Dechert's addition of former Eversheds Sutherland partner Harry Pangas to join its corporate and permanent capital practices marks the firm's fifth senior-level hire in Washington, D.C., this year.

Pangas' practice focuses on representing business development companies in a range of transactions. He spent nearly 17 years at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and its post-merger successor.

“You don't walk away from that unless one sees a pretty compelling opportunity, and that's what I saw at Dechert,” he said.

Pangas noted that Dechert's BDC practice was non-existent until several years ago, but said recently it has been “nipping at the heels” of his previous firm. He said he was impressed by Dechert's team when completing a fairly significant transaction across the table from them. That deal closed this summer.

“I got to work in the trenches with them,” he said. “The platform meshes extremely well with what I do, and they had the right components to bring my practice to the next level.”

In addition to BDCs, Pangas regularly represents issuers and investment banking firms in connection with public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. He started his career in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Corporate Finance.

He is now part of Dechert's cross-disciplinary permanent capital practice, which focuses on investments with indefinite time horizons and includes specialists on capital markets, leveraged finance, fund structuring and formation, M&A and restructuring, among other subjects.

“We are delighted that Harry has chosen to join Dechert because we know our clients will benefit from his significant experience counseling across the entire investment management and finance spectrum,” Mark Thierfelder, global chair of Dechert's corporate and securities practice, said in a statement. “Growing our leading BDC and permanent capital practices remains central to Dechert's global strategy. As an experienced corporate lawyer attuned to the needs and sensitivities of financial institutions and investors, Harry fits right in with our first-class team.”

Dechert's wider corporate practice has expanded over the past two years with hires around the world, including New York, London, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The firm has also been staffing up in Washington over the first nine months of 2018. Longtime SEC branch chief Jim Curtis joined as of counsel in the corporate and securities groups in February. He was followed by former Hughes Hubbard trade partners Amanda DeBusk and Melissa Duffy in April and former Clifford Chance tax partner Will Cejudo in May. The later three are all partners with the firm.

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