Paul Weiss has hired a Freshfields partner to head its European structured finance and securitisation practice, adding to a string of senior departures from the magic circle firm.
Mandeep Lotay is making the move to the US firm after 25 years at Freshfields, where he built a practice spanning structured finance, securitisation, private credit and acquisition finance, dividing his time between Amsterdam and London.
He made partner at Freshfields in 2012, and has advised on mandates for clients including Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Goldman Sachs.
‘Mandeep is a senior and deeply experienced partner in global structured finance and securitisation and will bring a commercial, solutions-oriented approach to our clients’ most complex financings,’ said Neel Sachdev, vice chair and co-head of the firm’s London office.
Lotay’s exit from Freshfields comes not long after funds partner Emma Rachmaninov left for Simpson Thacher’s London office.
The recent run of departures from Freshfields has extended across the firm’s global network. In Hong Kong, corporate duo Grace Huang, a Legal 500 Hall of Famer for Hong Kong equity capital markets, and Edward Freeman are set to join Latham & Watkins, while in Singapore, private equity partners Nigel Gleeson and Jon Bowden moved to Gibson Dunn at the start of the year.
In Europe, Duesseldorf energy partner Stefan Schröder recently left to join Taylor Wessing, while Brussels antitrust partner Sascha Schubert moved to Latham in July. Munich M&A partner Elizabeth Oberholzer is joining Jones Day next week (7 September).
Freshfields also lost a four-partner German private equity and M&A team to Latham in late 2025, led by former continental Europe managing partner Markus Paul and former global M&A co-head Wessel Heukamp.
A spokesperson for Freshfields said: ‘We wish Mandeep all the best.’
For Paul Weiss, Lotay is the latest in a series of strategic London hires. Its most recent addition was investment funds partner Nathalie Sandler, who joined from Dechert in May.
