White & Case’s City hiring spree continues to go great guns with the recruitment of Weil Gotshal & Manges’ well-regarded head of banking, Mark Donald.
Donald has been at Weil for six years, taking on the head of banking role vacated by Stephen Lucas when he left for Kirkland & Ellis in 2014. Before Weil, Donald had spent 15 years at Hogan Lovells.
A leveraged finance lawyer by trade, Donald is experienced in acquisition finance, advising sponsors and banks on leveraged buyouts and mid-market transactions, as well as real estate acquisition finance and fund financing.
Eric Leicht, head of White & Case’s global banking practice, said: ‘We continue to build our leading banking practice in London, advising sponsors and lenders under both English and New York law on their most important transactions.’
He added: ‘We expect our leveraged finance work to grow as financial markets continue to evolve after the financial crisis, and Mark further strengthens our team, adding real fire power to the brand.’
White & Case has been on something of a whirlwind in the City, having gone full steam ahead with its NY-London focus and ambitions to go ‘toe-to-toe’ with the Magic Circle in London as part of a 2020 plan led by Oliver Brettle, member of the global executive committee and former London executive partner.
Brettle, London-based member of White & Case’s global executive committee, pointed to a strengthening of the banking practice this year, including through the internal promotions to partner of Richard Lloyd and Shameer Shah, and the lateral partner additions of Shane McDonald from Hudson Advisors and Sudhir Nair rom Baker McKenzie.
Other recent laterals at White & Case include high-profile infrastructure partner Simon Caridia from Herbert Smith Freehills in October and in the same month, Weil counsel Thomas Falkus as a partner for its thriving capital markets practice.
White & Case also recently added David Robertson, formerly of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, to its arbitration practice, Royal Bank of Scotland’s former head of litigation and investigations Laura Durrant as a partner, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft litigation partner Steven Baker for the firm’s commercial litigation practice.
Another high-profile move from Weil to White & Case came at the start of the year in Weil’s co-head of dispute resolution, Hannah Field Lowes.
