Linklaters has hired Mei Lian, co-chair of Paul Hastings’ London office, as a partner in its corporate and structured lending practice.
Lian spent five years at Paul Hastings as a partner in the financial restructuring team. Before that she spent nearly two decades at legacy Shearman & Sterling, becoming a partner in 2009 and working in the firm’s corporate restructuring and insolvency group.
A Legal 500 leading partner for corporate restructuring and insolvency, Lian brings over 20 years’ experience in high-end, cross-border finance transactions and has particular expertise in navigating complex stressed and distressed situations.
Lian shared the London co-chair role at Paul Hastings with Ross Anderson, former banking vice-chair at Latham & Watkins, who joined Paul Hastings in July 2022 as part of a four-partner finance team from Latham.
Her arrival bolsters the Linklaters’ private capital and credit solutions offering and is the latest in a series of additions to its global banking practice.
In May, the firm hired leveraged finance partners Peter Hayes, also from Paul Hastings, and Angel Quek, from Latham & Watkins, and earlier this month it added an eight-lawyer restructuring and insolvency team in Paris, including François Kopf, who joined as global chair of restructuring and insolvency.
Further high-profile hires for Linklaters in recent months include Matthew Hodgson from A&O Shearman, who joined as the firm’s head of public international law in London in April, and capital markets and New York M&A partner Kristina Trauger, who joined in July from Proskauer, where she headed the firm’s capital markets group.
Paul Hastings, meanwhile, recently added high-profile finance partner duo Corey Wright and Lisa Collier from Latham in New York, and has since April recruited a total of nine energy and infrastructure partners into its offices around the world, largely from White & Case.
Notable recent exits from Paul Hastings include infrastructure partners Jessamy Gallagher and Stuart Rowson, who left for Freshfields in February after two years at the firm. The duo had previously co-headed Linklaters’ global infrastructure practice.
The firm also lost its former global finance co-head, Luke McDougall, who joined Davis Polk in April last year — the same month that highly regarded private equity partner Samantha McGonigle departed to become general counsel at private equity firm Hg.
Aedamar Comiskey, Linklaters’ senior partner and chair, commented: ‘Mei is at the very top of the credit solutions market and will significantly enhance our private capital offering for global clients. She’s a terrific hire and we’re thrilled to have her on board.’
Andy Vickery, global head of finance, added: ‘We are delighted to welcome Mei to our team. Her expertise in credit solutions and her outstanding track record advising global private credit clients reinforce our position as a market leading adviser on complex financings, special situations and restructurings.’
