US firms' aggressive European private equity drive continues as Weil Gotshal makes significant team hire from CC

Weil Gotshal & Manges has made one of the largest-ever team hires from the magic circle, with the New York law firm set to bring in the bulk of Clifford Chance's (CC's) London funds partners.

The move, exclusively revealed by Legal Week on Monday (13 June), will see four partners leave CC to join Weil Gotshal's London base – funds partners Ed Gander, Nigel Clark and Nick Benson, as well as tax partner Jonathan Kandel, who works closely with the funds team.

The departures will leave CC with just one City private equity funds partner, Nigel Hatfield, who will replace Gander as head of CC's remaining funds team, which currently stands at around 26 associates.

For Weil Gotshal, which voted on the hires last week, the appointments mark the end of a long search for fund formation partners in London and are an indication of the firm's increasingly aggressive approach to lateral recruitment in the City – coming just weeks after the hire of Linklaters partner Stephen Lucas to strengthen Weil Gotshal's London finance team.

p28-mike-franciesWeil Gotshal London managing partner Mike Francies (pictured right) said: "The funds practice in the US has been a key part of the growth of our private equity business and executive partner Barry Wolf and I have been looking for the European piece for some time. It makes huge sense for us and I think will have a significant impact in the European private equity market."

For CC, the team walkout will be seen as a hugely significant loss, particularly as it comes a year after high-profile former funds head Jason Glover announced he was leaving the firm to join Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

The departing team, led by Gander – who rejoined CC as a partner in 2006 after leaving in 2003 to run his own private equity business – has worked with funds clients including BC Partners, Apax and Barclays Private Equity, as well as Permira and Bridgepoint.

While all of the partners joining Weil Gotshal are relatively junior compared with Hatfield, they have helped CC's funds practice maintain a top-tier ranking despite Glover's departure, with the team working on significant mandates such as BC Partners' €4bn (£3.5bn) fundraising, on which CC advised alongside Glover at Simpson Thacher.

CC will now be under pressure to persuade clients that it can still service them through its remaining team or demonstrate that it can rebuild its senior London ranks, through lateral hires, internal promotions or relocations before the team exits for Weil Gotshal. It is understood that CC – which held Glover to a six-month notice period – will hold the departing partners to some, or all, of their notice period.

London corporate head Simon Tinkler (pictured above) said: "CC has a leading global private funds practice of over 150 lawyers. We will maintain the strength of our capability in London with a long-term strategy of a combination of internal promotions, transfers and possibly lateral hires."

Weil Gotshal's haul is arguably the most damaging team hire ever inflicted on a leading City law firm by a US practice, recalling Weil Gotshal's ambitious attempt seven years ago to hire CC heavyweight private equity duo Matthew Layton and James Baird, which failed at the last minute after CC persuaded the pair to stay.

Commenting on the departures, Glover said: "It's clearly not a good thing for CC but a lot of their funds work is built on broader relationships, like Bridgepoint or Permira. The challenge for those going to Weil Gotshal will be which relationships they will be able to take with them. A lot of the large institutional relationships will continue to regard CC as their number one firm."

The move also comes amid a renewal of aggressive recruitment in the European private equity market by US law firms, with funds a particular target given the importance of reaching US investors.

One funds partner said: "It's a market that lends itself to US firms being able to compete more readily than in UK M&A, but it isn't necessarily a death knell for UK firms. The challenge is how do UK firms retain people when there are US firms there willing to pay significantly more."