Sidley Austin has hired a five-partner finance team from Clifford Chance in New York and Washington, in Sidley’s second team hire from the magic circle firm this year.
The team is led by Lee Askenazi who co-chaired Clifford Chance’s US global financial markets practice. Askenazi joins Sidley’s New York office alongside fellow finance partner Alistair Dunlop and tax partner James Gouwar. Finance partners Robert Hagan and Rebecca O’Brien join the firm’s Washington DC office.
Askenazi, Dunlop, Hagan, and O’Brien have broad experience across structured capital markets and structured finance, advising on a wide range of transactions in US and international markets. Gouwar, meanwhile, focuses on the tax aspects of structured finance transactions.
In January, Sidley hired a trio of New York funds partners from Clifford Chance – Cliff Cone, Michael Sabin and Daniel Drabkin. Cone and Sabin subsequently sued CC, and are currently involved in a dispute with their former firm over its attempt to use ‘clawback’ provisions in its partnership agreement to recover a total of nearly $5.8m in profit distributions.
Sidley has also hired partners from CC in London in recent months, bringing over heavyweight restructuring duo Philip Hertz and Melissa Coakley in March.
Today’s hires bring the total number of Clifford Chance exits to Sidley so far this year to at least 10.
The latest additions to Sidley’s bench follow other notable finance hires, which include fund finance partner Leah Edelboim, who joined from Cadwalader in February, and Latham & Watkins global real estate co-chair Jeremy Trinder, who joined Sidley in London in January.
In the first quarter in New York alone, Sidley hired 10 laterals, according to legal recruitment firm Macrae. In May, however, the firm lost a four-partner transatlantic private equity team to Akin, three of whom sat in New York.
Commenting on the hires of Askenazi, Dunlop, Gouwar, Hagan, and O’Brien, Sidley executive committee chair Brian Fahrney said: ‘We are building a fully integrated platform that enables us to advise clients across every facet of the most sophisticated financing transactions.’
Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley’s management committee, added: ‘This team of five partners is well known to many of our existing clients and colleagues. Their arrival reflects our continued investment in premier teams and practice areas that are strategically important to our clients and to our firm’s long-term growth.’
