As statements of intent go, Clifford Chance has kicked off 2025 with a strong message about its private capital ambitions.
Barely six weeks into the year, the firm has added no fewer than six new partners to its London team, with the hires coming after the firm also deepened its bench in both New York and Europe last year.
With the hiring taking place little more than a year after CC saw the high-profile departures of PE star Chris Sullivan and leveraged finance partner Taner Hassan to Paul Weiss, LB has canvassed market opinion on the build-out efforts.
The departures of Sullivan and Hassan came after years of stability for the firm’s PE team in London. Despite many rivals seeing high-profile exits as US players such as Kirkland & Ellis swooped in to pick up top talent from UK firms, CC had remained largely unscathed since around 2013-14, when former practice head David Walker and Kem Ihenacho left for Latham.
Following Sullivan’s exit last year, CC lifer Spencer Baylin stepped up as London private equity head, leading the City practice alongside global PE head Jonny Myers.
In a recent interview with LB, Myers was clear about the firm’s continued ambitions, stating that the private capital team was ‘growing rapidly’.
The latest hires show the new leadership have stayed true to their word, with the firm stating that its private capital team now comprises 16 private equity partners in London including the latest additions.
This week, KKR director Patrick Scott joined as a partner from the buyout house, where he had primary responsibility for overseeing private equity, impact, tech growth and healthcare growth transactions across EMEA. He previously worked at both Simpson Thacher and Freshfields, before joining KKR in 2019.
News of his recruitment came only days after CC made another hire from a client, adding Annie Lewis as a partner from Blackstone Capital Partners, where she had led the legal function in Europe since 2022. She had previously spent 12 years as an associate at CC before moving in-house.
Meanwhile, last month CC made the eye-catching addition of Skadden’s Bruce Embley. Embley, whose practice spans private equity and public M&A, previously served as co-head of Freshfields’ global M&A client group before leaving for Skadden in 2020. Embley was quickly followed by Skadden European counsel Emma Ghaffari, who has joined CC as a partner in the same team.
The private capital practice has also been bolstered by the arrival of a fund finance duo from Mayer Brown – Legal 500 leading individual Aimee Sharman and Matt Lilley, who made partner at his former firm in January 2024.
Partners suggest the hires of Lewis and Scott are clear plays to strengthen existing client links, where work for big names such as Permira and EQT helped CC make a return to the top tier of Legal 500’s premium private equity ranking in 2023.
As one PE head explained: ‘This will give CC good connectivity to Blackstone’s deal teams, which is valuable since CC is one of their panel firms.’
But they warned that bringing in former clients does not guarantee work. ‘The question will be for how long Blackstone will follow her to CC,’ they said, pointing to similarities between Lewis’ move to that of Geoffrey Bailhache, who left his role as Blackstone’s European general counsel after 10 years to return to private practice as a partner at Simpson Thacher in 2021.
Since his arrival at Simpson, the firm’s mandates for Blackstone have included advising PE funds affiliated with Blackstone on the acquisition of SEVES Group last year. Most recently, Simpson represented funds managed by Blackstone in the announced financing of their existing strategic investment in sports betting and gaming entertainment provider Superbet Group.
‘These moves from in-house are very difficult when it comes to building a practice,’ says another PE partner, pointing to other moves back to private practice.
‘Clients like Blackstone have many mouths to feed in the City,’ said another partner, adding that other firms working with Blackstone include Simpson Thacher, Weil and Latham. ‘Time will tell,’ they continued. ‘But it’s important to acknowledge that Blackstone is one of the most sophisticated buyers of legal services, so it may not drastically change CC’s market share.’
Embley’s recruitment is seen by the market as a move to shore up existing relationships at a senior level, with Myers acknowledging that Embley’s role will be focused less on bringing in new clients than strengthening ties with Permira and other longstanding clients.
‘Embley is a steady hand with credibility with clients,’ said one senior source, adding that it’s a ‘good move’.
‘CC has been under pressure for a long time to hold on to a lot of their big client relationships, so they’re trying to double down,’ added another.
However, others in the market have expressed scepticism about what, on the face of it, might appear as a less ambitious play than that of firms such as Paul Weiss or Kirkland. ‘It seems a bit unaspirational and unambitious to say we’re not expecting to build and just focus on institutionalised work,’ noted one leading PE partner.
Embley’s hire has also sparked discussions about succession planning, with market peers suggesting that if Myers were to retire in the future, Baylin could step into his role, with Embley taking over Baylin’s current position. As one PE partner commented: ‘CC is probably succession planning here’.
The firm hasn’t only been expanding in the UK. In October, the firm hired private equity partner David Schultz from O’Melveny & Myers in New York, and a month later, took on private equity partner Vince Ferrito from the same firm. Other hires around the world have included corporate and private equity partner Jamie McLaren in Singapore last February, and Goodwin duo Arnaud Fromion and Frédéric Guilloux in Paris last December.
However, despite all of this expansion, some are not convinced CC has yet done enough to be truly successful in private capital.
As one PE partner questioned: ‘I understand what CC is aiming to do, but they’re not quite there yet, so I’d be cautious about their plans to push into private capital without a larger US presence.’
And with Freshfields setting the pace for the magic circle in the US, with hires including Latham & Watkins duo Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner as global co-head of private capital and head of US private capital – the bar has been raised. ‘Freshfields is a bit different – they’ve gone big on compensation, but their laterals are more credible than the CC hires,’ concluded one partner at a rival firm.
Clifford Chance declined to comment.
