Latham & Watkins has hired another mergers and acquisitions and private equity lawyer, the third addition to its corporate department from Kirkland & Ellis in two months.

Kate Withers joined Latham as a partner in New York, the firm announced Wednesday.

Prior to the move, Withers had been a Kirkland partner since September 2018, and she also practiced at Fenwick & West, Covington & Burling, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Her hire comes on the heels of two other private equity and  M&A partners, Neal Reenan and Ian Bushner, who joined the firm in early March from Kirkland. Latham ranked second to Kirkland on the 2020 AmLaw 100 list and posted $3.76 billion in gross revenue last year.

"I worked closely with Neal and Ian on a number of private equity matters and projects at Kirkland, particularly in the financial services and health care space," Withers said in an email. "They are tremendous lawyers and wonderful colleagues. I plan to continue collaborating with them at Latham.

Withers declined to name any of her clients or say whether they would be moving with her to the Latham, but she said conversations have been "very positive," and she hopes to continue those relationships at her new firm. Her clients include private equity sponsors and public and private companies, and she has experience in M&A, joint venture, carve-out and structured investment transactions involving artificial intelligence, biotechnology, blockchain technology, data, gaming and esports platforms, software and media assets.

"I was attracted to Latham because of its collegial culture and one-firm approach to serving clients, and the firm's sophisticated private equity practice and deep regulatory and industry expertise in areas such as financial services and life sciences," she said. "I have close relationships with [Reenan, Bushner] and Greg Roussel, all Latham M&A partners, and know a number of other Latham lawyers from practice throughout my career. Those relationships and the connections I made while interviewing with the firm will be helpful in facilitating my integration into the firm."

In the immediate term, Withers said she'll be focused on how the coronavirus has impacted certain sectors of the economy but has left others strong.

"The COVID-19 outbreak has had a differential impact across industries, and we will be helping our clients navigate as investor focus shifts toward sectors that have not been as negatively impacted by the pandemic, including health care and technology," she said. "Life Science IPOs have continued during the pandemic and many technology companies have had more robust earnings than their counterparts. As the economy starts to reopen from the pandemic shut-down, I think we'll see an uptick in distressed and special situation M&A transactions that will likely be fast-moving and complicated. Latham's team-focused culture positions us well to serve clients on those complex matters because we work seamlessly across practice groups."

Kirkland did not respond to a request for comment about Withers' departure.

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