Sidley Austin kicked off the workweek with a major East Coast hire, adding the head of Shearman & Sterling's global leveraged finance group at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up the market for buyouts and fueled demand for veterans in the practice.

Chicago-based Sidley announced Monday that Joshua Thompson, who was also the head of Shearman's private capital group, will be joining its ranks in New York. Thompson's practice centers around representing private equity and private capital clients in complex transactions involving debt.

Sidley separately announced Monday that it brought on Rachel Kleinberg, a tax partner from Davis Polk & Wardwell, for its Palo Alto office.

Thompson said he has seen upticks in some aspects of his work—liability management transactions and specialty lending opportunities—during the pandemic. Some of his clients entered the pandemic flush with cash while others are struggling to make ends meet.

"It's a great time to be cash rich now," Thompson said. "You are able to make your way through the crisis with ample resources and you have the opportunity to invest. Those categories of investors selectively deploying their capital in new investment opportunities by extending credit and making a debt investment are in a great position to cut deals which are favorable."

Thompson's clients include the Dow Chemical Company, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of Montreal and Prudential Capital, according to his former Shearman biography.

Thompson's move to Sidley comes five months after one of his former Shearman colleagues, Brian Wassner, made the same jump. Thompson described Wassner as a good friend.

Since at least 2018, Sidley has been building up its corporate side, in particular its M&A and private equity practice groups. That growth was one of the things that attracted Thompson to the firm, he said.

"The investment and development they've pursued in recent years, in building out investments in private equity, private capital, direct lending… has meant an opportunity to expand leveraged finance in New York is very attractive at this time," Thompson said.

Sidley isn't the only firm eyeing leveraged financing these days. Winston & Strawn picked up Monica Barton, an acquisition and leveraged finance specialist, from Reed Smith in London. Chad Nichols, a debt finance and special situations lawyer, left Kirkland to join Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld's Houston office.

With bankruptcy and restructuring work also on the upswing, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld hired Kirkland & Ellis debt finance and special situations lawyer Chad Nichols as a corporate partner in Houston.

In 2019, Sidley saw its market share of the global private equity market increase as the firm's lawyers worked on 94 private equity deals worth $45.4 billion, according to Bloomberg. Sidley's overall revenue increased by 5.3% last year, rising to $2.337 billion. Sidley's leaders have touted the fact that the firm's overall revenue increased by nearly $1 billion since 2011.

Shearman, by contrast, saw relatively small growth in revenue in 2019, rising by 1.#% to $968.16 million. Like Sidley, Shearman has also been focusing on growing its corporate and private capital practices. Last year, Shearman's lawyers handled 139 M&A deals worth more than $245 billion, according to Bloomberg.

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