Dickinson were among the big winners at the Legal 500 UK ESG Awards last night, with 32 awards given out for those advancing sustainability, social mobility and diversity in the legal profession.

This year’s ceremony featured a number of new categories, with wins for Latham and Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) in categories recognising exceptional client service.

Latham took the award for ESG: Client Service Firm of the Year, as the firm that received the highest client service scores in Legal 500’s ESG research, covering factors such as sector and industry knowledge, lawyer quality and value, billing and efficiency.

NRF disputes partner Stuart Neely won the inaugural ESG: Client Partner of the Year award, as the partner who received the strongest client endorsements in Legal 500’s ESG research. Neely was described by clients as ‘a pleasure to work with,’ with ‘exceptional legal acumen, strong commercial awareness, and steadfast commitment to client service.’

Another of the new awards for 2026 was Green Ambassador of the Year, which was presented to the standout individual from Legal 500’s Green Ambassadors research, which highlights private practice lawyers at the forefront of the green transition.

The prize went to Bates Wells senior counsel David Hunter, a leading authority on helping businesses address climate change and biodiversity loss through corporate operations.

A&O Shearman won two awards on the night, taking home both Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Clean Energy and ESG: Rising Star of the Year.

The rising star award went to associate Ming Zee Tee, a member of the firm’s environmental and climate law group, who is also a co-founder of Legal Voices for the Future, a non-profit which champions young lawyers’ voices on ESG issues.

Womble Bond Dickinson also won two awards, with Sally Dallow, the firm’s partner lead for responsible business, and managing associate Nazmin Akthar named ESG: Private Practice Champion of the Year and DE&I: Rising Star of the Year.

Other winners from LB100 law firms included Freshfields global transactions counsel Reena Parmar, who was named Disability/Neurodiversity: Champion of the Year, while Addleshaw Goddard senior pro bono and inclusion manager Richard Fisk won the award for DE&I: Private Practice Champion of the Year.

Oscar Davies of Garden Court Chambers won the award for LGBTQ+ Champion of the Year, for their work as a fearless advocate for trans and non-binary individuals and other underrepresented communities, both in the courtroom and in public awareness-raising work. This marks the second time they have been recognised at the ESG Awards, after winning the same category in 2024.

The night ended with two Lifetime Achievement awards, presented to HSF Kramer global head of ESG and sustainability Silke Goldberg, and former Browne Jacobson senior partner Caroline Green, the firm’s first-ever female partner, whose leadership has helped to establish the firm as a social mobility leader.

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Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2026 winners in full:

Best Internal Support Network of the Year – E.ON UK

Women in Law: Best Initiative of the Year – Fletchers Solicitors

Women in Law: Champion of the Year – Lisa Ardley-Price, NatWest

Ethnicity: Best Initiative of the Year – Legal CORE

Disability/Neurodiversity: Best Initiative of the Year – Stephenson Harwood

Disability/Neurodiversity: Champion of the Year – Reena Parmar, Freshfields

Social Mobility: Initiative of the Year – In-House Legal Solutions

Pro bono Initiative of the Year – 3VB

Environmental/Sustainability: Best Initiative of the Year – HFW

Environmental/Sustainability: Champion of the Year – Amanda Carpenter, Achill Legal

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Business and Human Rights – Debevoise & Plimpton

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Clean Energy – A&O Shearman

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Environmental Protection – Pogust Goodhead

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: ESG Regulatory and Compliance – Travers Smith

Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Sustainable Finance – DLA Piper

Green Ambassador of the Year – David Hunter, Bates Wells

DE&I: Private Practice Champion of the Year – Richard Fisk, Addleshaw Goddard

DE&I: Law Firm Initiative of the Year – Dentons

DE&I: Rising Star of the Year – Nazmin Akthar, Womble Bond Dickinson

ESG: Private Practice Champion of the Year – Sally Dallow, Womble Bond Dickinson

ESG: In-house Champion of the Year – Rebecca Danby

ESG: In-house Initiative of the Year – Expereo

ESG: Law Firm Initiative of the Year – Shoosmiths

ESG: Rising Star of the Year – Ming Zee Tee, A&O Shearman

LGBTQ+: Champion of the Year – Oscar Davies, Garden Court Chambers

Mental Health & Wellbeing Initiative of the Year – The General Counsel Wellbeing Network

ESG: Bar Champion of the Year – Barbara Mills KC, 4PB

ESG: Bar Initiative of the Year – Fountain Court

ESG: Client Service Firm of the Year – Latham & Watkins

ESG: Client Partner of the Year – Stuart Neely, Norton Rose Fulbright

Lifetime Achievement Award: Social Mobility – Caroline Green, Browne Jacobson

Lifetime Achievement Award: ESG & Sustainability – Silke Goldberg, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer

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‘Law should be full of mavericks’ – Addleshaws’ Simon Kamstra on ego, a secret DJ career, and the right time to retire

 The last five years of my career have been the best. I’ve had chunky, exciting work – fraudulent oligarchs, Libyan oil, private equity gone wrong and, ‘Big Bad Pharma.’

Maybe it was AG growing, not me, but the top-quality work seemed to come more easily once I was over 50. I’m an adrenaline addict, and my career has been great. But you just have this moment of clarity: ‘This is crazy; it’s got to stop.’ The demands of the job now in the modern age, you can’t be half in or half out, not as a litigation lawyer.

I always felt that I would retire at the right time. But the real reason I’m going now is that I lost my two closest friends within six months of each other in 2024. One was an M&A partner at this firm and they both coincidentally died of brain haemorrhages. 

My family didn’t have a history in law. My father, who was half Dutch and half Danish, was an international fruit merchant, and so was his father before him. It was my godfather who inspired me to become a lawyer. Most of my parents’ friends were party animals and great fun, whereas he was seen as the serious one. He was still fun, though, very witty.

I was lucky enough to go to Manchester University in the early ’80s – which was a grim time in the UK: unemployment was everywhere and it was all very politicised. The first thing I did, on the advice of a slightly hipper friend from art school, was go to this club called the Hacienda that was just opening. It was a very musical city and it had that slightly rebellious, otherworldly feel to it. There were all sorts of things going on. The miners’ strike, students protesting the nuclear missiles coming into England, attacking Michael Heseltine with red paint, shouting, ‘Better red than dead, Michael!’ 35 years later, as head of our Leeds office – a world away – I did a Teams call with Heseltine about the Northern Powerhouse – marvellous man. The law has taken me on lots of journeys.

The law faculty was fantastic in Manchester; leading experts like Andrew (Lord) Burrows and Margaret and Rodney Brazier were there. But law school in the ’80s was awful. You were dumped a series of books like ‘How to buy a house’ or ‘How to do a will’ and you just memorised them and blurted them out over five days.

‘The law has always attracted iconoclastic people who won’t be put in boxes, have a sense of humour, and are human’

My route into commercial law was as an articled clerk in the late 80s at legacy Simpson Curtis [now part of Pinsent Masons]. I was told to do the completion on an M&A deal where a successful entrepreneur was selling his business to a large, listed company. He was going to accept a huge amount of shares plus millions in cash. I began on the deal on Sunday night and the next day was Black Monday. The drama unfolding was remarkable and showed me how a pen-pushing job could come to life. I have seen an awful lot of crashes in my career – usually good for the litigation department. 

The senior partner at Simpson Curtis was an eccentric character called E. Anthony Blackmore. He had a beautiful way with people and taught me a lot about how it should be done with all clients. He was a director of Liberty of London but could just as easily deal with a West Yorkshire textile owner. 

I left Simpson Curtis because I felt Booth & Co had a better litigation practice and that’s what I wanted to do. There was something that appealed about conflict, being in court and using your wits to judge what’s a good set of evidence and then gambling and pitting your judgement as to who’s going to prevail or when you should back off and do a deal.

As a great believer in direct approaches, I wrote a letter to the head of litigation, John Priestley. He phoned me up and said, ‘You’re not going to mess us around, are you? ’ I said ‘Why would you say that? You don’t even know me.’ It was because he had just had someone from Simpson talking to him in order to get a better salary where he was. And I thought, I like this guy. He and his partners were all the same it turned out – initially slightly scary, direct, great lawyers – and incredibly kind people underneath.

I felt then that to get the best out of me I must be slightly frightened of my boss, and those guys had that. You wanted your first draft letter to be quality so they were impressed by it and for them to keep you on your toes and raise your standards. 

My first international case was when a partner threw me a case involving a children’s book illustrator whose dream was to make his characters come to life so he’d ordered a South Korean toy manufacturer to produce tens of thousands of teddy bears called ‘Mr. Tingle and Mr. Tangle.’ When they arrived he was horrified because, as he put it, the eyes were evil. That is obviously quite a subjective matter under any test of merchantability.

‘There are some lawyers that become really significant big shots but if that goes to your head it can all go wrong’

It’s boring, but I made one choice in 1992 to join Booth & Co, and I have been very happy at a firm that has consistently reinvented itself ever since. The best day of my career was when Addleshaw Booth merged with Theodore Goddard, a firm full of fascinating individuals like music lawyer Paddy Grafton-Green (sadly just passed away) and libel lawyers Martin Kramer and David Engel. The music practice represented Bowie, Nina Simone and the Rolling Stones and the corporate side brought clients like Diageo and ABF, who many years later, still instruct the firm.

A terrible divergence has developed between the culture of success and wealth in some parts of the profession and the under-investment in the court system and delays to criminal justice. Of course, Addleshaws has benefited from this rise in sophistication.

The less good side is the sort of hurry-sickness, where everything has to be done quickly whether it’s the right thing or not. The over-competitiveness leads to a culture in some firms which can be quite unpleasant. The crazy world of the £850/hr associates, recruiters pushing partners for huge commissions and the pressure to deliver returns on the huge salaries.

There are some lawyers that become really significant big shots but if that goes to your head it can all go wrong. If it’s all about the next client that might deliver tens of millions in revenue then all the fun goes out of it. I hope younger lawyers see the sense of fun and lack of pomposity I have believed in. You should, of course, take the job seriously, but remember to laugh out loud too.

I have always deejayed; before Manchester it was punk rock and new wave but I always loved jazz and soul; my dad had a great collection and always had great parties. I thought it would be hopeless if clients could find some Facebook video of me deejaying when I’m meant to be suing people, so I refused to mix the two and kept it secret for years.

It all came crashing down when Addleshaws’ global litigation group came from across the world for a conference in Leeds. I happened to have a gig that night, and was going to slip off at 10 but kept the reason a secret. At 11:30 I thought, ‘this is just silly,’ so I texted three of my friends and told them I was playing just across town if they wanted to come. By midnight, there were 30 members of the litigation practice scratching their heads on the dance floor thinking, ‘Is that really Kamstra behind the decks?’

‘We want lawyers that have space for things outside the law, not just salesman clones’

It is important to do other things while being a lawyer, however hard the hours. I have brought up four wonderful children. I was a director of a contemporary dance company for ten years. I played league cricket for 25 seasons, into my 50s. I mean, Lord Sumption found the time to write a history of the Hundred Years War. We want lawyers that have space for things outside the law, not just salesman clones.

One of my heads of office recently described me as the last of the mavericks, but I hope I’m not; it would be awful if law was not full of mavericks. It has always attracted iconoclastic people who won’t be put in boxes, have a sense of humour, and are human. I hope that never changes. 

When I was younger I was a more rebellious partner; I could see everything wrong with management choices. I was something of a doubter and a challenger, and I’m proud of that. I ended up a board member and, later, global head of litigation, and I have finished my career, leading our 200-law firm Global Connect alliance. Everything has gone so well for the firm; it became the one we dreamt of, back in the noughties – that I never felt the need to leave. We opened offices worldwide, we moved up the client food chain, we became famous for things. Along the way, I realised that being managing partner can be a bed of nails and I admire those who take it on at all; let alone do it well, as ours have. Hats off.

When I retire at the end of April, I don’t want to let go of what I’ve learnt nor the friends I’ve made. I have had quite a long history of work in the arts sector as a director of Phoenix Dance Theatre and there’s more non-profit work I want to do, as well as my own personal artistic endeavours. I think about health again though. In this world of 3,000-hour culture you need to look after yourself. 

You can enjoy your job too much, but you should really be thinking about the last third of your life. 

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In-house moves: HSBC and Lloyds GCs move on as Freshfields life sciences head leaves firm for pharma GC role

British gas distribution company SGN has appointed HSBC deputy general counsel Emily Smith (pictured) as its new GC.

Smith spent nearly 15 years at HSBC, most recently as general counsel for the UK wealth and personal banking division, and previously as global head o competition law. She joined the FTSE 100 bank in 2011 from BT, where she held a number of senior legal roles. Before that, she worked at Freshfields as an associate in the firm’s antitrust, competition and trade department.

‘Emily’s depth of experience in legal leadership, risk management and regulatory matters will be invaluable as we continue to further strengthen our governance and enable the long-term success of the business,’ said SGN CEO Simon Kilonback.

She replaces Nick Porter, who has served as interim GC since early 2025. She is set to take up her role in the summer.

Insurer AXA UK & Ireland has appointed Caroline Riddy as GC, following the departure of Emily Coupland, who served as GC from 2021 until her departure last December.

Riddy rejoins AXA from Lloyds Banking Group, where she spent more than a year as company secretary for the insurance, pensions and investments division. She previously spent 12 years at AXA between 2012 and 2024, in a number of senior counsel and company secretary roles.

Outgoing GC, Emily Coupland, who has been with the company since 2001 in a range of senior legal roles, has departed for the top legal role at Intact Insurance UK, formerly known as RSA.

Rachel Walker has joined Canary Wharf Group (CWG) as group general counsel, after 10 years at GLP Capital Partners. She joined CWG in 2015 as general counsel – Europe, and became general counsel and chief administrative officer in 2021. Last March, she became a managing director at Ares Management, following its acquisition of GLP’s international business.

‘We are delighted to welcome Rachel to CWG. Her breadth of experience across legal, risk, compliance, and governance, combined with her deep understanding of the real estate sector, further strengthens our leadership team,’ said CWG CEO Shobi Khan.

‘Rachel’s track record of building and integrating high-performing functions will be invaluable as we continue to develop the business and advance our long-term strategy,’ she concluded.

Santander International, the bank’s offshore division, has appointed Michelle Turner as its first general counsel. She joins from Winterflood Securities, a financial intermediation company that was acquired by Nasdaq-listed financial services company Marex last year. She previously worked in a range of legal roles at HSBC between 2004 and 2023.

Finally in the UK, luxury and lifestyle brand Barbour GC Katherine Richards has retired from her post after nearly four years. Before moving in-house Richards worked as a corporate partner at Ward Hadaway.

In the US, consumer and household products supplier Colgate-Palmolive has elevated current deputy CLO, Betsy Fishbone to chief legal officer, following the planned departure of current legal head Jennifer Daniels.

Daniels has served as CLO and secretary since she joined the company in 2014. Daniels has extensive in-house experience, having worked in senior roles at NCR Corporation, Barnes & Noble, and IBM.

Fishbone has been with the company since 2001, before which she spent six years as an associate at Morgan Lewis.

Intel has appointed Aparna Bawa as its new executive vice president, chief legal and people officer, replacing April Miller Boise, who will leave the company in June after four years.

Miller Boise joined the multinational tech giant in 2022 from electronics manufacturer Eaton, where she was CLO. Earlier in her career, Miller Boise worked in private practice at both Cleary and Thompson Hine, while her other in-house experience includes roles at Veyance Technologies, AVINTIV and Meritor.

Bawa, who will be taking over the role in May, has worked at Zoom since 2018, first as CLO and then as COO from 2020. Before Zoom, Bawa worked in-house at companies including Magento Commerce, Nimble Storage, Inphi Corporation, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank, after starting her career as a corporate associate at Wilson Sonsini.

Finally, clinical-stage biotech company Avalyn Pharma has hired Adam Golden as GC and head of business development. Golden joins the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company from Freshfields’ New York office, where he was global head of life sciences for the last five years. Golden previously worked at Hogan Lovells, where he was head of the New York corporate practice group.

Avalyn CEO Lyn Baranowski said: ‘Adam brings deep legal experience guiding life sciences companies through critical inflection points involving business development and legal strategy, all of which will be invaluable as we transition to life as a public company.’

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‘We are not an outpost’ – Mayer Brown City head on the firm’s plans for London

Mayer Brown increased its London revenue to $268.2m in 2025 – a 20% spike year-on-year, as the firm continued to scale its City offering through a targeted push into private capital.

Speaking to LB, London managing partner Dominic Griffiths said the growth reflected a deliberate strategy to deepen relationships with core clients across jurisdictions.

‘We have established much deeper connections and work with large clients, in particular transatlantic clients,’ he said. ‘The defining factor of this office, together with the United States, is that we’re certainly not an outpost of a New York law firm. We are a global firm, obviously, with a huge concentration of lawyers and business in the US, but we also have developed very strong relationships in London and Europe.’

A key driver of growth has been a more focused investment strategy over the past two years. ‘Two years ago, and in particular, into 2024, we decided to double down on certain areas, called accelerated growth areas,’ explains Griffiths, citing private capital, private equity, and private credit. ‘It has been a very deliberate move by the firm to empower and give authority and autonomy to certain partners leading teams that are highly relevant in this regard.’

The firm has backed that focus with lateral hiring in these areas, recruiting eight partners across private equity, leveraged finance, structured finance, and energy in 2025.

These include Legal 500 securitisation Hall of Famer Chris McGarry, who joined from White & Case last January, private equity partner Mark Evans and finance partners David Miles and Philip Butler, who all joined from Dechert in July, where Butler was co-head of leveraged finance, and private equity partner Tessa Agar, who joined from Goodwin in October.

The results are beginning to show. Private equity deal volumes in the City rose 95% year-on-year, while active structured finance matters increased by 14.8%. Integration is visible too: over the past year, London and New York teams worked together on 96 matters.

Recent mandates led out of London included advising Blackstone and Bourne Leisure on their £1.6bn commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) financing of Haven Group last August – one of the largest sterling-denominated European CMBS issuances since the financial crisis. Last September, the firm advised Standard Chartered Bank on the establishment of its landmark $3bn clean energy infrastructure CLO platform with Apollo.

Alongside transactional work, litigation continues to play a significant role in the practice. ‘Litigation is still 40% of our practice, both locally and globally,’ said Griffiths. In addition to its focus on banking litigation, the firm’s London office also achieved a victory for Samsung and Saipem in the Court of Appeal in a high-profile dispute over Part 26A restructuring plans proposed by Petrofac in connection with a joint venture for the delivery of a refinery project for Thai Oil.

‘Elite US-based law firms are seeing clients expand extensively into Europe. Our hiring is matching that’

Looking ahead, Griffiths said the firm would continue to prioritise investment in its core growth areas.

‘We’ve created an environment and we’ve got the talent here that is generating good income, so I expect that to continue on a similar trajectory,’ he said. ‘We’ll continue to concentrate on private credit and private equity, but also very specifically energy, infrastructure and projects.’

On the latter, Griffiths noted: ‘We’ve noticed that some other high-level, marquee firms are not treating those kinds of practice areas with such keen interest as we are. We love private equity, but we’re not a firm that insists that all of our lawyers are working for private equity sponsors; we’re more diverse in our focus.’

For Griffiths, that shift is also driving increased lateral hiring across the market: ‘For elite US-based law firms, us included, their clients are expanding their business extensively into Europe. The top four or five private credit and private equity houses have set up new divisions – both lending and acquisition – in Europe in a much, much bigger way over the last two or three years,’ he explained. ‘Our hiring is matching that demand from the client base.’

And in a market increasingly defined by vast firms, aggressive hiring, and merger speculation, Griffiths stressed sustainability and client-focused growth. ‘I don’t like the idea of just growing for the sake of growth,’ he said. ‘We will grow cautiously as well because we basically want to maintain legal excellence, which is one of the biggest defining factors of this firm.’

That focus, Griffiths said, is reflected in the firm’s client base, with around 25% of Mayer Brown’s London clients having worked with the firm for more than 10 years.

The firm has also been investing in AI, rolling out a mandatory firmwide generative AI training curriculum this April, as part of a broader technology investment strategy that includes the adoption of Harvey AI and Microsoft Copilot. The training programme is set to roll out to all Mayer Brown’s lawyers around the globe over the course of the year, covering areas including responsible use, scenario-based training for practice area use cases, and leadership training.

Griffiths pointed to the procedural benefits and client value that AI has already enabled. ‘Our private equity team, our corporate team in general, and our litigators, have been very successfully integrating AI into their practice and what they can provide to clients,’ he said.

However, he also sounded a note of caution on tech: ‘AI is a fundamental tool we can harness for our work and for our clients but we are aware of the pitfalls such as ‘hallucinations’ in the litigation world. It’s all about using AI responsibly and managing the output.’

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