Eversheds has appointed a new head of private equity, with City corporate partner Richard Moulton taking over the role.

Moulton replaces Mark Spinner, the firm's head of corporate, who led the private equity group for eight years.

Spinner, who was appointed corporate head two years ago, will continue to practise in the private equity group but will now shift his management focus to the corporate group.

Spinner said: "I need to spend a little more time on my broader corporate group responsibilities.

"It made sense to hand over to Richard, who is very focused and hard-working, has a good network of clients and enjoys the respect of the lawyers in the team, which is an important aspect of leadership."

Moulton joined Eversheds in 2003 in a lateral move from City rival Ashurst, where he had acted for private equity clients including Cinven. Some of his main clients at Eversheds have included ECI Partners, Inflexion, CBPE Capital, Gresham and Baird Capital Partners Europe.

Moulton said: "The private equity market is picking up. Industry-wide there have been more deals to date in 2010 than in the whole of 2009 and we are seeing increased confidence with an extremely active client base."

Eversheds' UK private equity group has around 12 partners and an additional 40 lawyers and acts for clients including Trilantic Capital Partners, LDC, Gresham, RJD Partners, Inflexion, ECI Partners and Barclays Private Equity.