White & Case has ramped up its private equity capabilities in London with the hire of leading partner Helen Croke from Ropes & Gray.
A Legal 500 Hall of Famer for high-value PE transactions, Croke has been at Ropes since 2016, and has longstanding relationships with PE clients including Bridgepoint and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).
She moved to the US firm after making partner at Travers Smith in 2008, and has extensive experience of advising a range of institutional investors on UK and international PE transactions. Earlier this year she led the firm’s team advising ICG and Law Business Research (LBR) on the merger of LBR with ALM, the owners of law.com.
White & Case chair Heather McDevitt said in a statement: ‘Private equity is a strategic priority for White & Case and in London, the world’s second largest private equity market, Helen is an important addition to our strong team.’
Other key names in the London PE team at White & Case include Lucy Bullock, the regional section head for EMEA M&A and PE, as well as Richard Jones and Ross Allardice.
Global PE industry group co-head Thierry Bosly described Croke as ‘a recognised a leader in the UK private equity market.’
Other notable recent hires for White & Case in London include former A&O global corporate practice co-head Richard Browne, who joined in February, and secondaries-focused partner Alexandra Chauvin, who also joined from Ropes last summer.
However, the firm has seen a number of recent departures, with energy and infrastructure partners George Kazakov and Din Eshanov leaving to become co-heads of Paul Hastings’ London, Paris, and Abu Dhabi energy and infrastructure practice, as well as finance and capital markets partner Kevin Ng, who left for Mayer Brown last month.
Firm vice chair Oliver Brettle said in a statement: ‘Our record financial performance in 2024, when revenue exceeded $3bn for the first time, was in part driven by a strong private equity market and a standout performance by our global private equity industry group.’
