US firm Katten Muchin Rosenman remains on the charge in London following the hire of tax partner Sanjay Mehta from Stephenson Harwood in August. The latest hire comes at the end of a highly acquisitive year that has seen the Chicago-based firm make five lateral hires in six months.
This follows a triple hire to Katten’s real estate team in July, which included Stephen John as special counsel and Ranjeev Kumar as partner from the London office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, alongside Joe Payne from Field Fisher Waterhouse.
Earlier this year Katten hired Mayer Brown’s London head of real estate Peter Sugden as UK managing partner, following the departure of funds partner Martin Cornish, who previously ran the office, to K&L Gates in early 2011. Katten has maintained a low-key presence in London since 2005 through a tie-up with Cornish’s own hedge fund boutique, M W Cornish Solicitors. The arrival of Sugden in February signalled an intent by Katten to expand its core competencies beyond funds into real estate and private equity.
Sugden explained that the London office would be split across three core groups: real estate, financial services and private equity, each with ‘a commonality of base principles: raising and redeploying capital’. This means that each group will be focused on private equity, funds and investor clients. He added that he hoped for each core group to comprise eight to ten lawyers, plus specialists in areas such as tax and litigation, leaving the total size of the office at around 35-40 lawyers. He also confirmed that in London, Katten would remain ‘boutique’ rather than full service.
‘We want to provide “private client” quality client care but in a commercial law context.’
Peter Sugden, Katten
‘With the broad capabilities we now have in the team, and our shared commitment to providing a client-first, commercial service, I am genuinely excited by the opportunity that we now have in London to offer clients a product and service standards which are tangibly different to those now available in the marketplace,’ said Sugden. ‘Clearly, I am biased, but one would be hard pushed not to agree that we look like “the ones to watch” in the building of our transatlantic capabilities.’
Sugden added that the emphasis for the office is that clients will get a ‘trusted adviser’, partner-only service, rather than switching day-to-day advice to associates once the work was won.
It was important, he added, that the firm hired the right people, partners that were used to providing a complete service to entrepreneurial clients, rather than simply deals-orientated lawyers. ‘We want to provide “private client” quality client care but in a commercial law context,’ said Sugden.
Katten comfortably ranks within the Global 100, placing the 584 fee-earner firm at 79 in 2012 with revenues of $462.5m, up 4% on last year.
Other US firms have made a real push into real estate lately. In May Goodwin Procter hired Linklaters’ former global co-head of real estate Joe Conder, a follow up to its double hire of real estate funds partners David Evans and Samantha Lake Coghlan from Ashurst in late 2011. King & Spalding also launched a London real estate practice in July following the hire of Nigel Heilpern, London head of real estate for Fried Frank.