Legal Business Blogs

US partner promotions: Weil and Simpson Thacher promote two each in London

Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett have both promoted two new London partners in their latest partnership rounds. Weil made up 13 across the firm while there were promotions 11 at Simpson Thatcher.

Simpson Thacher increased this year’s round by 22% overall, but promoted one fewer partner in London than last year, whilst Weil increased its round by 63% and also promoted one fewer in the City.

New York-based Weil added James Sargent and Nitin Konchady as partners in London. Sargent is in the private funds practice and specialises in advising fund managers in the UK, Europe and globally and counts Hastings Fund Management, InfraRed Capital and Castleforge Partners among his clients.

Konchady joins the banking & finance practice and is a member of the European high yield team. Significant deals include advising on the bridge and bond financing of Hellman & Friedman’s acquisition of TeamSystem, an Italian software firm and the bridge and bond financing of the acquisition by HomeVi (a PAI Partners portfolio company).

Fellow US firm Simpson Thacher strengthened its City bench with Shahpur Kabraji and Tom Lloyd, both in the banking and credit practice. Kabraji focuses on domestic and cross-border syndicated credit, acquisition finance and other leveraged finance transactions, and Lloyd advises clients on credit transactions and financial instruments, as well as cross-border finance issues with a focus on sponsor-driven real estate investments.

Simpson Thacher also made up seven partners in New York across a variety of practice areas, one in Washington DC and one in Hong Kong. Weil promoted across 11 offices around the world including four in New York, one in Frankfurt, one in Princeton, two in Washington DC, one in Dallas, one in Boston and one in Silicon Valley.

Last month, Wall Street leader Simpson Thacher made a high-profile London hire after recruiting Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Ben Spiers to boost its M&A practice, while Weil landed Herbert Smith Freehills’ London head of private equity James MacArthur in May this year as the US firm looks to ramp up its infrastructure coverage in the City.

All partnership promotions are effective 1 January 2017.

georgiana.tudor@legalease.co.uk

London partner promotions:

Simpson Thacher

Shahpur Kabraji – banking and credit practice, London

Tom Lloyd – banking and credit & real estate practices, London

Weil, Gotshal & Manges

Nitin Konchady – banking & finance practice, London

James Sargent- private funds practice, London