Sullivan & Cromwell has hired two partners from Kirkland & Ellis into its London office, the firm announced today (16 December), in the next step of the City buildout it began earlier this year.
The US firm has brought over private equity partner Aprajita Dhundia and tax partner Ian Ferreira, with the duo set to start in the new year.
The move marks the latest step in what has been a notable shift away from S&C’s traditionally unhurried lateral hiring strategy towards a more aggressive buildout, first signalled in September when the firm announced its hire of former Weil City head Mike Francies and restructuring partner Kon Asimacopoulos, who also joined from Kirkland.
Dhundia had been at Kirkland for just under 12 years, making partner in 2015, and has built a broad practice advising private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies on corporate transactions, including leveraged acquisitions, disposals, consortium and joint venture arrangements, and hybrid capital solutions.
She will join the firm’s private equity and M&A practices, coming into a team that has acted for financial sponsors such as Advent, Apex, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Silver Lake.
Also making the move is Ian Ferreira, who joins S&C’s tax group after a decade as a partner at Kirkland. Prior to that, he spent four years at Weil as an associate in the fund formation group, and earlier trained and qualified at Clifford Chance.
Ferreira brings experience advising on tax matters across the asset management industry, including M&A and restructuring, fundraising, GP liquidity solutions, and management company structuring.
The dual hire underscores S&C’s determination to deepen its private capital capabilities in London at a time when competition among US firms for elite City talent and high-value transactional work remains intense.
While London is the firm’s second-largest office globally, it lags New York in terms of scale. As of September, the City office comprised 18 partners and 90 lawyers, compared with 650 lawyers in New York, including 114 partners.
Speaking to LB in September, S&C co-chair Scott Miller emphasised the need for scale, and cited a 50% increase in headcount as a growth objective for the office.
Commenting on the latest arrivals, co-managing partners Kon Asimacopoulos and John Horsfield-Bradbury said: ‘As we continue to execute on our growth plan in London, we remain focused on attracting only the very best lawyers who will add value to our clients as key parts of our integrated global team.’
They added: ‘Both Aprajita and Ian are standout practitioners whose arrival will further strengthen our position in the European market and put us in an even stronger position to support clients in their most complex, mission critical matters.’
