Cooley’s London managing partner Justin Stock has left the firm to join Akin as international technology practice head, along with two other partners.

Akin has hired three partners from Cooley into its London office. Cooley London managing partner Justin Stock will move to the firm alongside Stephen Rosen, a Legal 500 Hall of Famer for mid-market private equity transactions who headed Cooley’s London corporate practice, and technology transactions partner David Bresnick.

Stock will join Akin as international technology practice head, and will work with Rosen and Bresnick to deepen Akin’s strength in tech transactions.

‘Justin, Stephen and David’s outstanding reputations in the market, coupled with their extensive transactional experience in high growth sectors such as technology and life sciences, significantly enhance our global corporate platform,’ said Akin chair Kim Koopersmith in a statement.

‘Their addition underscores our commitment to our technology focused clients and more broadly to the technology sector both in London and globally, ensuring we continue to provide unmatched client service.’

Akin London partner in charge Sebastian Rice added: ‘The arrival of Justin, Stephen and David is a significant step for our London office and gives Akin a market-leading global technology transactions team, focusing on clients in innovative industries including disruptive commerce, technology, health care, life sciences, data, data privacy, gaming and energy transition. We are particularly excited about their capabilities to grow the tech M&A pipeline and adding depth to our global technology practice.’

Back in February, Cooley also saw the departure of M&A partner Michal Berkner who left for McDermott Will & Emery’s transaction practice.

Stock led a five-partner Morrison Foerster team to Cooley in January 2015 as part of Cooley’s London office launch. Bresnick moved with Stock from Morrison Foerster, while Rosen came to Cooley from Olswang in May 2016. Only one of Cooley’s 2015 Morrison Foerster hires remains at the firm: Chris Coulter. Ed Lukins went to Orrick in 2019 and Nicholas Bolter left for Morgan Lewis in 2020.

Akin, meanwhile, first launched in London in 1997, and burst onto the scene in earnest in 2014 with a 22-partner hire from Bingham McCutchen, which collapsed in 2015.

The departures bring Cooley’s London partner headcount down to 30, according to the firm’s website.

‘We thank Justin, Stephen and David for their contributions and wish them well in the future. We look forward to continuing our ambitious growth plans in London, serving some of the world’s most exciting and disruptive innovators and technology and life sciences companies’, a Cooley spokesperson said in a statement.

alexander.ryan@legalbusiness.co.uk

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In keeping with Hogan Lovells’ recently released financial results, Akin has reported strong financials for 2023, contradicting fears of diminished returns for the global elite.

Revenue at the firm is up 11% to $1.37bn from $1.23bn, while profit per equity partner (PEP) has jumped 22% to $3.15m from $2.58m. This follows a sluggish 2022 for the firm, which saw global revenue grow by only 1% and PEP drop by 17%.

The firm highlighted its financial restructuring, private credit, traditional energy, energy transition, international trade and litigation practices as particularly high performers over the last financial year.

Commenting on the bounce back, chair Kim Koopersmith (pictured) said: ‘It is Akin firing on all cylinders. Your strategy works when it addresses what your clients need. We were perfectly aligned.’

Recent standout mandates for the firm include advising an ad hoc group of creditors on a $4.4bn Digicel restructuring as well as representing Adler in its $6bn restructuring and the landmark appeal of its sanctioned restructuring plan in the UK. The firm also recently advised Intrum on a €1bn asset sale to Cerberus, and advised Talos Energy on its $1.29bn agreement to acquire QuarterNorth Energy.

The firm also advised Apollo Global Management on the formation, fundraising, and closing of the Apollo Investment Fund X, Apollo’s tenth flagship vehicle. The fund held its final close with $20bn in committed funds.

Over the past year, the firm has doubled down on lateral partner hires, with several key additions across its offices. In New York, the firm bolstered its investment management practice with the addition of partners Ira Kustin, previously at Paul Hastings; James Munsell from Sidley Austin; Max Karpel, previously at Lowenstein Sandler; and Patrick Dundas, from Schulte Roth & Zabel.

The firm’s Los Angeles office was strengthened with the addition of white-collar defence & government investigations partner Lance Jasper in January. Jasper was previously senior counsel in the enforcement division of the SEC. Meanwhile, projects and energy transition partner Vanessa Richelle Wilson joined the firm’s Washington, DC office in November 2023. She was previously the US head of the energy and natural resources sector at DLA Piper.

The Washington office was also joined by a trio of international trade partners, Ryan Fayhee, Roy (Ruoweng) Liu and Tyler Grove, in July 2023. Fayhee was formerly a senior prosecutor and national security official with the DOJ. Liu was formerly a partner and chair of the greater China practice at Hughes Hubbard & Reed and Tyler Grove was also a partner at Hughes Hubbard.

In London, Jacqueline Ingram joined the firm’s financial restructuring practice in January, moving from Milbank.

Holly.McKechnie@legalease.co.uk

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Akin Gump has made impressive strides in the City over the past eight years. With James Roome, the driving force behind its fêted City restructuring practice set to retire, can the firm continue its London trajectory?

The 2014 Bingham McCutchen deal that brought James Roome to Akin Gump is described as ‘one of the transformative events’ by the firm’s chair, Kim Koopersmith (pictured). In the first full year after his arrival, City revenue more than doubled, jumping from $35.8m in 2014 to $91m in 2015. And far from being a one off, London revenue has since grown 65% to hit $150.4m for 2021 – significantly outpacing Akin Gump’s global revenue growth of 31% over the same period.

‘What has happened in the last eight years has wildly exceeded our expectations,’ says Koopersmith. ‘We’ve been able to not just have a significant team come over but have that team be completely integrated into the law firm.’

Roome has played no small role in this. Credited for being at the helm of the restructuring practice that has driven much of the growth, as senior partner and member of the firm’s management committee, he also contributed heavily to the integration of the office. Now, some are questioning the impact his retirement might have. As one City restructuring partner at a rival firm notes: ‘It’s going to be very hard to replicate James Roome, who is a huge personality, excellent work generator, anchor of the London office and glue for that team.’

‘What has happened in the last eight years has wildly exceeded our expectations. We’ve been able to not just have a significant team come over but have that team be completely integrated into the law firm.’ Kim Koopersmith, Akin Gump

It is particularly hard to ignore these concerns following several recent (albeit rare) departures of former Bingham partners. From the restructuring team, Sam Brodie left for Shearman & Sterling in March 2021 while Christian Halàsz, who joined Bingham in 2010, left Akin Gump for German Euro Elite firm Gleiss Lutz’s London office in February. This summer, homegrown partners Lois Deasey (also from the restructuring practice) and tax partner Sophie Donnithorne-Tait left for Weil and Macfarlanes respectively.

While these changes could be ascribed to a heated recruitment market with recessionary trends driving competitors’ strategies, the London office’s dip in growth similarly signals a transitional period for the practice. Far from its striking revenue boost of 28% in 2018, its 2020 hike of 19% was bookended by just 1% growth in 2019 and 2021.

Sebastian Rice, head of the London office, explains this as a period of consolidation of strategic hires intended to build on the firm’s global areas of strength in London (including private equity, corporate and finance). ‘In 2021, we added a number of partners in different areas, so it was then about consolidating that. Now obviously with the market being very turbulent, we are seeing some exciting growth.’

2021 hires include that of finance partner Clare Cottle, who arrived in May from Weil; international trade partner Naboth van den Broek, who joined from WilmerHale in September and splits his time between London, Geneva and Washington DC; and former Latham & Watkins partner Stephen Brown, who joined in December from employment boutique Icon Law.

Continuing its acquisitive streak in 2022, the firm added ESG and energy sector partner Alex Harrison and structured finance partner Dasha Sobornova, who joined in June 2022 from Hogan Lovells and Mayer Brown, respectively.

Despite boosting the firm’s wider London presence, which is now at 128 lawyers including 47 partners (up nearly 40% in five years from 93 including 37 partners in 2017), Rice notably rests his expectation of upcoming growth on a downturn, again putting Roome’s legacy restructuring practice in the spotlight.

Notwithstanding its losses, The Legal 500 top-ranked financial restructuring team retains considerable bench strength, including against its peers. Led by veteran Barry Russell, the 13-partner practice includes a next generation – James Terry and Liz Osborne – that the market already recognises for their enviable profiles.

Osborne (described as ‘world-class’ by The Legal 500) adds: ‘We have a really strong bench at partner level but also at counsel and associate level as well. We’ve got a great bank of brilliant counsel and associates who have worked with us for a long time and we’ve got a number of senior counsel who are very ambitious, so there is a great pipeline of partners coming through.’

The practice has also gone some way to prove its resilience with a string of high-profile instructions against a backdrop of fewer bankruptcy and restructuring cases across 2020 and 2021, dubbed the ‘calm before the storm’ among restructuring veterans. A team, led by Russell, advised on the $6bn global restructuring of Nordic Aviation Capital Designated Activity Company, resulting in a Chapter 11 restructuring that completed in June. This brought together restructuring, finance, corporate and tax practitioners across its global network. Other recent highlights include acting for creditors in the restructuring of Travelex (led by Osborne) and in the $1.9bn restructuring of Swissport (led by Terry) (for other standout matters, see box).

Now these high-profile instructions have come to an end, Russell expects to continue to win high-profile mandates as the calm subsides: ‘The market generally is quite quiet, but if you talk to any of our clients, everyone sees storm clouds on the horizon. If you just watch BBC Breakfast in the morning you can see all the economic indicators of that, from interest rates, energy costs, supply chain issues, inflationary trends both in Europe and in the US. All those factors will likely contribute to a substantial amount of restructuring activity as early as the autumn.’

‘The market generally is quite quiet, but if you talk to any of our clients, everyone sees storm clouds on the horizon.’ Barry Russell, Akin Gump

According to Osborne, the practice is already starting to see this come to fruition. ‘At the start of the year, clients had very short worry lists in terms of possible new names needing restructuring, but now we are doing some quite serious debt review work on six or seven names for clients that they think might actually now be heading towards a restructuring.’

While market sentiment is that Roome’s retirement marks the end of an era for Akin Gump in London, the firm is confident the legacy he has left will continue. As Koopersmith concludes: ‘It is a real testament to the strength of the team and James’s vision that the clients are institutionalised, and that the practice is institutionalised into the firm. There is a wealth of talent and connections to our clients that make the transition seamless.’

megan.mayers@legalease.co.uk

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It is often said that the legal industry excels in extreme market conditions and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s 2020 financial results bear testament to that, with the firm’s London office proving again bullish on the back of a stellar run of restructuring matters.

City revenue grew a pacy 19% to $149.2m from $125.1m last year meaning that the London office has bolstered its revenue 55% since 2017. These results are something of a return to form for Akin Gump’s City arm after a flat 2019 when turnover grew only 1%. They reflect the office’s wheelhouse of restructuring following the 2014 acquisition of 28 partners fronted by star restructuring veteran James Roome from the ill-fated Bingham McCutchen.

Global performance has also exceeded last year’s 6% rise to $1.135bn, with gross revenue standing at $1.2bn – a 6.5% increase on 2019. Financial metrics were strong across the board, with profit per equity partner (PEP) of $3m signalling a 16% increase on 2019’s $2.6m PEP figure.

Meanwhile, revenue per lawyer (RPL) saw an 8% increase to $1.35m from $1.25m last year.

Speaking to Legal Business, Sebastian Rice, partner in charge of the London office, said: ‘Financial restructuring has led the way and played a strong part in the performance with that team doing some very high-profile work. Corporate has been busy with partners that joined at the end of 2019. We only made one lateral hire in 2020 so it enabled us to fully integrate the 2019 hires so they could hit the ground running.’

Rice pointed to an impressive list of mandates from across the London office’s practice areas including: Advising a group of senior secured noteholders on the financial restructuring of Travelex, led by partner Liz Osborne; acting for creditors of Premier Oil on its merger with Chrysaor and the restructuring of $2.7bn of debt, led by Barry Russell and Lois Deasey; and advising Coller Capital on the restructuring of Permira’s fourth fund, with a value of more than $800m, led by Mary Lavelle.

Rice described the $2.5bn IPO and Nasdaq listing of Royalty Pharma plc, on which Harry Keegan in London and Stuart Leblang and David Antheil in the US advised, as ‘a marquee matter’. He also noted a win in the successful defence of Robert Foresman, vice chairman at UBS Investment Bank, in litigation arising from an investment in a consortium bidding for assets in the Yukos insolvency, led by Mark Dawkins.

After an expansive 2019 of nine lateral hires, the London office added only one new partner last year in the form of the well-regarded leveraged finance partner Amy Kennedy who joined from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in March 2020.

Rice is sanguine on the firm’s performance but places it in the context of wider upheaval amid the coronavirus pandemic. ‘We have been fortunate with how things have gone at the firm but obviously not with the way the world is looking at the moment. Following the strategy and focusing on our core strengths, sticking to that very carefully, and not growing for growth’s sake, has been a big part of our success. We’re confident we’ve got the right mix of practices and that we’ve got what we need to help clients respond to the challenges and opportunities that arise.’

He credited global chair Kim Koopersmith for her promotion of the firm’s culture of collaboration, its focus on diversity and inclusion, as well as its early investment in remote working, all of which have led the firm through challenging times.

Concluded Rice: ‘We have adjusted to a completely different reality and adapted to working from home, but people have been put under significant pressure with the schools shut or having to look after elderly relatives or living on their own. This presents huge challenges and we have invested a lot in supporting our people. We can’t meet clients, it’s a different way of working, but I’m incredibly proud of how the firm has adapted.’

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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The London office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld may have failed to maintain 2018’s pacy revenue growth of 28% on the back of a restructuring bonanza, but globally the firm has reported steady global growth amid a sustained lateral push.

City turnover was broadly flat in 2019, rising only 1% to $125.1m from $123.5m after an exceptional 2018 that saw revenue surge dramatically from $96.2m. The global picture was stronger, with gross revenue increasing 6% from $1.07bn to $1.135bn and profit per equity partner (PEP) rising 8% to $2.6m from $2.4m the previous year.

Despite its more muted financial performance, London remains a top priority for global chair Kim Koopersmith (pictured), who has thrown her support behind the office since taking up the role in 2013, followed by the 2014 acquisition of 28 partners fronted by restructuring veteran James Roome from the ill-fated Bingham McCutchen. London is now the third largest office after New York and Washington DC, with all three offices seeing sustained partner growth throughout the financial year.

Sebastian Rice, partner in charge of the London office, told Legal Business: ‘We are very pleased with our 2019. Revenue has improved, revenue per lawyer is up and PEP has increased. Last year was focused on restructuring but this year the work has been a more balanced spread more evenly across restructuring, litigation, energy and emerging markets.’

Rice also pointed to the host of new partners in London as a particular highlight. ‘What we loved in 2019 was that there was growth across the whole office rather than in just one group,’ he said.

The firm particularly benefited from unrest at O’Melveny & Myers’ London branch as its fruitless merger talks with Allen & Overy dragged on. Private equity funds partners to jump ship to Akin Gump included John Daghlian and Mary Lavelle in June, following in the footsteps of Daniel Quinn and Aleksander Bakic in April. Gavin Weir’s hire in July from White & Case was a shot in the arm for its M&A practice, which has not been a historic focus. September saw even more lateral activity, with private equity partners Shaun Lascelles and Simon Rootsey joining from Vinson & Elkins, a move shortly followed by the addition of Weyinmi Popo on the same practice from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffle.

The hires have already started to pay dividends, with Lascelles and Rootsey acting for new client Helios Investment Partners, the largest Africa-focused private investment firm, as a major selling shareholders in Helios Towers’ $1.45bn initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. ‘Success with a number of private equity clients has been a big part of what we have been trying to build out in the corporate team,’ says Rice.

The firm expects opportunities to recruit in the coming year in key areas but doesn’t anticipate the pace of growth to be at quite the same level as last year. Rice is sanguine: ‘We have been busy so far this year, with funds clients, private equity clients and restructuring mandates. Whatever happens, we have a strong offering in an up market and a down market. We are well positioned and well hedged. We have the building blocks for great things in 2020.’

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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City and US rivals in London have been continuing to ramp up lateral recruitment with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld adding its third private equity partner in the space of a month, Kirkland & Ellis hiring a tax partner from Linklaters and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) strengthening its employment bench.

Akin Gump hired private equity partner Weyinmi Popo from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe only a month after adding Shaun Lascelles and Simon Rootsey to the bench from Vinson & Elkins in late September.

Popo advises UK and international sponsor and investor clients as well as family offices on private equity, M&A, infrastructure and energy transactions, with an emphasis on Africa. He will start at his new firm later this month.

Akin Gump’s chairperson Kim Koopersmith (pictured) told Legal Business: ‘London is clearly a market we’re focused on for growth, and you’ve seen us welcome a lot of great talent there recently. Much of that growth has been around the private equity space, which complements our other strengths very well and where we’ve identified a number of opportunities. Weyinmi’s practice and skillset fits in perfectly with that strategy. That, coupled with his focus on Africa, where we are seeing tremendous client interest, will make him a great fit.’

Meanwhile, Kirkland has returned to Linklaters to hire tax partner Mavnick Nerwal. He follows in the footsteps of fellow tax partner Tim Lowe who made the move from the Magic Circle firm to the Chicago-bred powerhouse in 2016.

Nerwal has experience in advising financial sponsors, including private equity and investment funds, corporates and financial institutions.

Meanwhile, BCLP has hired Adam Lambert as partner in the employment and labor group. Lambert joined the London office from Kingsley Napley where he focused on employment disputes and global transactions, advising across sectors including asset management, professional services, publishing, manufacturing and hospitality.

Partner and co-leader of the employment and labor team Rebecca Harding-Hill, told Legal Business: ‘Adam particularly fits in with us because of his global reach. He’s got a broad client base which covers financial services, professional services, publishing and hospitality. We have a lot of clients in financial services, so it broadens that out.’

Elsewhere, Clyde & Co has appointed Stefanie Johnston as partner in its global marine and insurance team in Glasgow.

Johnston joins from Keoghs where she helped to establish the firm’s Scottish presence. She will establish and build the firm’s marine offering in Scotland and will work closely with marine colleagues in the UK and globally.

Managing partner at Clyde & Co in Scotland, David Tait told Legal Business: ‘Stephanie has been a marine practitioner for a number of years. She has had clients follow her from firm to firm and it is hoped that when she comes to work for us, that those clients will continue to follow her and that she will grow the practice and build on the many years of experience she has in marine law.

‘We’ve got a significant marine practice in London and if they have any clients that require assistance on Scottish matters, we’ve got Stephanie here who can help them with that,’ added Tait.

Finally, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton London corporate finance partner Andrew Shutter has left the firm after 22 years. Shutter joined the firm in 1997 and advised on a range of debt matters, including being an adviser for Greece’s public debt management agency regarding Greece’s debt negotiations in 2015.

muna.abdi@legalease.co.uk

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A busy week for lateral hires saw Dentons, Akin Gump and Squire Patton Boggs each make City hires as DLA Piper turned to Aviva to expand its pensions team.

Dentons said today (30 September) it had hired M&A and private equity partner Paul Doris from the London office of US firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He is the firm’s third corporate lateral hire in the last 18 months and advises financial sponsors, particularly in energy and infrastructure and in markets including Spain and Latin America.

Dentons’ UK corporate head David Collins (pictured) told Legal Business: ‘Paul’s skillset, sector focus and geographic coverage are all very much aligned to our strategy of building out a diversified corporate transactional practice in the UK which connects with our colleagues across the UK and the Dentons global platform.’

He added: ‘After what felt like a slightly extended summer break and pause in activity after a very busy first half of the year, we are back to high levels of activity across the team.’

Doris follows Dentons announcing last week it had hired restructuring and insolvency partner Richard Pallot-Cook in London. He re-joins from Simmons & Simmons and was previously a partner at Dentons.

Akin Gump, meanwhile, added two partners to its private equity practice, with Shaun Lascelles and Simon Rootsey joining the firm’s London office from Vinson & Elkins.

Partner in charge of Akin Gump’s London office, Sebastian Rice, told Legal Business: ‘We were very impressed with the work they’ve done, culturally they’re a great fit and we hope they will be a strong addition to our corporate team in terms of the clients they advise and the type of work they do.’

Akin Gump also hired finance partner Michael Gustafson to its London office from Pricoa Private Capital, where he was deputy chief legal officer. Gustafson was previously a partner at Bingham McCutchen before its London office joined Akin Gump in 2014.

‘The team who joined from Bingham McCutchen regarded Gustafson incredibly highly and he does very similar work to what we do. He’s coming back and we’re really excited to have him back,’ Rice added.

Squire Patton Boggs went both ways in London with the hire of banking partner Ian Yeo from Herbert Smith Freehills. The firm also lost employment partner Natalie Bellwood, however, to B2B IT services provider DXC Technology, where she becomes global head of employment.

Elsewhere, DLA hired Amrit McLean from Aviva, where she was propositions and sales director, as a partner to launch the firm’s pensions de-risking service. McLean has 13 years’ experience in pensions de-risking and pensions bulk annuity work.

UK head of pensions at DLA Piper Ben Miller told Legal Business: ‘There’s an awful lot of insurance that is being issued. There is a real need within the market for a really strong and comprehensive team led by somebody who has that sector experience and that’s what we’re able to do here.’

Finally, Osborne Clarke made a lateral hire from Thrings, bringing in Steve Schofield to its UK real estate practice, while in Poland, DWF appointed partner Paweł Stykowski as head of insurance in the firm’s Warsaw office. He joins from Wierzbowski Eversheds Sutherland where he headed the financial services and compliance practice.

muna.abdi@legalease.co.uk

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‘Our team was nearly twice the size of Akin Gump’s London team. There was potential for vulnerability on both sides. They didn’t want their entire lives disrupted by a very large cuckoo in the nest.’ Five years on, restructuring partner James Roome reflects on the potential pitfalls of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s 28-partner acquisition of the City arm of his former shop, Boston’s ill-fated Bingham McCutchen.

In contrast to more ostentatious US counterparts, the Texas-bred Akin Gump has since flown under the radar to turn Bingham’s bust into its boom, thanks largely to the trophy restructuring team fronted by Roome. City growth has culminated in a blistering 2018 run as revenue spiked 28% to $123.5m, catapulting it into Legal Business’ Global London top ten firms by revenue.

Kim Koopersmith, Akin Gump’s chair, is unsurprisingly upbeat about a ‘spectacular’ 2018 in London. ‘I don’t expect the same every year but some significant transactions mean the results were pretty extraordinary.’

It has not been a one-off. While five-year global revenue growth has been less dramatic, rising to $1.07bn, a 29% increase from 2013, London has hiked turnover four-fold in the last five years, starting from a lowish base of its pre-Bingham UK turnover of $31.6m (the Bingham haul brought over a $50m business, including seven partners across Hong Kong and Frankfurt). A three-year view shows 35% revenue growth from $91.4m, again outpacing the firm’s 15% global income growth during the same period. London is now responsible for 12% of firm-wide revenue.

Much of the recent success is down to timing. Koopersmith became chair in March 2013, determined to beef up London, build a leading creditor-side practice and double the firm’s presence outside of its US homeland. Bingham, for its part, had been a pioneer in building a bondholder-centric restructuring team in the UK and had related muscle in disputes and regulatory matters. The fit sold itself.

‘Our business came into being to deal with private equity deals that don’t work.’
James Roome, Akin Gump

Koopersmith, who this year started her third term, says investment continues to pay off. ‘Looking back to 2014, the performance of London has been far beyond my wildest expectations. ‘London is now our third largest office. We were 83 lawyers when we came together and we’ve added several dozen since then. We see London as a main opportunity of the firm and we will continue to build on our strengths.’

That is borne out by the fact that two London partners, Roome and Dan Walsh, are on Akin’s 12-strong management committee and Sebastian Rice is chair of the partnership admissions committee, which also includes highly-regarded restructuring partner James Terry.

Roome notes that market tailwinds have not hurt either, with the oil price falling below $50 a barrel in 2014, yielding much work in oil and gas and shipping insolvencies – perfect for a firm heavy in both energy and restructuring. ‘What followed was a few years of very substantial cases in offshore and shipping. To an extent, our business came into being to deal with private equity deals that don’t work,’ says Roome.

Akin Gump also benefited from unrest at O’Melveny & Myers’ London branch as merger talks with Allen & Overy linger on unresolved. Private equity funds partners to jump ship to Akin Gump so far comprise John Daghlian and Mary Lavelle in June, following in the footstep of Daniel Quinn and Aleksander Bakic in April.

Quinn is effusive about his new home and cites two reasons for moving: ‘Coming from a firm with a great culture, it was important to join a firm that is collegiate and collaborative. Secondly, it was a good strategic fit for what we wanted to achieve over the next three to five years with our practice.’ He notes strength in the US, London and Asia, as well as a willingness to keep investing in funds as a draw.

Meanwhile, Gavin Weir’s addition from White & Case will bring City partner numbers to 42 this month and is viewed as a shot in the arm for its M&A practice, which has not been a historic focus.

Last year’s performance will be hard to emulate through 2019 given that huge restructuring mandates like Noble Group ($3.5bn), Agrokor (€6.6bn) and Seadrill ($17bn) are hard to come by. Says Roome: ‘On the big, one-off, cross-border deals, you never know when one’s going to come along. With cov-lite [debt packages] you don’t have the same trips or triggers you used to have. It’s changed our business dramatically.’

However, ongoing matters, including the high-profile $380m Tatneft litigation and the contentious restructuring of Oceanwood Capital Management, promise to keep restructuring and litigation counsel busy for a while.

Rice strikes a similarly bullish note: ‘We have reached critical mass to attract better talent. We are growing in areas of core strength and not pretending to be full-service.’ And in truth, with the wave of restructuring work looking set to continue for years, Akin looks superbly placed. Not so much a cuckoo in the nest as a golden goose.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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The London woes of Allen & Overy’s prospective merger partner O’Melveny & Myers have continued with the loss of private equity funds lawyers John Daghlian and Mary Lavelle to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

The path from O’Melveny to Akin Gump has become a well-trodden one of late after private equity funds partners Daniel Quinn and Aleksander Bakic decamped in April for the Texas-bred firm’s investment management practice and transactional platform in London.

Funds veteran Daghlian and Lavelle, who was previously counsel at O’Melveny but will join Akin Gump as a partner, join the same practice.

Daghlian joined O’Melveny in 2004 from legacy SJ Berwin and was chair of O’Melveny’s investment funds practice, advising on international and domestic private equity-driven transactions.

Lavelle advises fund managers and institutional investors on investment fund and asset management matters, as well as secondary transactions.

While O’Melveny’s London office has been depleted by a merger proposal which has failed to gain significant traction despite discussions going on for more than a year, A&O’s City office has so far been left relatively unscathed.

Germany has seen the most notable losses for A&O with Duesseldorf corporate partner Murad Daghles defecting to White & Case in December 2018, while global head of employment and benefits Tobias Neufeld and dispute resolution head Daniel Busse left to set up their own boutiques a couple of months earlier.

James Roome (pictured), senior partner in Akin Gump’s London office, said of the hires: ‘John and Mary’s arrival—and that of Danny and Aleks recently—will add really outstanding capabilities and experience to our top-tier funds practice. Being UK-qualified, they genuinely complement the established US-qualified private equity funds team in London and the US.’

Prakash Mehta, co-head of its firmwide investment management practice, said: ‘John and Mary are, strategically, an exceptionally good fit for Akin Gump. Our London funds team will now number eight partners across the core areas of private equity funds and hedge funds—and there are numerous connection points between London and the US.’

The firm’s private equity funds team in London will include six partners: new arrivals John Daghlian, Daniel Quinn, Aleksander Bakic, Mary Lavelle and established Akin Gump partners Christopher Gorman-Evans and John Holton.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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The London office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has recorded a 28% revenue hike to $123.5m.

The City results, with revenue up from $96.2m, mark a blistering year on the back of a swathe of big-ticket transactions in the financial restructuring space and stand out against the more muted firm-wide revenue uptick of 3% from $1.04bn to $1.07bn.

Profit per partner (PEP) was flat at £2.4m compared with $2.38m the previous year and revenue per lawyer was unchanged at $1.21m.

The City office, which is made up of 26 equity partners and 110 lawyers, is now responsible for generating 12% of firm-wide revenue. The resurgence for London is something of a fillip after last year’s 9% revenue rise, which came on the back of a 4% dip in turnover to $87.9m in 2016.

Financial restructuring partner James Roome told Legal Business that standout matters for the firm included roles on the $3.5bn restructuring of bond and bank debt underpinning Noble Group and the ongoing work in relation to the restructuring of UK construction plc Interserve.

Sebastian Rice, corporate partner in charge of the London office, points to the lateral hires of energy partner Julian Nichol from Bracewell in March 2018 and that of financial restructuring partner Thomas O’Connor from Morgan Lewis in October 2018.

He commented: ‘They are good examples of adding people in core areas of strength, and it is proving a success.’

Akin Gump’s City results follow strong performances in London from other US firms. White & Case’s London revenue rose 7% to $350m as firm-wide revenue broke $2bn and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy recorded a 25% increase in London revenue, to $156m. Elsewhere, revenue for Goodwin Procter’s London office grew 58%, while King & Spalding was up 12%.

nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk

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